I have several ?'s for all the Scotland experts out there:<BR>1. I see in my Fodors guide that most of the tourist sites such as castles in the Highlands are listed as having hours of operation from April-Sep. Do they have a magical date (i.e. our labor day in the US) that everything generally closes? We are trying to schedule this trip around either the week before or after labor day or even perhaps later on into september...<BR>2. Is september a good time to go for touristy things?<BR>3. Assuming we'll be there for about 7 days and will be flying in/out Glasgow with car rental where should we go? We are most interested in generally getting a feel for the land and seeing some castles and churches. I would love to see some Highland games. Does anybody know of a schedule or where the major ones take place?<BR><BR>Thanks.

IME the more usual date is the Scottish half term, which is usually about the middle of October. All of September is pretty safe.<BR><BR>I think September is a great time. You often get really good weather, and it's much quieter after the schools go back.<BR><BR>I have the Highland Games list at home and will post the September ones when I eventually leave this place!!<BR><BR>There's an easy circuit of Oban, Skye, Inverness, Perth and Edinburgh for your week. I'll flesh it out for you when I get home too.

September is a great time for Scotland...we have had wonderful weather during that time. I think the Braemar Highland Games are held in September...we were there when the Queen, Prince Phillip and Queen Mother attended. It was a wonderful day just sitting in the stands with people all around us getting out the tea cups, saucers, biscuits, etc. and putting them on little trays and passing them to the family and friends with them. I would also suggest making no accomodation reservations so you can just meander through the areas with no reservations that you have to keep. We have never had trouble finding a good place to stay.

Except for June (because of the extrordinarily loooong days) Sept is my favorite month in Scotland. None of the tourist attractions will be closed, most of the gardens will still be beautiful, the weather will be relatively dry, and there will be even less crowds than normal. So you can even book rooms as you go along since few places will be full. This allows for wonderful flexibility if you find places you want to linger a while or want to move on sooner.

September Highland Games<BR>SEPTEMBER 7 (Saturday) BRAEMAR HIGHLAND GATHERING<BR><BR>SEPTEMBER 8 (Sunday ) BLAIRGOWRIE HIGHLAND GAMES<BR><BR>SEPTEMBER 14 (Saturday) PITLOCHRY HIGHLAND GAMES<BR><BR><BR>Hope this helps.

Thanks for all of the help. Keep those suggestions coming. I'm sooooo glad to hear I can "wing it" on places to stay. Its my favorite way to travel

OK I've made up a route for yo but it's 2500 word ie 10 Fodors postings.<BR><BR>Would you care to email me, and I'll send it to you direct? It took me a good hour so I'll haunt you if you don't want it after all that

I was in Scotland last May and while we were touring the Highlands we saw this brown foilage which I learned was heather and I thought I remembered something about it being in bloom around late September. Is that correct? I tried to envision what the landscape must look like with the purplish/blue flowers covering the hills we saw.

Heather does flower in the early autumn. What you saw, if dark brown would be heather or if rusty brown, would be bracken