Month Tour of the UK - Feedback please

It looks good. I would treat Stirling as a day trip from Edinburgh and not stay the night. A single night in Belfast doesn't seem worth it either.

For the drive from Edinburgh to Walworth Castle make sure you take the route through Northumberland National Park.

In general, look out for things to do on your journeys. The UK has more stuff packed in between towns compared to some other places. For example, on the drive I've mentioned above, you could check out Hindhope Linn, Three Kings Stone Circle, Bremenium Roman Fort, have a great lunch at the Redesdale Arms, check out the Beaming museum of the north (very underrated) before you arrive at Darlington.

That list is not exhaustive either, but unlike things like Stonehenge, there will likely be no crowds. Google maps is helpful and will show you things of interest.

The weather for driving will likely be fine and I personally feel this gets overplayed, today there is one small road in Scotland that has a section closed for snow.

London is exceptional, you won't run out of things to do in a week (or a lifetime really). Hope you have a great trip

Drive from Chester to Conwy and Caernafon and then onto Stratford upon Avon

from sleeping in Chester to sleeping in Stratford upon Avon, all in one day is a lot of driving and not a lot of doing

Thank you Olivia, appreciate all the feedback.

To answer a few of your questions.

1) To fly from Ireland/Northern Ireland to Edinburgh, it appears Belfast is easier and cheaper than Dublin. My kids really want to see the causeway, so made sense to overnight there before flying.
2) For Stirling, my hope was to hire the car, and not return to Edinburgh, so thought staying in Stirling would be a short stop on the road trip. I didnt want to travel much further north at this time of year.

Thank you for all the awesome places on the road trip between Stirling and Darlington. Im pinning google maps. It has almost 200 pins on it, thanks partly to you as well.

Nigel, Yes, that Chester day will be long, but I felt it was better to spend 6 hours driving than returning to Chester. Ill consider splitting this up.

Thanks guys for your feedback.

2) For Stirling, my hope was to hire the car, and not return to Edinburgh, so thought staying in Stirling would be a short stop on the road trip. I didnt want to travel much further north at this time of year.

Arnold Clark, which is my favorite place to rent from in the UK, has an office in Stirling. You could easily take the train from Edinburgh to Stirling, tour Stirling, and then pick up the car the next morning and head south to your next destination. It looks like you're also dropping the car off in York, and they have a location there as well.

Nigel, Ive had a closer look at the Chester to Stratford upon Avon.

Ive dropped Caernafon, which should give back 90 minutes of round travel.

Im thinking of stopping in Shrewsbury on the way through. Do you think they would work better

While I agree that Chester-Conwy-Caernarfon-Stratford is too much for the day, I think it is a significant mistake to cut Conwy/Caernarfon out entirely.
Instead they could be a standalone day out on one of your Chester days.

Personally to me that is an excellent scenic day trip- out direct down the A55 (OK the fast A55 is a bit boring as a road, but you get my drift), back basically on the A5 route through Bala/Corwen/Llangollen (that rough route- which has several possible variances). It is easy either by car or by public transit when you can drink in the views better.

In early January with sunset around 4pm it would probably be all of the daylight IMO to do both castles and the scenic return back.

Put it like this, if the choice was between that and Stonehenge (especially on a potentially wild and woolly winter day) North Wales wins hands down for me.

Ireland-
Your plan for two day trips is not a great idea.
This is especially true for your plan to visit The Cliffs of Moher on a day trip. You are wasting a lot of time traveling.
Also, you are missing on the very scenic area north of Galway and the amazing Ring of Kerry.

We did a 10 day tour of Ireland that did Dublin, then the Galway area, then Cliffs of Moher, then Ring of Kerry, then moving to Cork and the Blarney Castle, and more.

The day trip to the Giant's Causeway is another trip with too much travel.

You did pick some great places to visit in Scotland and England. York, Stratford Upon Avon, Bath and Oxford are great.
Consider a day trip from Bath to Wells and Glastonbury. Also, you should plan on visiting Stonehenge and perhaps Salisbury.

Be aware that at that time of the year, it will be dark at 4pm in the north and just after New Year. Later in the month it will still be 4.30pm sunset further south. You don't really want to be travelling country roads in the dark, motorways will be easier after the evening rush hour, but not easy.