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A month in Scotland - would love thoughts on our itinerary

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We have a month long trip to Scotland planned (Aug 27 - Sep 29) and would love to get thoughts on our itinerary. What, if anything, would you change and why? We have most things booked but still have some flexibility to change things around a bit. Here is our itinerary:

We are flying in to Edinburgh and taking a bus from the airport to Glasgow.
2 nights Glasgow and then pick up our rental car.
3 nights Islay (Bridgend) - the ferry and tours at our favorite distilleries already booked
4 nights Lake Lomond and the Trossachs (Drymen)
4 nights Fort William
4 nights on Isle of Skye (Portree)
2 days driving the North Coast 500 with overnight stops in Ullapool and Thurso
4 nights on Orkney (Kirkwall) - the ferry is booked as is a guide for two of our days there.
3 nights Inverness
2 nights Aberlour
2 nights Aberdeen
3 nights Edinburgh - this is a repeat visit. We missed Holyroodhouse last time so tickets for that have already been purchased. We will return the rental car upon arrival in Edinburgh. We were thinking of doing the Mary King’s Close tour. Is it worth it?

Thoughts on things not to miss in any of the areas we are visiting would be much appreciated!

Posted by
11867 posts

I don't know when you booked your ferries to Islay and which port you are booked to but this is the amended timetable- https://assets.calmac.co.uk/media/gixfkinz/ken-isl-2jun-18oct-0505.pdf

Port Ellen has been closed a lot sooner than expected for redevelopment so all sailings are now using Port Askaig, on revised timings.
This also renders sailings a bit more susceptible to weather as there is no diversionary port. Port Askaig becomes untenable in certain conditions (when Port Ellen is safe) and v.v.

Posted by
3035 posts

Sounds great and a relaxed holiday. My only comment would be that Inverness, Aberlour and Abderddn are so close together, you could almost combine them into one stop at Aberlour ....

Posted by
26 posts

Sounds like a wonderful trip. I was just there for a week last month on an RS tour. Barely scratched the surface, of course. Holyroodhouse is high on the list of things I enjoyed, so I'm glad you have that planned.

If you have any interest in textiles, how wool becomes clothing, or factory tours in general, consider doing the tour at Johnston's of Elgin woolen mill. It takes about an hour, and Elgin is not far out of the way between Inverness and Aberlour. They do EVERYTHING there except shear the sheep. They start with the raw wool, dye it, card it, spin it, and weave it. I found it fascinating.

And they have a nice shop where they will sell you a lovely cashmere sweater for a mere €700 or so. They also have a cafe, and I thought the food was good (sandwiches and such).

I really enjoyed Cawdor Castle too. It's not far outside Inverness. It's still lived in; the dowager countess moves out during tourist season (to help pay upkeep on her nice digs, no doubt). Fancy, but not Downton Abbey fancy. Parts are 600 years old. The gardens are beautiful. There's a nice cafe there too.

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