14 day trip combining Ireland and Scotland

Where are your flight connections? Apparently you fly into Dublin, but then are you flying from Belfast to Edinburgh? Or returning to Dublin to fly to Edinburgh? And homeward, do you depart out of Edinburgh or Glasgow?

Your answers will influence where we might advise you to stay on certain nights.

That said, I will suggest that Inverness itself may not be worth 2 nights. If you want a more interesting town on the Moray Firth that's also right near Culloden Battlefield, Cawdor Castle, and the Clava Cairns, consider Nairn.

If you are renting a car in Dublin and returning it to Belfast there will likely be a significant one way drop fee.

Hi @ kclyons

I have been thinking more about the Northern Ireland visit and think that it might not be possible in the short amount of time that we have. Possibly just focus on West Ireland; initial thinking was to drop the car back in Dublin (which would waste quite a bit of time due to the round trip) and then take bus to Belfast...

Hi @ epltd

Since we will not be including Northern Ireland I have made a few changes to my wife's itinerary:
Flying in from London to Dublin.
1 night in Dublin
Since we are considering dropping Northern Ireland off the list I was thinking of heading SW.
2 nights in Kilkenny
1 night in Killarney
Drive along the WIld Atlantic Way to (or at least along a part of it) to Galway
2 nights in Galway
Would there be a penalty fee dropping the car in Shannon? If not we will probably drop the car there and fly to Edinburgh. If there is we will probably make our way back to Dublin and fly from there (ZAR does not travel well to European destinations so will probably have to save by driving back to Dublin).
Arrive Edinburgh
Pick-up car immediately and drive to Aviemore (I have changed the Scottish itinerary a little - road map is still the same but the overnight destinations are slightly different:
From Edinburgh via Perth to Aviemore (could one pitstop at St Andrew's or is it n large detour?).
2 nights at Aviemore (or would you split 1 night Aviemore and 1 night Nairn or both nights Nairn?).
Drive Northern route to Ilse of Skye.
2 nights Portree
Drive to Glencoe
2 nights Glencoe
Drive back to Edinburgh - Spend the day and take an overnight train to London to fly back to Cape Town.

Any feedback/ changes or glaring mistakes that I have made?

How long does driving take in Scotland and Ireland? In SA, we have a 120km/h speed limit, Travelling 150km takes an hour and a half... I assume this is not the case in Ireland and Scotland and that drive times are a lot longer? Not that I want to speed from one destination to the next, I think we will probably take a road trip approach to it, stopping along the way to check out the incredible vistas and check out some smaller towns and villages.

Thanks
George

Hi George: the revised itinerary looks much more doable to me. If you rent a car in Dublin and return it to Shannon (or vice versa) you can expect a drop-off fee of about 50-75 usd. Regarding driving times, the general rule of thumb in both Ireland and Scotland is to add 25-30% to whatever google maps tells you. Both countries have numerous 1 or 1-1/2 lane roads with passing pullouts.

I posted a combined Ireland/Scotland comment in your Scotland posting - hope it helps & you have a great trip! Enjoy the Northern Hemisphere!

Hahahaha @ jameswoodsni

Yes... I do know that that "Northern Ireland" and the Republic of Ireland are two different countries and I also know about the Irish Sea and the North channel (we were thinking of catching a flight from Belfast to Edinburgh). Apologies for erroneously referring to Northern Ireland as North Ireland - no disrespect intended. As South Africans, we would need a visa for Northern Ireland, but not for the Republic of Ireland. Since we will have to get a UK tourist visa for England and Scotland we were thinking of traveling to Northern Ireland as well, but due to our 6-night time limit, I do not think this is possible. We will thus focus the few days we have on the south-western region of the Republic of Ireland. I will do a few searches to check possible penalty fees between a pick-up in Dublin and a drop-off at Shannon airport.

Cheers
George

Thanks very much, Cyn. Appreciate it! I'll have a look.

Itinerary looks better now, makes more sense to concentrate your visits to the southern half of the country and fly out of Shannon. I don't think there should be too much of a charge for one-way car hire, no harm to shop around the major companies for comparison anyway.