Scottish Castles/Distilleries? Unrealistic Itinerary?
 

I'm headed to Scotland in about a week, and have a few questions on the castles/distilleries. The more guidebooks I read, the more confusing it all seems! Thanks so much for any recommendation! Here are the bits of the itinerary I'm having the most trouble with:

Questions related to St-Andrews-Inverness:
1) My mom and I are driving from St. Andrews (early morning on June 6) and will stay the night in Inverness. On the way to Inverness we'd like to stop at a castle (or two) and maybe a distillery. We've heard Balmoral and Kildrummy are nice from some sources, but others have said there's nothing much to see. Also heard the Scone and Blair castles are lovely. Anyone have a recommendation on which we should make a priority?

2) Knowing we're driving from St. Andrews to Inverness, does anyone have a distillery recommendation that might be along that route?

3) And is it completely unrealistic to see a castle (or two) and a distillery in one day, leaving early am from St. Andrews and arriving later evening in Inverness?

Question related to Portree-Stirling (via Loch Lomond?)
1) A separate day, we're leaving Portree early in the am, and need to make it to Stirling (staying there that night). Need to allow enough time to see Stirling as well...(highly recommended it I hear, but let me know if anyone doesn't agree). So, question is...can we swing seeing Loch Lomond along the way? We know this day will be a longer drive...but we are running short on time. Any suggestions on route?

Any advice on these two different day's itinerary/routes would be greatly appreciated!

http://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/...ne/regions.htm

good info Blair my clan home is my fav...

Lots prefer Stirling less modernized

Dalmore is nice distillery but there are many

check with locals in the know

viamichelin.com best route info

Happy Travels,

1) It depends what you want in a castle. Balmoral is not that old; but has the royal connection. Kildrummy is a ruin, albeit a very impressive one. If you want something furnished and grand, I'd suggest Glamis. For a ruin, with historic stuff, you could do worse than Kildrummy.

Lochnagar distillery which is slap bang next to Balmoral does a nice tour. Edradour at Pitlchry- en route to Blair, does too. After that you're up into Speyside where the options are myriad. Glenfiddich does a great tour.

A castle and a distillery are quite achievable. Two castles could be done, but it might be a push.

On your other question, yes, but don't take too long to look at things if you want to spend time in Stirling. As to route, I wouldn't take the fastest... I'd take the ferry to Mallaig, and then drive west to Fort William along the Road to the Isles (albeit backwards), then south through Glencoe and across Rannoch Moor. Then south down Loch Lomond to Balloch and main road to Stirling

Strongly seconding Shiela, particularly on the Mallaig ferry. It is beautiful and following her route means that you will not have to retrace your footsteps. Glen Coe is fantastically beautiful.

Both of these will be long days, but the days are long in Scotland in the summer.

We drove from Inverness to Edinburgh and stopped to see Balmoral and Glamis along the way. Since the only part of Balmoral that is open is the ballroom and the grounds, it's not a particularly time consuming stop. We found it handy as a place to have lunch (had the Great Britain Heritage Pass so no additional cost to see this site). Glamis, on the other hand, was a very interesting furnished castle. I suppose we could have dropped over one glen to see the Glenlivet distillery rather than Balmoral, but we'd already done a distillery tour at Talisker, and we could not have done all three. We had thought about trying to see Scone as well, but there simply wasn't time.

The drive Shelia reccommends on the Mallaig ferry, the Road to the Isles, and Glen Coe, is one we did in the opposite direction, and I would highly reccomend it.

Your Portree to Stirling day will be a killer (I <u>sure</u> hope you aren't planning on St Andrews to Inverness, Inverness to Portree, and Portree to Stirling in three consecutive days)

Portree to Stirling via the ferry is about 6 hours w/o any stops/breaks/meals -- and Stirling Castle takes a minimum of 2 hours -it is quite large. You'd want to be there by 4PM at the latest. This would be one VERY tough day. And no chance at all to detour over to Loch Lomond.

(Even skipping the ferry and taking the bridge route would take more than 5 hours.)

If you cut across Fife, you can get to Perth for a visit to Scone Palace in the morning and then take the A9 to Inverness. The A9 passes hard by Blair Atholl (site of Blair Castle) and the Dalwhinnie distillery.

Definitely go through Glencoe as Sheila suggested and Glamis is my favorite castle.