Drive from Inverness to St. Andrews to Stirling

It's perfectly do-able as a drive. It's all "A" roads that you can blast along at 60 if you so desire. It's maybe 2 hours Inverness to Balmoral (so Google says, I bet you could do it quicker if you were hustling), about the same Balmoral to St Andrews and 90 minutes St Andrews to Stirling. These times are approximate. You could probably do it quicker keeping up good pace, or be slightly more if you should hit some road construction or some other hold up. I had an absolutely clear run traffic-wise all the way up the A9 a few weeks ago, but others may know the other roads involved better than I.

Hi, travelsoon,

If I tried to pack that much in to one day, Mrs A would have my guts for garters! You're looking at a good three hours from Inverness to Ballater via the Lecht Road, which is the shortest way to get there. A minimum of four hours from Balmoral to St Andrews, as there are no really fast ways to get there. St Andrews to Stirling can probably be done in about 90 minutes to two hours.

If you haven't already committed to lodging in Stirling, I'd recommend driving from Balmoral to St Andrews, spending the night there, and continuing on to Stirling in the morning. It would be a lot easier on both you and your travelling companions.

BTW, the grounds at Balmoral open at 10:00 a.m., so you would certainly have time for a walkabout.

Enjoy your time in Scotland!

Mike (Auchterless)

p.s.: I should add that I am a conservative driver, so the times above are based on my experiences.

Balmoral castle to St Andrews is a couple hours drive and Stirling is 1.5 hours from St. Andrews. Assuming a 1 hour Balmoral tour the earliest you’d get to St Andrews would be about 4:30. Spending 2 hours there, then the drive to Stirling, gets you to Stirling about 8:30pm. It would probably be later because parking in St Andrews can be difficult to find. Add traffic, construction, wrong turns, etc., and it could even be later.

When I drove to St Andrews from Stirling a couple years ago, I was seldom able to drive at 60mph.

There's no two ways about it, it is a lot of driving for one day; especially if you happen to have less than ideal weather slowing you down, which is entirely possible over the high ground.

Hello all! Thank you for your advice! I'm afraid I always want to see too much with never enough time. Do you think it would be improved enough by getting an earlier start and changing our plans to the morning tour at Balmoral? If not, we will start searching for other lodging closer to St. Andrews. Thanks again!

Sitting here at Heathrow, reminiscing with my wife about our just completed trip to Scotland… best trip ever. We drove much of the route you described- minus the leg to Stirling I wanted to offer my two cents. A lot of the sights in St. Andrews close at 17:30. Also, I am a pretty aggressive driver and all my trips took longer than the Google times- typically by 15 minutes.
Lastly, on many of the roads we drove, although 60 mph was the posted speed limit, I believe only someone familiar with the road should be driving that fast through the winding portions. Safe travels.

Mike (Auchterless) is spot on. There have already been several fatal accidents on the A9 this year and only this week the roads in that area featured on our local news as accident black spots. Take your time and I’d strongly suggest trying to spend the night in or near St Andrews.

Jacqui is correct. My post was entirely too gung-ho about speed. I grew up driving fast on Scottish A roads for fun and it's not big and it's not clever. It's far too great a distance to cover at sensible speeds that a visitor might drive at. Trying to cover all those miles in one day is going to put the driver under a bit of pressure with no time to enjoy the drive.

The stretch between Inverness and Braemar is one that may be tricky if the weather's poor. Even in summer you could be up in the cloud base across the Cairngorms if it's raining.

On my recent trip up to Nairn I was impressed at how safe the A9 seemed actually. It was over fifteen years since I'd last driven it. There's average speed cameras the whole way up and the road itself is really high quality. It's definitely safer than it was in days of yore. I would add that I was driving my mum's car with her in the passenger seat, so no Colin McRae driving on this trip.

Thanks to all of you especially on behalf of our driver!

Thanks Gerry. I'm quite sensitive about the A9 as a friend of mine was involved in a crash earlier this year, which was not her fault (she was a passenger in a car that was hit by another car). One person was killed and my friend is now paralysed and still in hospital. She has been told she'll never regain use of her limbs due to spinal injury and she has a tube for speaking. Very sad and caused by a speeding driver.

So please folks be careful out there! The A9 has been 'dualled' (made into two lanes in each direction) in places, but drops back to single carriageway frequently, which catches unsuspecting drivers out. There are also many junctions that permit cars pulling out to cross 4 lanes of traffic. These are often accident black spots.

So sorry to hear that Jacqui, I hope your friend gets the treatment they need. I cannot begin to imagine what they and their loved ones are going through at the moment.

Of the A9 between Perth and Inverness, in of itself it is quite well engineered for most of it. But everything highlighted above applies. It changes from single carriage to dual and back again several times on the run, which is already quite a solid slog. Some drivers are unaware that therefore the speed limits change 60 to 70 to 60 to 70. Some of the junctions are flat so the vehicles coming on or turning across are on the level adding in a crash risk. I've had to turn right off the A9 single carriageway section north of Perth a few times and it is not the best experience. Add in that vans, buses, lorries have different limits.

One thing to remember with the speed limits in the UK, the National Speed Limit, 30 in towns, 60 on rural non divided and 70 on divided are defaults essentially to avoid putting signs up all over the places. It does not necessarily mean the road is safe for that speed even if some drivers do drive the limit on those roads. Drive with care and a decent speed, but the speed you are comfortable to. Also if in doubt, give way. Even if you have the priority it is often worth giving it to the other driver.

When the Republic of Ireland switched to metric limits twenty years ago, they went from a system like the UK where there was a National Speed Limit system to one where the limits were marked. This is why you see the pictures of the mud roads with an 80 km/h signed limit. Before the change the limit was 60 mph (100 km/h) but no one really noticed because it was not signed.

So if the limit is NSL 60, sometimes you can do 60, sometimes mid 50s will be fine, sometimes 50 will be too fast.

I'm sorry to hear that Jacqui. That's terrible.

Right turns on to a national speed limit road like the A9 are risky. When you're approaching someone waiting to make a right turn you're watching them like a hawk for the slightest bit of movement.

It is worth noting that even for people used to driving on the left, right turns are still one of the more dangerous maneouvers. For me in France and other countries, the problem is not driving on the right. It is not necessarily even the priority to the right rule. It is turning left because if you are used to driving on the left turning left is easy. Not if you are driving on the right.

Although I'm one to push legal speed limits to the max, I agree heartily with the above comments. The A routes in Scotland, with their alternation of single and dual carriageways (think 2-lane and divided highways) can be very tricky indeed, especially in those sections of dual carriageways in which turns across opposing traffic are allowed.

St. Andrews is a lovely place to stay overnight, which should soften the blow. Great food choices there as well.

I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's accident, Skyegirl. What a sad situation! We will be slow, careful, and defensive and appreciate the combined wisdom of this group.

In terms of the route between St Andrews and Stirling there are two routes. The A91 goes through some picturesque towns and villages across Fife, P&K, Clackmananshire, and Stirling. If you have time that can be a nice route to follow, Kinross is a nice place to stop. If you don't have time, going up to Dundee and along the A90 and A9 is a probably quicker. The A9 between Perth and Stirling is also quite picturesque for a dual carriageway and has one of my favourite views on a dual carriageway or motorway as you come down from Perth.

It also passes close to Gleneagles and Dunblane.