8 days in Scotland

It's a lot of driving and a lot of moving around.

One suggestion - if you can, avoid driving the first day, especially if you have not driven on the left before.

For example, you could take the train from Edinburgh to Stirling the first day, then pick up the car in Stirling on Day 2.

I would not try to fit Skye in (or drop Inverness). It's hard to see everything you want obviously, but it's exhausting and ultimately unsatisfying (to me at least) if you are always on the go.

By far, our favourite day of our 16 days in Scotland was Stirling Castle; we spent about 6 hours there. You may not have as much interest, but you're setting yourself up for only a short visit. Also, what if your plane is delayed? My last 4 flights have been late from 2-8 hours. None on time.

I'm also not a fan of driving the same day after an overnight flight. You may think you're wide awake and aware, but you may not be. I'd consider staying in Edinburgh at the beginning of your trip.

From experience in the Highlands, add about 25% to estimated driving times that Google Maps gives you.

Inverness itself isn't that exciting, but it is a good base for other sites besides Culloden. We spent 2 nights there and made daytrips to Culloden, Clava Cairns and Cawdor Castle one day, then drove north to Dornoch and then Dunrobin Castle the next.

Hi, aubrey86,

First of all, congratulations on your upcoming 20th! You didn't say what time of year you'll be travelling. That does make a difference.

On day five, Uig to Inverness is going to be more like 4 1/2 hours. On day six, Culloden to EDI (assuming that's where you're dropping off the car) is at least four hours. You also need time to eat and stop for a toilet break.

On day three, Glencoe to Uig is a good 4 hours, if not more. Once again, you'll need to eat and stop for the loo. Will you be taking the ferry or the bridge?

You don't see much of Loch Ness from the A82, but Urquhart Castle appears to be a favorite stop along the way. There are some good walks in the town of Inverness if you want to get a feel for the place.

If you're looking at Google Maps, the time that they give you is not accurate for Scottish roads. Multiply the Google time by 1.5 to get a more accurate reflection of the time that you'll actually spend on the road. Scotland is a beautiful country, and you are going to want to stop along the way just to take in the scenery.

Other than that, your itinerary is eminently doable. Be sure to get a good night's sleep the first night. If there's any way you can add on an extra day or two, by all means do so.

As far as renting a car, you'll have a much larger selection of rental companies (and cars) out of Edinburgh as opposed to Stirling. About 80% of rental cars in Scotland are manual transmission, so if you'd feel more comfortable driving an automatic, you need to request one. It may cost a little bit more, but it could make you or hubby, whomever is doing the driving, a bit less stressed. Don't worry about driving on your first day. You'll be fine. It's actually a lot easier to get out of EDI than it is from Stirling.

Once again, congrats on your upcoming 20th!

Best wishes for your travels,

Mike (Auchterless)

For example, you could take the train from Edinburgh to Stirling the first day, then pick up the car in Stirling on Day 2.

Or even easier and faster take the Scottish Citylink bus #909 direct from the airport to Stirling in 1 hour at 1154, 1254, 1354, 1554, 1754 and 1854.

The bus is headed for Stirling University but also sets down at Stirling Bus Station which is opposite the railway station.

I don't think you will need an actual guide at Culloden because it is an easy walk thru markers with the placement of the Clans. If you are interested in military movements you may be able to get what you need at info center. You can take a boat ride on Loch Ness which goes by Urquhart for photo op from Inverness. Driving along of the west shore of Loch Ness seems to take forever. Stirling has a lot of sites to see besides the Castle. It will take longer to cover distances than you might think. Some people go there to hike, but Glencoe was a scenic drive thru to me. If this is the 1st time you are in Scotland, I would spend more time in Edinburgh/Glasgow as there are many Castles, Museums and historic Sites nearby. Check www.visitscotland.com for ideas. Also Historic Scotland and Secret Scotland. P.S. Sorry to make the assumption that most post "Outlander" people already know about Culloden. I am an Ogilvy, a Cameron and a Fraiser and my husband is a Campbell. So we went there to visit the spirits of our ancestors. Walking the grounds was enough for me while staring at the engraved stones. A good guide could make it a lot more exciting.

Have you thought of turning the itinerary round and spending a couple of days in Edinburgh at the start rather than the end?
It gives time to explore the city and also recover from jet lag. (It isn't sensible to get in a car and drive off a transatlantic flight).

You do need a guided tour of Culloden unless you know a lot of Scottish history... It is well worth doing and was one of the most worthwhile parts of the visit for me. The entry to teh Visitor Centre and exhibition includeds a guided tour and it took about an hour. Not only does it put the battle into context it gives a clear idea of what a disasater it was from start to finish for the Jacobite troops. If anything could go wrong for them, it did. Yes, there are plenty of information boards and markers around but you need to understand the context of the battle to understand the significance of them.

There is also Clava Cairns, just a few minuteds drive from Culloden which date from 3000-4000 years ago and were a Bronze Age cemetery. They are believed to be the inspiration for Craig na Dun in the very popular TV series ’Outlanders’.

This past May I spent 3 nights on Skye and 4 days and stayed in Uig prior to driving to Inverness. It is a long drive if you are going from UIG to Inverness not only straight driving wise, but you will be stopping.

To maximize my time on Skye and have the 4th day, I elected to spend the night in Fort Augustus. It’s less of a drive to there, allowing more time elsewhere. It’s not far from Urquhardt and about an hour or so depending on traffic into Inverness.

Beware on Skye there are single track roads in places, which will slow your travel time.

It might be worth considering dropping your car in Inverness and taking the train or a short flight to Edi.

I personally like Inverness. I know many on this forum aren’t fans, but I was able to fill a day no problem. You could walk along the river. The walk is quite nice. There is the cathedral and some churches, Leakey’s bookshop, the Victorian Market, the Botanical Gardens. You could have a nice meal. Mustard Seed is excellent.

Anyway, just some ideas for you. There will be lots of different opinions, so the important thing is to determine what is most important for you.

I spent five weeks in Scotland last year. The only place on the entire trip that was disappointing was Inverness. For me it was not an interesting city. I will also say that, although it was moving to be at Culloden, there isn't a lot to see there. It's just a very large open field with markers showing where the various clans were buried. I took a tour, and it didn't allow time to visit the museum, which I think would have been more interesting.

I did enjoy visiting Dunvegan Castle (and the gardens are very beautiful), but there were many things I was more impressed by elsewhere.

I say these things because you only have seven days, and as you rightly point out, Scotland is much larger than I imagined. I think you could do better.

In terms of scenic beauty, my favorite parts of Scotland, in addition to the area around Glencoe, were Perthshire and the Cairngorms. If I only had seven days. I'd skip Skye, just because it take a while to get there and back, and exploring it consumes a lot of time. I wouldn't want to spend so much of my time in the car. And I'd certainly skip Inverness.

I'd recommend limiting your eight nights to three destinations. And I'd do Stirling as a day trip from Edinburgh so you don't have to move around so much. Something like this, perhaps:

• 3 nights Edinburgh
• 2 nights Glencoe
• 3 nights Pitlochry (or somewhere else in that vicinity)

I know this is completely different from what you proposed, and feel free to ignore my advice and just do you if you are committed to some of the places you listed in your itinerary.

Thanks so much for all the helpful responses! It has given us much to think about. We've decided to add an extra day onto our trip in Inverness. I am enormously interested in the history of the uprisings, and had hoped to hire a tour guide that day, so I don't want to rush.

Right now we're thinking 2 nights in Stirling (so we can still see the castle if we're delayed) then straight through to Uig
3 nights in Skye, so we get a break from the long drive
2 nights in Inverness
And we're cutting Edinburgh down to 2 nights, because we have tentative plans to come back anyway.

It still doesn't feel ideal, but better than being in the car every single day.

To answer a few questions, Skye and Culloden are the main reasons we're going, so neither is skippable, unfortunately. We are going the last week of April/beginning of May. We are flying out from the East Coast and it's only a 7 hour flight, so I'm hoping we won't be too jetlagged to drive the 30 minutes to Stirling. I will look into renting a car in Stirling or rearranging our trip to see Edinburgh first, those are both great ideas!

Thanks so much all!!

The drive from Edinburgh airport to Stirling is pretty easy. When we drove there in 2022 road construction hindered getting to our hotel, so be prepared that things may not go as expected. Also, if your lodging doesn’t have its own parking, the parking meters in Stirling only accepted coins. Meters in every other place in Scotland accepted coins or card. Hopefully that has changed. Doune castle is an easy drive from Stirling.

If you have time when in Inverness, then Fort George is also worth a visit after Culloden. This was built after the Battle of Culloden to control the Highlands and crush any future Jacobite rebellions. The scale of Fort George is impressive with its ramparts and defensive ditches and it is virtually unchanged since it was built. It remains one of the largest and most impregnable fortifications in Europe. However, by the time it was finished, the Highlands were relatively calm and no action was ever required from Fort George. There is a story, may be apocryphal, that one shot was fired by a jittery soldier on night duty who thought he saw a Jacobite soldier creeping up to the fort and fired at him. Next morning the guards found the dead body of a cow....

It is still used by the military although visitors are allowed access to the ramparts and all outside areas of the site, the chapel, Highlanders’ Museum and a restored and recreated barrack block. You may also be lucky and see bottle. nosed dolphins off the coast too!