Scotland Itinerary Suggestions
 

My wife & I plan to arrive in Edinburgh via train from London on Sunday, Oct 10, 2010. I anticipate taking the train back to London on Friday, Oct 22, 2010 in order to catch a flight on the 23rd. I plan to spend maybe 2 nights in Edinburgh (10th & 11th) and then rent a car, leaving Edinburgh on the 12th. Places that I've thought to include in the about 10 days include:
Stirling
Blair Atholl/Blair Castle/Pitlochry
Inverness
Glenfinnan
Skye (I imagine this will be 2 nights)
I even thought of driving back into England via Hadrian's Wall and maybe turning in the car in Durham or York.

Do any of you have suggestions about this rough itinerary? It may make no sense so I am open to advice. Thanks in advance!
Jeff Blair
Texas

makes perfect sense to me - drive over to Skye from Kyle and then take the car ferry back to Maillaig (sp?) and then motor along the course of the famous West Highlands Railway to Fort William and south to Carlisle for Hadrian's Wall - a good base is Hexham for that.

If you need a B&B recommendation for Edinburgh, I stayed at the Broughton Hotel. The owners, Freddie and Fiona couldn't have been nicer and I'd go back.

http://www.broughton-hotel.com/

Here's what I'd do . . .

Are you flying out of LHR? If so, I'd do it differently --simply because dropping the car in York or Durham leaves you the hassle of train to London and then getting to LHR. Or even taking the train from Edinburgh - means spending an extra night in London and getting out to LHR.

I'd collect the car at EDI on the morning of the 12th and drive down through the Borders and to the Wall. See the Border Abbeys and a bit of the Wall on Oct 12. Stay the night in/near Hexham, see more of the Wall the morning of the 13th- then head north through Ayrshire - see Culzean and Robert Burns sites. Stay the 14th either near Culzean or on the west shore of Loch Lomond (depending on how good time you make)

Then on the 15th through Glencoe, Glenfinnan and across the ferry from Mallaig to Skye. Stay the nights of Oct 15-16-17 on Skye (extra night there because you won't get on to the island Oct 15 until late afternoon at the earliest).

Then across the bridge and stay the nights of 18-19 near Inverness (not IN Inverness)

Oct 20 visit Blair Castle and Pitlochry (not that much in Pitlochry) and stay Oct 20-21 near Stirling (like near Callander). Visit Stirling and Doune and tour through the Trossachs.

Late afternoon or early evening of the 22nd drop the car at EDI and fly to LHR and stay at a hotel near the airport. Priceline is brilliant for hotels near LHR. You'll just have time for dinner and packing and get a good night's sleep before flying out the next day.

For janisj. I've been studying my road atlas of Britain and Google Earth and am wondering about some of the travel times you are suggesting. The drive time from the Hexham area through Ayrshire (Culzean and Robert Burns sites) seems daunting if we stop and spend any time at the sites. The next day's drive from around Ayr bypassing Glasgow and up to Mallaig also seems a stretch. Maybe I just know how we are often tempted to stop for pictures, etc. I assume the route that day would be A77/M77 then A82 all the way to Ft. William. I need to look at the actual mileage and not get caught up with the map view. I also need to check on the ferry schedule from Mallaig to Skye. I appreciate your suggestions and will continue to work on the route.

Hexham to Ayrshire isn't bad at all. Only about 120 miles.

And Hexham to Loch Lomond is OK. Hexham to Ayrshire to Alexandria at the southern end of Loch Lomond is almost exactly 180 miles.

Would I rather take 3 days for the drive - sure. But this is a way to tick all your boxes.

OR -just drive Hexham to Luss (on Loch Lomond and bypass Ayrshire) - about 160 miles and less than 4 hour's drive.

Ayr to Mallaig is about 175 miles - 4.5 to 5 hours driving.

Loch Lomond to Mallaig is only about 120 miles, 3 - 3.5 hour drive.

All are doable make it possible to squeeze in Hadrian's Wall w/o cutting much from the Scottish bits. When you want to do so much in a short time--you will have to do one or two long-ish drive days, but these suggestions cut those to a minimum.

For janisj:
Here is another twist to this itinerary. Since Hexham and Hadrian's Wall are out of the way and we are likely to see them on another trip to England, How about this. The Outer Hebrides, specifically Harris & Lewis are really out of the way for most trips, I'm thinking of taking the ferry from Skye and seeing the Standing Stones of Callanish in northern Lewis. We'll be so close on Skye, taking a ferry to the western isles seems reasonable. We would substitute the day going to Hexham and Hadrian's Wall with the visit to Lewis. Again, your thoughts? THANKS!
Jeff

There's nothing in Pitlochry worth spending time on. Use the time for Blair Castle and its grounds.

What's the attraction of Inverness? If it's to wander Culloden, Clava Cairns and see Cawdor Castle, that's fine but there's not much in the city to do. Consider going to Dunrobin Castle too -- it's a bit of a drive but a nice one, and the Castle is great. Plus you can stop at Glenmorangie on the way back if you feel the need to visit a distillery.

I'd consider more than two nights in Edinburgh.

OK - sure you can always do the Borders and Northumberland on another trip and that is a good plan. But the Hebrides are 'out of the way' too.

IMO you really need more than one day/night for the Hebrides.

Uig/Skye to Tarbet/Harris is about 1:45 hrs then Stornaway/Lewis to Ullapool is about 2:45 hrs. Then it is about 2 hours from Ullapool to Inverness.

Sure you could squeeze in the Outer Hebrides - but to be honest, I wouldn't.

But I wouldn't do the loop down through the Borders either (I love LOVE <B>LOVE</B> all those areas -- but instead of cramming in so much territory into so few days, I'd slow down just a tad.

Glencoe, Skye, a bit of the north around Inverness, and Perthshire is plenty. Remember - 2 nights somewhere doesn't net you 2 days there. Skye for instance - 2 nights barely gives you 1.25 days free on the island when you subtract the time to get there and back.

I'd much rather add another night on Skye than add more places. BUT --if the Western Isles are important to you-you could just pass through Skye.

It is really up to you how much travel you want.

NOW - to completely confuse things :) another option: Do Skye and Lewis/Harris, then ferry to Ullapool, drive to Inverness stay a night to see things in the immediate area (Culloden, the Black Isle, Ft George), drop the car -- and fly from Inverness to LHR.

You aren't thinking of going to Lewis as a day trip are you? I'm not even sure that's possible. Even with an overnight, you won't really have time to see much, and the Outer Hebrides really deserve a good looking-at.

Start by looking at the Cal-Mac ferry schedules, keeping in mind that you need to budget over 2 hours just for the trip over, and probably another hour or so just to get to Callanish (keeping in mind that there are really four sets of stones scattered over the area). Then take into account what time the sun sets in October, which is probably around 5:30.

Oh - and to echo BigRuss - the Inverness <u>area</u> is great. Inverness itself - not so much.

I've been doing some research also on a planned trip to the Hebrides next spring. I don't remember the name of it, but someone did mention a b&b near the stones on Lewis.

q - where can i go to see the Nessie - the Loch Ness Monster?
Janisj - have you seen Nessie?

Another for janisj: Here is a another scenario.
We'll be in London from the 7th to the 10th.
Fly to Edinburgh on the 10th and spend 3 nights there. That will give us 2 full days in Edinburgh.
On Wednesday, Oct 13, pick up a rental car at the airport. From there, I'm thinking of heading SW toward Ayr and Culzean and spend the night of the 13th near there, taking in Culzean Castle & Robert Burns.
On Thursday, Oct 14, head north around Glasgow, up A82 on the west side of Loch Lomand. Spend the night at Ft. William. (14)
On Friday, Oct 15, head west on A830 to Mallaig, seeing the Glen Finnan Viaduct and the Jacobite Steam Train on the way. Catch the ferry to Skye. Spend Friday, Saturday, & Sunday nights on Skye (15, 16, 17) - maybe at Portree.
On Monday, Oct 18, take another ferry ride from Uig, Skye to Tarbert on North Harris. Spend Monday and Tuesday nights on North Harris (18 & 19)
On Wednesday, Oct 20, take the ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool. Drive from Ullapool to somewhere east of Inverness. Spend Wednesday night there (20).
On Thursday, Oct 21, head S & SW to somewhere in the vicinity of Blair Atholl (See Blair Castle). Spend Thursday night there. (21)
On Friday, Oct 22, head basically S on A9 to Stirling. After Stirling to the Edinburgh airport and fly to Heathrow. Catch flight back to the US on Saturday, the 23rd.
Obviously, this is heavy on the Western Isles but we aren't moving every night. Obviously, we will come back for another visit to other areas of Scotland.

I like this plan <u>except</u> for the first two days after collecting your car. EDI to Culzean is about 2.5 hour drive and Culzean to Ft William is about 4+ hours. That is a lot of driving on back to back days when you ad about 2 hours at Culzean Castle.

Plus Ft William is a pit.

To help things just a bit -- (IF your hotel/B&B has parking) I'd collect my car in Edinburgh the evening of the 12th. That way you can get a very early start get into Ayrshire by 9 or 10 AM and have a full day in the area. Going out to EDI and faffing w/ the rental details will make it difficult to get on the road before 9:00 or later.

Then the next day - instead of staying in Ft William stop at Ballachulish (maybe 3.5 hours) seeing Loch Lomond and Glencoe enroute.

Next day do the Ballachulish to Mallaig to Skye drive. Not any major changes, just minor tweaks.

This is timely - did you see the New York Times feature today about dining on Skye?

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/08/15...tml?ref=travel

sheri_lp: Thanks for the heads-up on the New York Times article. My mouth is already watering!

Everything looks so delicious!

Jeff, I think your last plan is a good one; I would, however stay in Glencoe or thereabouts rather than go into Fort William which is much as janis describes it.

I very much believe the Outer Isles are "worth it" and it's great to see you breaking away from that awful triangle

We are spending the night at a B&B in Ballachulish, near Glen Coe.
What I am working on now is the itinerary after we get off of the ferry at Ullapool at 16:35 on the 20th. I want to be back at the Edinburgh airport in time to turn in a rental car and catch a flight to London that departs EDI at 18:25. So, between Ullapool and EDI, we want to work in Blair Castle and Stirling and stops overnight on the 20th and 21st. Since we will not get off of the ferry until 16:35, I'm guessing we'll have about 2 good hours of daylight for driving. I need to find a good place to spend the night, probably a little southeast of Inverness. The next night may be somewhere between Blair Castle and maybe the Perth area.
Any suggestions will be appreciated as before.