My cousin and I and our spouses are going to Scotland for about 3 weeks - June 13 to July 2, 2007. We are from Canada and rather worried about driving on the opposite side of the road, so were wondering if we can see what we want to see using public transport only.

We fly into Glasgow on the morning of June 13 and plan to spend 3 days here. June 13-15
Edinburgh. June 16-18
June 19-21 Forfar (family)
June 22-25 We hope to do extensive sightseeing in Fife - St. Andrews, East Neuk area, Strathmiglo and Auchtermuchty where our grandfather came from.
June 26-27 Aberdeen area - Oldmeldrum where our grandmother came from.
I figure this leaves us 3 days at the end of our trip to visit another area - Inverness, Fort William, Isle of Skye? We want to be back in Glasgow on July 1 as we fly out on the 2nd about noon.

Can this be done by bus/train or are there parts where we should bite the bullet and rent a car? Thanks for your input.

I think you'll struggle. Some of the places you're going don't have trains- thanks to Dr Beeching. Meldrum still has a station but no line (BTW, di you know that Meldrum's big day of the year- the Games- is the 16th? Sure you want to miss it?)

By leaning on your family you'll do fine till you leave Forfar. And you COULD do the rest by public transport, but it won't be easy.

Sheila

Thanks for your reply. Is there a bus from Aberdeen (city) to Meldrum? Was not aware that the 16th was a big day in Meldrum - I am mainly interested in the grave yard - great grandparents buried there. We may have to revise our itinerary.
I had hoped to bus it from Aberdeen to Inverness - then take day trips from Inverness. I have been reading other posts and have gathered that you are not enthusiastic about Inverness. Any particular reason? Any other major city that offers day trips that we could base ourselves in?

Yes, ther are regular buses from Aberdeen to Meldrum. There's more than one cemetery. When did your granny die?

You can bus or train from Aberdeen to Inverness.

Inverness is a real nothing town. It's a shame because it's in a stunning location; but as anything other than a gateway it's a dead loss.

If you want day trips in the north, you probably do have to start there, but.

What sort of an age are you?

Sheila

My great grandfather died in 1909. Are you familiar with a place called Seaview?

The four of us are all between the ages of 57-59.

What is the bus situation like in Fife. The relatives we are visiting are elderly - even more so than we are - so am not sure how much chauffeuring they will want to do. Fife is the area I thought we might have to rent a car.

I know a number of places called Seaview, oddly, but, oddly, none of them are in Oldmeldrum. If it's in Meldrum, I want some of the drugs your great grandpa was on

Whereabouts is YOUR Seaview?

I suddenly thought that you might be mere slips of youths for whom bus backpapking would be a non-issue, but....

Buses in Fife will be much the same as buses in Aberdeenshire. They all run from and to hubs but if you want to village hop, it will be quite difficult.

I KNOW it's far more environmentally friendly to use public transport- especially the train- but, honestly, if you want to stop and start OR get off the main roads, it's not easy.

Roger of this parish does it, but for him, half the holiday is in the travelling. In fact ALL of the holiday is in the travelling.

You can check possible journeys on www.transportdirect.info. This will tell you whether a journey is possible by train or bus. Usually car drivers will assure you that a car is essential, but they usually know nothing of public transport options.

I don't know where Seaview is - that's why I was asking. On great grandfather's grave marker it says "died Seaview" but he is buried in Oldmeldrum. Thought it might be an area close by.

Yes I am afraid our "youth" has definitely slipped away. We are all recently retired (except of course my husband who is a farmer and will never retire) and will have to have some creature comforts.

I really want to meander along the coastal villages in Fife and I am beginning to doubt that would be possible using the bus. I checked out the website that GeoffHamer supplied and just to get from Forfar to Strathmiglo it would require changing buses twice. Hauling our luggage off and on - doesn't sound like fun. But perhaps picking a central location and doing day trips is possible here also. Any ideas?

Hi, I am the "Roger" that my dear friend Sheila mentioned. First, I live in California, I am 67 years old, and love travel in Great Britain by public transportation. I just returned yesterday from a trip to Dorset, Yorkshire and Shropshire all by train, bus, the odd taxi and once, during a downpour, I begged a ride. I do a bit of waking as most B&B's are not located next to the train station and often you will have to walk a mile or so or grab a taxi. If you want, I can recommend various sites to make rail and bus travel easy to plan as each area have bus travel guides and of course I often e-mail the nearest tourist information board and have always received a positive reply. For me, half of the fun is in making the plans.

You have to understand Linda, that my friend Roger is quite mad

You can do your Fife day trip probably most easily from Glenrothes, or Kirkcaldy.

Hire a driver for the hard parts?

Can you give me any more clues about "Seaview"?

If you have a surname and date of death, I can have my Mother in Law look him up in the local family history society records.

Sheila
Have been thinking more and more about the Games in Meldrum on the 16th. I am assuming you mean Highland Games - bagpipes, Scottish dancing, tossing the caber, etc. What could be more Scottish? On the east coast of Canada in Nova Scotia they hold Highland Games every year also, but have never been. We would probably have to stay in Aberdeen. I imagine accommodation in Meldrum would be limited. Can you tell me more?

Roger

Yes, please send along whatever information you think I might need to investigate the possibility of traveling by bus/train - especially in Fife - which is the area I think will be the problem. Walking a mile or two would be no problem - I do that every day - even in -30 degree weather here in Canada in the winter. Its usually the wind that is the problem - not the cold. Thanks so much for your help.

Hi again. I use traveline national portal. Just click your mouse over Scotland, then journey planner. Fill in the details and you should be able to determine what option you will have. As an example a day trip to Glenrothes from Aberdeen and return: 8:50First Scotrain train to Maekinch arriving 10:35, then 10:42 bus service # 5, by Moffet & Williamson arriving at 10:55.
Return by bus at 2:50 service #39 via Stagecoach in Fife, to Kirkcaldy at 3:28. Then the GNER train at 3:32 to Aberdeen at 5:37. Hey this sounds like a trip I will want to do.

I just wanted to let you know that driving on the opposite side of the road in a small car is not as hard as you might think. It would also give you a ton of more freedom.

We did a huge circle around Scotland via car in two weeks , Edinburgh, Isle of Skye, Glassglow, Aberdeen etc etc and stayed at wonderful B&B's.

We are American and never drove on that side or used their circle things. BUt it was MUCH easier than we imagined.

After a flight from California my husband even drove from the airport at Heathrow to our friends flat in the middle of London. NOw that was a bit much with jet lag, but we did it.

The main roads are pretty similar to North America and soon you forget that you are driving on the "wrong" side.

( Tons of Brits come to the continent and rent cars where they have to drive on the "wrong" side. It really is not as tricky as it sounds).

Just food for thought.

Technically this event is called "Oldmeldrum Sports" (the parish is Meldrum and Bourtie and locals tend to refer only to Meldrum). They have a web site, which, as far as I can see, hasn't been updated since 2004.

There are listings for it, however and I find one here:-

http://www.albagames.co.uk/Highland_games2000.htm

Meldrum is my nearest town of any size, but, somehow, I've never been to the Sports.

We tend to avoid the town in the evening because it's heaving with folk who've spent too long in the beer tent. Please don't let that put you off. It's a very good traditional Highland Games.

Check out Stuart Singer at the Redgarth for accommodation, and if you can't get in there, try Cromlet Hill Guest House. Book dinner in a neighbouring village- Eat at the Green in Udny or Fennel in Inverurie.

If you're there more than one night, do eat at the Redgarth- good pub food- but Stuart has closed the night of the Sports for some years, on the basisi that coping with the mess is more trouble than it's worth.

If you decide to do this, let me know and we'll show you round some spiffy local stuff on the Sunday.

Sheila
I am still awaiting a reply from my cousin regarding a change to the itinerary - we live in different provinces. If he doesn't reply soon I will phone him.

Would you mind if I emailed you direct regarding the family history stuff? Thanks.
Linda

No, that's fine.

Hi Linda,

I run a Fife based website and can recommend the following program to give you some very comprehensive and totally impartial internet based public transport journey planning advice. Try going to http://www.citylocal.co.uk/business/.../planajourney/ and see what they have to offer. At present the dates won't through to June -but at least you'll get an idea of what you can do, and can come back later for exact timings.

By the way 'planajourney' covers all of Scotland and indeed UK. It is not just limited to Fife.

Regards

Angus Whitton