We are planning one day out of Edinburgh on a three day stay. We will have a rental car and plan on visiting Stirling and Doune. Would we have time to head either northwest or southwest a wee bit from Doune to take in a couple of the Lochs or even Loch Lommond? I don't want to sacrifice time away from Stirling and Doune, so only if we actually have time to do this. It's going to be early July 2016, so we will have oodles of daylight into the evening. Thank you!
Posted by
Glasgow, Scotland
1692 posts
Based on it being an hour to get to Stirling from Edinburgh, then an hour at each castle, you've five hours booked for this trip. Plus any lunch breaks etc, easily into six hours. You may have the daylight but the driving will be largely on roads where you cannot make up time.
Loch Lomomd is probably a wee bit far out on that trip, and best to look at lochs closer to Stirling, around Aberfoyle or Loch Tay,
However you will be at Doune near Scotland's only lake, the Lake of Menteith, between Doune and Aberfoyle.
Posted by
Glasgow, Scotland
1692 posts
My calculations were on the absolute minimum you probably need in both castles being an hour so that some time can be freed up for the lochs.
However as Tom said you can easily spend much more than that in the castles, much more than that in Stirling itself, with Bannockburn and the Wallace Monument both in its boundaries. If you really want to see one of the lochs you are really looking at driving by on the way back to Edinburgh, with Loch Tay probably the furthest.
Posted by
OP
BC, Canada
92 posts
Thanks Tom_MN and MC. I've been looking at the map again and does this sound feasible? Arrive at Stirling as early as it opens, carry on to Doune and then possible circle through Callander, Loch Lubnaig, Loch Earn, carry on the A85 to Perth and back to Edinburgh. This looks like 3 hours of total driving time - beginning with our 10:00 arrival time at Stirling 2-3 hrs. there
- 1:00 pm head to Doune for an hour
- 2:30 pm head for the circle tour - 3 hours of driving time
- Add 2-3 hours in for stops (take a picnic lunch)
Looks like approx. a 12 hour day trip - that puts us back in Edinburgh around 9:00 pm. It's a long day, but looks about the same length of time some of those tours are out and about the Highlands. Only we won't be trapped on a bus at the mercy of their schedule and stops. We've done many days like this on various holidays we've been on, especially when we were in Australia for 6 weeks! How does that look?
Posted by
Glasgow, Scotland
1692 posts
It looks doable, but the issue is the time again. THe biggest add in is travel. After Stirling you will not be on the best of roads and they can flow reasonably or grind to a halt for no apparent reason. Not to mention being busy at that time of year with holiday traffic.
Seeing as you have added the Callander leg, I would probably leave that day at that, and not go further.