Edinburgh
 

We are planning a tip to Edinburgh and want to take a day or two and drive out of the city. Any suggestions on where or what to see? Thanks.

If you want to take two days, then you can train down to York for an overnight. It's really a lovely town.

Completely depends on your interests, but some suggestions:

Drive into the Highlands and do a short circuit,staying somewhere overnight or two nights - eg drive out of Edinburgh onto the M90 and either through Perth or head east to St Andrews if you're interested - will add a little more time to the day - then back through Perth, then on to A9 via Pitlochry, through Newtonmore, Aviemore and into Inverness. Edinburgh to Inverness direct is around 3-3.5hrs, so this will allow for stops along the way. Then the next day you can drive down to Loch Ness, through Drumnadrochit and visit Urquhart Castle on the shore of Loch Ness, continue down the western shore of the lake, onto Fort William and then either along the A82/84 back to Edinburgh or stay one more night away from Edinburgh at somewhere like Ardlui on the north of Loch Lomond, or further down at Luss or even Balloch. Then you can continue back to Edinburgh the next day via Stirling (castle), Falkirk (the Falkirk Wheel).

As a day trip, you could visit Stirling and Falkirk - Stirling has the castle, Wallace monument and church of the Holy Rude just for starters, and Falkirk is home to the Falkirk Wheel (just outside the town) which might sound odd but is actually a cool looking boat lift to manoeuvre boats between the canals at the lock. Hang around to watch it in motion - quite cool. Also the Battle of Falkirk (1298, William Wallace) here and you can visit the Falkirk Cairn memorial of the event in Callender Park.

Whisky Trail - Highlands (around Aviemore/Newtonmore region) or Speyside - both would take all of the 2 days done properly, otherwise you could take 1 (long) day to go up and back to Aviemore.

That's just a few ideas, but if you could let us know your interests, that might help with more suggestions.

The Borders south of Edinburgh are popular for a little get away. The countryside is pastoral, but the main attraction are the ruins of four abbeys. Melrose is probably the best known, because Robert the Bruce's heart is buried in the churchyard. Jedburgh is better preserved. Dryburgh's ruins were preserved as a park. Also Douglas Haig, the British commander in WW I, is buried here. Kelso is the final one. There's also a Roman fort near Melrose, and Sir Walter Scott's home at Abbotsford is worth a couple of hours.

The Trossachs north of Glasgow are a little bit of the Highlands perhaps 50 miles from Edinburgh. It's Rob Roy country, and Loch Lomand's not far away.

A "traditional" day trip from Edinburgh is to cross the Forth Road Bridge into the Kingdom of Fife and drive up the coast to St Andrews. Do stop at either North or South Queensferry to admire the Forth Rail Bridge

Send me an email, and I'll send you a Word doc with a bunch of options achieved both by car and by train.

Thank you all so much.