Car travel from Edinburgh to Loch Ness, and Portree to Edinburgh

Welcome to the forum. You've chosen a beautiful country to visit.

I don't think we can stress enough that driving in Scotland is not just a means to get from place to place. There is always something along the way to explore, take in a view, see a waterfall, a garden, a ruin, a neolithic site, maybe a lunch stop. And everything always seems to take longer than we expect.

If the rental car agent can process your pickup, you do not plan to stop for restroom or lunch breaks, you do not make any wrong turns, there are no road works or accidents or weather related issues holding up traffic, you might have time to visit Doune and be at Boleskine House by 3 pm. I would allow a minimum 4 hours for the drive from Doune to Boleskine.

I don't understand racing back from Skye to Edinburgh. Your missing Scotland! Are you leaving Edinburgh by train on the 25th?

Based on the 2 days mentioned here, I'm concerned about the rest of your itinerary. Best of luck!

I would say you are cutting it extremely fine. You say you are not familiar with driving in Scotland and I think you are likely to find our roads a bit of a shock if you are coming from the USA. You will be driving on narrow roads with no shoulder and you are likely to want to take things slow. I think google maps is being wildly optimistic given that you will be on either the A9 or the A82 depending on which way you decide to head north, both of which are major routes with heavy traffic especially in the summer months. You will encounter lots of other tourists all heading north, and importantly also camper vans (RVs) driving slowly and making overtaking difficult.

I drive from Skye to Edinburgh pretty often and I always allow 7 hours. You never know what the traffic will be like and if there's a serious accident you will be stuck.

I know the distances look small compared to the sort of distances people cover in the States, but driving here is slow and in the summer, not for the faint hearted. It will take you much, much longer than you think.

Doune castle doesn't open until 10am. This means you are going to have to really scamper around to be away by 11am. The Terry Jones audio tour can take 1-1.5 hours.

Your estimate of 'a hair over 3 hours' from Doune to Boleskin House is optimisitc. I've checked google maps with a leaving time from Doune Castle of 11am and it is estimating typically 3hr to 3 hour 40 minutes. General advice here is to allow an extra 25% on google driving times. Don't underestimate driving times - it will take a lot longer to cover the distance than you might expect.

To be on the safe side you will need to allow at least four hours - and have you thought about a comfort break and food?

Skyegirl does the drive regularly to Edinburgh and if she allows 7 hours for it, then it would make sense to allow at least this long and may be even more... Dont forget you have to add on time to drop off the hire car and get to the railway staion. What time is your train from Edinburgh?

jeanm, Skyegirl and wasleys, Thank you all so much for your thoughtful and informative responses. Yes, it appears I'll have to skip Doune Castle on this visit, and really add on extra drive time onto all of my itinerary (wasleys, I'll definitely use that extra 25% on google driving times into our plans, and maybe even then some :) I' haven't yet booked our train from Edinburgh to London when we leave Scotland on Wed., April 29, but I was thinking around 2pm (which means we'd probably need to leave Portree at around 5am to account for the long drive, airport car drop off and taxi to Waverly station. (With the added train to London, It'll be a very long day of travel, but I need to be in London on Thu. April 30).

We only have seven days total in Scotland, and while I know there are so many things and places we won't be able to see and do, this is the schedule I've laid out for us...

Edinburgh - 3 nights

Loch Ness / Inverness - 1 night

Dornie (room is just a short walk to Eilean Donan Castle) - 1 night

Isle of Skye - 2 nights

Quite a bit of moving, but wanted to be able to get a taste of the Highlands, along with the three days in Edinburgh (we love big, historic cities), in the short time we'll have in the country. Really looking forward to it!

From Edinburgh, you can stop off at Eilean Donan Castle on your way to Skye. You don’t need to have an overnight at Dornie.

Spend your 2 nights on Skye and then begin the long drive back to Edinburgh building in a night somewhere along the way - There’s plenty of choice - Callendar, Doune or Dunblane would all be possibles.

You should have time to do Doune Castle that afternoon - last entry is 4.15 but ideally plan to arrive well before that. That leaqves a leisurely drive back to Edinburgh next morning to catch the train to London.

This scenario does seem to make a lot more sense. I'm going to see if I can rearrange a couple of nights of lodging to try and make this happen. Thank you so much for the great info!

Last year in May at 08:30, it took over 1/2 an hour to wait in line at EDI to get to the rental service counter, which is outside the terminal. Also, our uber wouldn't drive to the drop off point at the airport, as it would cost an additional 8 pounds to enter the zone. So, we had to walk an extra 15 minutes. Having a GPS in your car where you can plug in your destination, really helps in navigating the round abouts.

On the single lane roads you'll find on the islands, I had to add 50% to the drive times. I was always the slowest car and pulled over many times to let others pass me. This was my third time driving on the left side.

Sorry you may miss Doune Castle. It was one of my favorite experiences last year, because of the Monty Python audio.

Appreciate the info, Leonard!

Have you already booked your flights?

Flying into Inverness and flying home from Edinburgh would help your trip flow better.

Yes, flights are already booked, jeanm, and we're heading to London & East Sussex for another week following our week in Scotland, before heading back home to the States. Appreciate your help though :)