We're (mother -- over 30 , daughter - 30) going to be in the UK in May, and have plans for spending 6 nights total making a quick loop around Scotland, and we'd like some feedback.

As much as I'd love to fit in a visit to Skye, I don't think that's going to be doable with our time. Also, we've currently eliminated Glasgow, Culzaen (sp?) and possibly Stirling for this visit as not having enough time, and they aren't as high of priority compared to our MUSTS. We're viewing this as possibly the only trip to Scotland my mom will ever have, so there are a few things that are MUST for her (Me too!): Loch Ness, Blair Castle, and Rosslyn Chapel are at the top of the list, as well as "another beautiful Loch" but we're open to suggestions that fit that bill . We will be driving, and understand that the Highland roads can be winding and slow.

We're also not big-city people, but we love scenery (though can't do walks of more than about a mile), castles, gardens, cute tea rooms, and rock-hunting.

Anyway, with all that in mind, here's our schedule:

Sunday, we'll be driving up from the Snowdonia region of Wales. Based on feedback, I'm expecting that to be a 6-8 hour day of driving, with some brief stops to get out and walk around. Mainly, we're just using that day for transport. Since we're planning to drive only that day, and stop for lunch somewhere, we're thinking we can make it to Loch Lomond? I've been doing some searching and have found a B&B in Tarbet that looks nice -- "Lomondview". If they have availability for our time, have y'all heard anything about them? We prefer B&Bs to hotels.

Monday, I'm thinking we explore the Loch Lomond region, and don't plan to get any farther than Glencoe. Spend the night somewhere in Glencoe. Where, is the question? In Glencoe itself? Or would we be better off moving into Oban (which has been recommended to us) or Ft. William?

Tuesday, we drive up along the north-side of Loch Ness, stopping to visit Urquart Castle and spend the night in Castle Stuart (already have the reservations here, so this night is set -- this is our "splurge" night for this leg of the trip). If we find ourselves with extra time (I doubt it. LOL!) we find a castle or two to go see. How long is the drive from the Glencoe region to Iverness? We need to be at Castle Stuart by about 6:30 for dinner.

Wednesday, we work our way down to the area near Blair Atoll (sp?) castle. Spend the night there. Would this take us through the Cairngorms? (sp?) What about Balmoral? Is it possible to do both Balmoral and Blair Atoll on the same day leaving from Loch Ness? Or should we anticipate this day to be pretty much just driving and stopping wherever we see something that looks nice? Can you recommend a good place to stay in this region? Or if it's possible to drive from Ness to Atoll and have time to stop and take pictures and see Blair Atoll and the grounds, we may continue on a little farther to make it to Stirling. Thoughts?

Thursday, see Blair Castle (if we haven't already) before driving down to the Edinburgh region. Would we have time in here to fit in Stirling? I'm thinking if we are able to see Blair Castle on the way down, we would...?

Friday, we hit Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh Castle, and the Royal Mile (possibly hiring a private guide for this day so that we don't waste any time getting lost). Spend the night at a hotel near the airport. Is that trio do-able leaving from Stirling, or would we need to forget Stirling and go spend the night near Rosslyn instead?

Saturday, we fly home from Edinburgh.

Other than our drive from Snowdonia to Loch Lomond, which I expect to be a long day, does all of that sound like it can be done at a reasonable pace?

Thanks!!

I heartily recommomend Auld Cummerton B&B in the Cairngorn National Park. Although it's in a somewhat isolated spot, it is an easy drive to Balmoral, the Whiskey Trail, and many castles and ruins.

Auld Cummerton is a 5-star B&B and you can see their lengthy website at www.scotlandsbestb&bs.co.uk/cummerton.htm. The 2 bedrooms are even more lovely than the pictures, and the hosts are the best you will find anywhere. Bruce is on the national park board and can give much valuable advice on the area. Carole is a most gracious hostess and her breakfasts are superb. You will love this place! If you do decide to go there, tell them Charles and Kay from Texas sent you.

Correction to Auld Cummerton website:

www.scotlandsbestbandbs.co.uk/cummerton.htm

Stay in Glencoe or Ballachulish rather than Oban or Fort William.

A straight run from there to Inverness would take less thn 2 hours, so you have plenty of looking about time.

If you go stright down to Blair Atholl you'll skirt the Cairngorms. Given the location of Castle Stuart you may want to go east to Forres and south through Grantown, then over the hill through Tomintoul to Corgarff, through Glen Gairn to Deeside,near Balmoral, west to Braemar and over Glen Shee to Kirmichael and down to Pitlochry. A longish day, but a beautiful one. You might want to leave Blair Atholl Castle for the next morning.

It would the take you at most 2 hours to do the run to Stirling, see the Castle and you're less than an hour from Edinburgh

It's all perfectly reasonable- indeed, positively good (You've no idea what a relief it is to find people who know why they're coming here- just you decide how much to fit in.

Believe me, this itenerary has taken a lot of time to refine. LOL!!

So Rosslyn + Royal Mile + Edinburgh Castle are all doable in a day if starting from Stirling? That's my biggest concern of the itenerary so far, though I suppose we could skip both the Castle and Mile if we had to since Rosslyn is higher on our priority list.

Is Balmoral worth a stop if we're also doing Blair? I have no problem saving Blair for the next morning.

Re Snowdonia - Loch Lomond. Depending on exactly where you are going from/to expect around 7+ hours solid driving.

This can help with routes (although that one straightforward) and times:

http://www.theaa.com/travelwatch/planner_main.jsp

If I were you, I'd go into Edinburgh after you've finished in Stirling.

You could certainly do the Mile, the Castle and Roslin all in one day if you were properly organised.

I can't really speak about Balmoral, not having been there. It's not as nice (or, certainly, as old) as Blair Atholl. But Deeside is lovely.

Deeside is really lovely, and Balmoral is an interesting visit IF you have some time in the area. But on a fairly rushed itinerary like this I would not bother to detour over to see Balmoral. You really only get to see one room. A slight exaggeration but but you do not get to tour the castle. Just the grounds, gardens, the ball room and a bit more.

Blair Atholl would be a better fit on your itinerary. Don't try to cram too much in since you will find lots of places where you'll want to linger a bit.

Thanks Janis, Sheila...

Sheila, question on that route you sketched out -- would we have time on that route to do one of the osprey center, wildlife park, raindeer park, or ride up to the top of Cairn Gorm? And if so, which one of those would you recommend? We love wild animals so I'm leaning toward either the wildlife park or the osprey center. If not... if we stopped at Auld Cummerton as was recommended and the next day did only the remainder of the drive and Blair and went the rest of the way to Edinburgh skipping Stirling, would that be doable/recommended?

Thanks!!

Wasleys -- we'll be going from -- pardon my spelling -- Betws-something (these Welsh names don't stay in my head very well, sorry! LOL!) and probably to Tarbet. We're expecting that to be nothing but driving with stops for lunch and a few pictures and to stretch our legs.

Hi, yes, you could do the Osprey centre by following my route. You appreciate that the birds don't appear on demand. Mind you, in May you should be lucky.

Oh yeah, we know these aren't trained or tamed birds. But I haven't had the luck to see many osprey in the wild, so I for one would like to take a chance at it. I'll see what my mom thinks, though.

Okay, so leaving Castle Stuart and following your route, we could stop at the Osprey center for a little bit, and still get to a B&B near Blair before too late (I don't mind going until about 9-10 on a beautiful drive like that promises to be), is that correct? Just making sure before I send out inquiries to B&Bs.

Absolutely

Excellent! Time to hunt the B&Bs then!

Thanks so much Sheila!

Your itinerary looks fine, and May is a better time to visit than some brochures would suggest.
As ever, I can't beat Sheila's suggestoins (one day I'll get in before her ;-) but some suggestions on the ospreys. The best known site is at Loch Garten on Speyside. If you know what you're looking for you'll often see them fishing near the mouth of the River Spey at Spey Bay. There's another "official" nest near Dunkeld, not far from Blair Atholl. The visitor centre here has usually given me better luck with other special birds like siskins and woodpeckers, they often have red squirrels as well. If you want to be different, skip Stirling on your way south and take the direct M90 road south from Perth, then turn off to Vane Farm Nature Reserve near Kinross. They don't have a publicly declared osprey erie with CCTV and so on but there are usually several pairs nesting in the area and most evenings you;ll see them fishing on Loch Leven. Keep an eye on the web sites in late April and until you go, they'll usually announce when the ospreys have arrived, if He and She look like they're expecting to hear the flap of tiny wings, and so on.
Loch Garten is run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
www.rspb.org.uk and follow the links to Scotland - Reserves - North Scotland - Abernethy(or East Scotland - Vane Farm)
Dunkeld (the reserve is called Loch o the Lowes) is owned by the Scottish Wildlife Trust
www.swt.org.uk and there's a link straight to Loch o the Lowes.

Wow, lots of chances to see osprey!! Thanks so much, y'all!!

We've got our reservations for near Blair now, now I just need the two nights before Castle Stuart (Lomond and Glencoe) and two nights in the Edinburgh region.

I can't help with Loch Lomond, but you might like to have a look at the King's House Hotel in Glencoe, or the Holly Tree Inn at Kentallen, at the west end of the Glen for that stop.

Depending on budget, have a look at the Holyrood Hotel at the bottom of the Mile, or the -sod it, what is the Scandic Crown, now? The Crown Plaza? Or has it moved on again?.

For cheaper, the Apexes in the Grassmarket are good, and the Grassmarket hotel is positively budget

Thanks Sheila!

New question...

We got to see a travel channel show on the castles of Britain and now my mom's wanting just a little more time in Edinburgh if we can swing it.

Soooo.... with us spending the night near Blair, would we have time to get up, see Blair at opening, drive down to Rosslyn and see it and spend the night there, then have all day for Edinburgh for our last day? Or is that far enough that we'd be pushing making it to Rosslyn before closing? That slight alteration would close out any chance for Stirling castle, I think.

Yes. Wouldn't be my choice, but yes.

Wouldn't be your choice? Can you expand on why not?

Oh dear. It's just that it's so subjective.

Roslin is overdone. It's always been a magent for people who do the mystic stuff, and that does nothing for me at all. The Da Vinci overcaot doesn't help.

Stirling has a lovely castle. I KNOW Edinburgh has too, but... I liked your other plan better, I guess.