driving times in Scotland
 

Hi there! Finally I'm able to do a little bit of research.
I've had about 20 minutes to look through some previous Scotland threads and I'm seeing comments about driving distances being unreliable and that actual driving takes much longer. Could someone please enlighten me? How much extra time should we be budgeting into a day for driving? Is it really not feasible to visit the Trossachs from Glasgow for a day of hiking? someone on my other thread had suggested staying there and Hikrguy commented that it seems like such a short distance, we might as well do a day trip. With the just-beginning research I'm doing it sounds like this could be a mistake?

Help?
thank you!
Hikrchick

>>driving distances being unreliable<<. The distances are totally reliable - it is the drive times that are usually wrong.

>>How much extra time should we be budgeting into a day for driving?<<

There is no 'standard'. Typically one needs to add between 25% and nearly 100% to say GoogleMap calculations.

>>Is it really not feasible to visit the Trossachs from Glasgow for a day of hiking?<<

Sure it is feasible- Glasgow is very close to the Trossachs. It does depend on where in Glasgow you are starting - It is a BIG city, and where in the Trossachs, which is a BIG region. But from central Glasgow to say Callander is about 45 miles and about a 70-ish minute drive. So WHERE in Glasgow and where in the Trossachs.

Like any big cities, driving to or from the likes of Glasgow or Edinburgh to someplace in rural Scotland is going to take longer if you have to cross the metro area in the process, or if your destination is only reachable by very small roads.

Main highways in Britain are just as speedy as their North American or European counterparts; in fact on the motorways you'll be surprised at how fast people drive. However many parts of rural Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, are served by "single track" roads - basically one lane with bulges every couple hundred yards where one driver can pull over to let others pass. Averaging even 30 mph on these roads is a struggle, my own average, not counting stops, is probably closer to 25 mph or even less. You have to look out for sheep as well as other cars. Here's an example on the Glen Etive road - https://goo.gl/maps/PRAJrRwYbkAXger19

So Janis' caution about adding a major "fudge factor" to the likes of Google's time estimates is spot on, but it needn't keep you from driving or setting a reasonable pace. Remember too that much of Scotland is at the same latitude as parts of Alaska, so if your travels are during the summer months, daylight hours are very long, so you can keep roaming in the gloaming until quite late.

Unknown -- both where in Glasgow and where in Trossachs. but now that I know it's possible I will do some research into hiking in the Trossachs as a day trip from Glasgow.

Gardyloo -- thanks! Would you say it's like driving in Cornwall? We definitely went down quite a few of those single-track roads Hikrguy did an excellent job with that last year and we recognized that those tiny lanes with the high hedges were not meant for speeding.

The trip is 28 June-7 July so I think we will have quite a lot of daylight to feel safe driving in the evening hours. What do you think?

In my view, driving on narrow roads between hedgerows in England is way harder than single track roads in Scotland, where typically you can see for some distance ahead. I think you'll be fine. Just watch your speed and look out for sheep.

Also, be mindful of midges if hiking around wet country at that time of the year. They can be a quick route to madness.

>>Would you say it's like driving in Cornwall? We definitely went down quite a few of those single-track roads Hikrguy did an excellent job with that last year and we recognized that those tiny lanes with the high hedges were not meant for speeding. <<

Cornwall (and Devon) is a special case -- REALLY narrow roads and most have stone walls or hedge rows RIGHT NEXT TO THE ROAD. Different in Scotland - the single tracks are more often (but not always) in open, very sparsely populated areas. And the vast majority of roads in the Trossachs for instance are two lane -- often narrow two lanes but space for two cars to pass.

A Quick Route to Madness is an excellent name for a band. :)

This sounds eminently doable. I don't think I'll ever forget Hikrguy's face as we were slowly going down one of those hedgerow lanes and a double-decker bus came around the bend and wanted to go past us. He practically drove our car *into* the hedge so the bus driver could get by!