10 day family trip to Scotland ideas

https://www.visitscotland.com/places-to-go/islands/outer-hebrides
or
https://www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk
The Outer Hebrides is as "island" as you can get.

The Cairngorm Mountain National Park for outdoors activities.
https://cairngorms.co.uk

And a little of the beaten path pick a city: Edinburgh or Glasgow.
Ten days gone. have fun.

Well Skye (with an “e”) will be very crowded in July and August. I would opt for Mull, Harris/Lewis personally.

I expect you would want to see Edinburgh but if you are not aware you need to know that the largest arts festival in the world takes over in Edinburgh in August which may or may not be your thing. Prices will at least triple.

As stated above, I would definitely opt for July if possible, rather than August, at least for the portion that you are in Edinburgh. Prices jack up, and it will be super crowded. Unless you have a really strong interest in going to the Fringe or the Tattoo, I would stay away from there during that time period. Are you planning to get a rental car?

Regardless, everybody wants to go to Skye in the summer, and it will be very, very crowded, so much that you might have to wait in line for long periods of time to get to some of the sites. I would consider the Isle of Arran, which is a really lovely island, often called Scotland in miniature, because it has all the attributes of the entire country; such as ruins, cairns, mountains, beautiful coastlines, castles, and so on. And it's very easily reachable by ferry from Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Or you could visit the Isle of Mull, which is one of my favorite islands. I love Tobermory (the largest town there) and I think your kids would probably like it too. They have a very interesting aquarium there for one thing. And it's just a gorgeous town. From there, you can access the tiny island of Iona, which is the charming place that is really wonderful to see. And you can take boat trips out to Staffa and Lunga to see puffins and many other aquatic wildlife out there. You can also visit Calgary Beach, which is really beautiful.

And if you really like off-the-beaten places, you could head to the Outer Hebrides, as was suggested above. Lewis and Harris is a wonderful place with lots to see and do there. The southern portion of the island (Harris) has gorgeous beaches and wonderful, beautiful scenery, and Lewis has so much history and neolithic sites like the Callanish Stones. There are other islands there you can visit as well. It's really a wonderful place.

And of course you don't have to go to any islands at all. You could easily make your way around the mainland, heading to places like Cairngorm National Park, drive up along the coast, to see ruins like Slain's Castle and the Bullers of Buchan. There is also Nairn, which is a wonderful town right on the coast; the Battle of Culloden site and Clava Cairns, which are more Neolithic stones. And of course Loch Ness and Stirling Castle (Stirling Castle can be done as a day trip from Edinburgh or Glasgow).

But if you are really interested in seeing the Isle of Skye, then you should go there. BUT go there with the understanding that it will be crowded. You will have to make reservations ahead of time for just about every meal except breakfast, and you must be prepared to wait in line either to get a place at the car park or to get in to see what you're looking to see. There are ways you can get around it, of course, like getting there as early as possible and so on, but it's not always easy . And I would book as soon as you can. No later than nine months ahead of time, as properties on there get snapped up quickly.

One place I would recommend visiting if you do go to Skye is the Isle of Raasay. It's a tiny island that's a 10-minute ferry ride from Skye. It's a wonderful place and a good way to spend a day away from the crowds on Skye, as not that many people go there. There's a lovely inn where you can stay if you want to and, at the very least, have lunch or dinner there. There's also a distillery where you can stay and have a wee dram or two (although, be careful if you are driving, of course). And you can just hike there and walk around and enjoy this beautiful scenery. If you go, definitely read up on Callum's Road before you go and try to visit it. It's a marvel when you know the history of it.

10 days is not a lot of time on the ground when including Skye. Try to add a couple more days to your holiday if at all possible.

There is a lot of Scotland that is off the beaten path. Skye is not one of those places. Book lodging ASAP for Skye. Book restaurant a few weeks in advance. Bring a lot of patience.

For alternatives, what are your interests: ancestry, castles and ruins, hiking, neolithic sights, history, golf, whisky, wildlife, Harry Potter...? How old are the teens?

Wow thank you so much for the input! All of this is very very useful! I am thinking July will be the better month...I did not know about the festival in August. We are definitely interested in historical places and seeing the natural outside spots. I love local art and any outsider art when I can find it. I REALLY want to see the fairy pools...I hope I am right that they are somewhere on one of the islands. If my mother was correct as far as genealogy goes, I believe we were called "Ulster Scots" her maiden name being McBroom, so if possible I would like to learn a bit more about that and the move to Northern Ireland. My kids are or will be 13 and 16 next summer! Thanks again for taking the time to write back!

If you like art… I would look into Jupiter Artland on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Isle of Skye is the place ALL the tourists want to go to and is always busy. As suggested there are other islands just as good (or even better.) Like Mardee, Mull is one of my favourites along with Harris and Lewis. (Despite the name they are a single island.)

Alternatively you could head to the Northern Isles - Orkney has amazing neolithic remains . Shetland is as far north as you can go in Britain and is completely different with a strong Norse heritage. It may lack the grandure of the Cuillin Mountains on Skye but is dramatic in its own way. If you want "off the beaten path" think about some of these.

10 days doesn't give a lot of time, especially if you want to get to some of the islands. I'm assuming you will be hiring a car. If so it will take a lot longer to cover distances than you might expect. It'g going to take 7-8 hours to drive from Edinburgh to Skye (PLUS time for stops).

Ulster Scots are the same as the people now known as Northern Irish -ie. mostly Protestant Lowland Scots who were moved to the northern Irish Counties during the 1600's to establish Protestant rule there. It is a fraught tale to many communities. (Edited)

Just a correction, the Ulster Scots were not moved to what is now Northern Ireland by the English. The English would not have been able to move a Scottish population in that way as the Union of the Parliaments would not take place for over a century. It was something only possible because the King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland were the same man and James VI/I. for it was he, thought this was a way of solving a few problems he had after the Union of the Crowns at the same time.

At least a few of my ancestors thought we were "Scotch-Irish", but record keeping on migration of "English" citizens between English lands were not kept or lost to fire/flood/conquest, no more than the US records migration between states. I may be straight from Scotland to the colonies in the 1740s or maybe via Ireland after an early plantation and famine. I've been to PRONI, EPIC, etc. with just shrugged shoulders from researchers. Probably no way to ever know. There's no shortage of people offering to research it for big bucks. I'll have to wait for a Tardis.

In your case if there are hints of the McBroom family then you are quite possibly talking the Isle of Islay, and South West Scotland (especially it seems around Kirkcudbright).

Now, although not an "off the beaten path" destination in the true sense Islay is a less well travelled destination, especially on this forum. Islay is actually reasonably well visited, but not around here.

Now in some ways both Islay and South West Scotland are quite interesting if we are talking Ulster-Scots and Ulster is not strictly the same as Northern Ireland even if the terms are nowadays used fairly interchangeably.

Interesting because Islay still has a direct ferry link to Northern Ireland, and South West Scotland had several ferry ports (such as Portpatrick, the Isle of Whithorn and even Kirkcudbright) which were ferry ports to Northern Ireland, so in the day links were stronger than you might initially imagine.

And, if we are talking "off the beaten path" places then in South West Scotland there is the South West Coastal 300 (SWC 300) road route, which is in many ways the equal of the NC500, but way less travelled. That will take you through all the places I have mentioned, and more besides, and is never busy.
The Isle of Whithorn/Whithorn just as a for instance is equally as important in the religious history of Scotland as Iona- but everyone on the forum goes to Iona, but very few to Whithorn.

I'm sorry but jjgurley's comments above are way wide of the mark. It is knowing where to look, and having a lot of patience, and yes research costs. I say that knowing that in my own tree, on the US side, we paid a researcher who came up with negative results. Years later I re-opened the case, and was able to re-write (for free) both the NY part of the story, and indeed my Isle of Skye roots from a newspaper obituary in New York. An Obituary which had been dismissed as fantasy- parts may be are embellished, but a lot turned out to be good hard facts, derived it seems from old fashioned oral history.
In Scotland if you are just looking for conventional sources and what you find on line, then yes you may find nothing. But saying that no records were kept or have been lost is quite simply untrue.

Currently I am working on a case of Scotland to England to Ireland to South Africa, and are finding a lot through entirely unconventional sources, most of which can never physically be digitised.
And, also last week, in another 17 year old case, made significant breakthroughs in a UK to PNW case by actually visiting a small local museum and archive in Canada. OK I didn't visit the museum, the enquirer did, but I had done substantial legwork in the background.

The golden rule in genealogy is to work backwards. not forwards. So starting from you and your parents (known facts) then working slowly and methodically backwards, proving the facts at every step backwards.
So in certain states US vital records or even newspaper reports will prove a UK back story.

@jjgurley

I would recommend not using English for anything regarding Scotland, Wales or Ireland, except for the language (with conditions!) It will make a lot of people's eyes twitch quite severely.

Hannah, yes, the Fairy Pools are on Skye, but again, keep in mind that they are very, very popular in the summer, and there's a good chance that unless you time it well, you will not be able to find a place for your car in the car park (and there will be a long line of cars waiting to park). I was there in May and I couldn't get near it, so I just gave up. I think that was the day I decided to escape the crowds and go to the Isle of Raasay. 😊

Wow thank you all for being so kind as to take the time to write back...this is going to be very helpful. So glad I found this forum! Very interesting about the Ulster Scots...thank you for that as well. I would like to give back so if anyone needs advice on Wisconsin or Key West let me know:)

If the Ulster Scots are something you are interested, maybe spending a few days in Northern Ireland. The Ulster American Folk Museum is a fascinating place to spend time.

In Scotland a lot are from the lowlands, and the southern uplands, the borders. Part of both James VI's efforts at pacifying a lawless area at the time and making the north of Ireland 'loyal'.

We stayed in Oban for a few days last summer and it was a fun little town. We did a fishing experience that was a highlight of our whole trip!