chitraG

Planning a trip to Scotland for a week. Reaching Inverness on 31st March around noon and departing from Edinburgh on 6th April, unfortunately I'm really pressed for time to plan everything
Would love to see a bit of Highlands, castles and whiskey distilleries.

My places of interest are;
Eilean donan castle, Urquhart Castle, Fairy pools, Skye, Oban,Sterling castle,
Devil's pulpit,Loch Lomond, Ben navis (if time permits) and a day to spare for Edinburgh.
Would love to visit Dunnottar castle can see its completely out of way

Please suggest/advise what is doable and not doable and also on the routing.
Also contemplating between road trip vs train, maybe a bit of both?

Any help would be appreciated.

janisj

Hi again

Unfortunately trains don't go to (or anywhere near) some of the places on your list. You'll have to drive to accomplish most any of this.

Which sites are most important to you? Do you have specific reasons that some are 'musts' or are they just places you've heard of and would like to see? I would have different suggestions/recommendations depending on the answers . . .

Since you depart on the 6th you really only have 5.5 or 6 days. Assuming 2 days in Edinburgh you are down to just 3 or 4 days for everything else.

historytraveler

Consider a Rabbies tour. Have a look at their itineraries and see which might work best for you. It's an excellent small ( less than 16 people ) tour company. Generally speaking, they can cover more territory than first timers in a rental and be assured there will be a number of stops. It's not, contrary to what some posters might suggest, sitting on a bus all day. www.rabbies.com

historytraveler

Oops, missed the part about starting in Inverness. That complicates things...could you start in Edinburgh? Trains really aren't a practical option to travel to most of the places you mentioned.

chitraG

Most of the places are the ones that I have read upon and they all are of equal interest to me, that said Eilean Donan & Urquhart is something I wouldn't want to miss, but I am definitely open for any suggestion. Like I mentioned before I want to experience bit of everything castle, distilleries and highlands. Yes, I would like to spend 2 days in Edi which leaves very little time for everything else.


Historytraveler - My flights are booked I start my journey from Inverness and end in Edinburgh.

janisj

OK -- w/ your short time I would ditch Oban, Loch Lomond and the Devil's Pulpit. (Ben Nevis is simply the highest point the UK and not really a 'must' - it isn't a particularly 'pretty' mountain - you will see much better scenery elsewhere on your route).

You can stay the first night (May 31) in Inverness - depending on what time you arrive you might squeeze in Culloden and Clava Cairns or something else that day.

Stay the nights of June 1 & 2 on Skye - take the bridge route via Kyle of Lochalsh. You will see Urquhart/Loch Ness and Eilean Donan on your drive to Skye.

On June 3 take the ferry off Skye to Mallaig, see Glenfinnan and Glencoe en route. Stay June 3 somewhere near Callander/ Stirling. The morning of June 4 visit Stirling Castle (note the spelling) then drive on to EDI and drop the car. Take the tram into the city.

Nights of June 4 & 5 in Edinburgh

June 6 fly home.

chitraG

JanisJ that's just a beautiful plan, thank you ever so much. I'm reaching Inverness at 2pm, hope that should give me time to cover Culloden and Clava cairns.
If I ever want to stick to train is any of this doable?

janisj

Nope - not really. Inverness to Kyle takes about 2.5 hours - but you'd miss Urquhart, Eilean Donan and be at Kyle of Lochalsh without a car. Inverness to Stirling - about 3 hours -- but you would have missed Skye/Urquhart, etc. And Kyle to Stirling will take most of a day via either Inverness or Glasgow without any sightseeing in between.

But you <i>could</i> pick up a car at inverness and do the 4 day itinerary I suggested - to Skye and on to Stirling, drop the car at Stirling, then take a train in to Edinburgh. But that will only save you about 45 minutes of car time.

chitraG

Thank you JanisJ, am gonna go with your suggestion, I'm hiring the car in Inverness and dropp it at Edi.
Could you suggest any disterlleries either near Skye or en route to Stirling castle?

historytraveler

Talisker at Carbost on Skye offers an excellent tour and their whisky is pretty good too.

janisj

ditto Talisker. It is ON Skye so no detours.

chitraG

Thank you historytraveler and janisj.