Isle of Skye, Isle of Mull and the Lake District: Choices!

A detour to Oban and Mull won't actually add that much more to the drive. Mull is wonderful and definitely worth spending at least two nights in. (I actually prefer it to Skye) You also have the opportunity to visit Iona or a boat trip to Staffa and Fingal's cave. There is some pretty good hiking there too! Possibly take those two nights out of the Lake District

I think we need to get an overview of this itinerary and of how many actual days you have in the UK excluding arrival and departure days. My feelings are two fold-
a. You seem to be salami slicing and ending up trying to go everywhere. Take a deep breath and say to yourself that you will be back and reduce your centres.
b. You might have been better off booking open jaw flights, and flying back out of GLA, EDI, MAN or NCL.

As I understand it you are arriving in London, presumably spending some time there (even if just a day or two) then catching the Caledonian Sleeper to Inverness. It's not clear if you are still spending several days there (as per plan 1, which saw you do Edinburgh after Inverness then the Lake District).

Then the Isle of Skye was added in, now you want to add in Mull (a full day to travel there from Skye plus two days there when you add in the ferry crossing, whichever you do). So that is three more days accounted for.

Mull to the Lake District is still almost a full day's journey.

Then on the way down from the Lake District (partly because the perceived 'freedom' of the car doesn't allow you to return it early enough to catch the necessary train to London for Heathrow so you have been 'forced' to lose yet another day from the Lake District to visit Oxford. It's not as if the Lake District needs any more visitors, but your plan is looking threadbare to me. I'm quite happy in some ways to be treated as the poor relation.

My suggestion is to concentrate on Scotland for this trip (if you do have the odd day still spare there are plenty of other places in Scotland for walking (like the Southern Uplands or the Cairngorms as two examples).

As avid hikers you are giving the Lake District very short shrift. It feels to me it will barely be worthwhile visiting the area. Then come back another year, give respectable hiking time to the Lake District, and add on the Yorkshire Dales or the Peak District or The Cheviots in Northumberland.
At least for hikers the Lake District is emphatically not a one or two day destination.

@isn31c, you are not wrong. And you have tapped into something that we strive to avoid in our travels: stretching too thin.

I’ve clarified our itinerary and options below. It’s not quite, currently, as you have outlined, although you are right, we have considered all of those options in the past few days! We were starting to feel stressed by everything being booked up so quickly and the need to lock in plans. In fact, this trip started with a focus on the Lake District - which remains a priority.

Here is what we are working with. Appreciate your thoughts:

Day 1: Arrive London ~2pm (from California)

Day 2 - 4: London (we’ve spent quite a bit of time here however always enjoy a few days to see friends), Board Caledonia sleeper at 8 pm on day 4.

Day 5: Arrive Inverness via Caledonia Sleeper ~9am and pick up rental car (which will be returned in Lake District) and transit to Dunvegan where we are staying 2 nights

**note: we had dropped staying Inverness at all, instead focusing our hiking in Skye.

Day 6: Touring / hiking Skye

Day 7: Transfer to hotel in Portree for 2 nights; more touring / hiking

**note: Dunvegan hotel only has 2 night availability so we have to change hotels if staying on in Skye.

Day 8: Touring / hiking Skye

Day 9: current plan drive to Lake District. Arrive at hotel in evening; booked for 6 nights currently but can be modified

Days 10-13 (4 full days): Touring / hiking Lake District

Day 14. Depart Lake District in afternoon (so we have good part of day still there) - drop off car rental before 5 pm in Penrith and take train to London and then go straight to Heathrow.

We moved up our flight the next day to the morning and plan to stay at a hotel in Heathrow this night based on the advice of this group to avoid either a single day of travel or going back into London and the additional cost that involves to just sleep there essentially.

Day 15: Fly home AM

If we added Mull, it would be between Skye and Lake District. Options include:

(2) nights Skye; (2) nights Mull; (6) nights Lake District

(3) nights Skye; (2) nights Mull; (5) nights Lake District

(4) nights Skye, (2) nights Mull; (4) nights Lake District

OR keep our current itinerary and don’t go to Mull at all: (4) nights Skye and (6) nights Lake District. That’s our bigger question, really. If we add Mull, it seems like a minimum of two nights is necessary to make it worthwhile.

We definitely don’t want to short shrift the Lake District, but also are interested in exploring a bit of the Scotland as well, specifically the Scottish isles. We eliminated Edinburgh from the plan altogether.

Appreciate your thoughts on the options above given the additional detail. Thanks so much for all who are weighing in on this and helping us with our decisions.

EDITED / ADDENDUM:

We are realizing there is yet another option which is to take the overnight train to Glasgow and replace Skye entirely with Mull. While this would ease the driving burden, we would like to see Skye ant some point and worry if it is not on this trip, when that would happen (plus expect Skye to only get more crowded as time goes forward). It seems despite being more touristed, Skye still has its appeal for a reason (?)

Also about your suggestion to fly into one of the northern airports - we considered that but the ticket prices are so much more expensive it’s not practical for us. Interestingly, the car rental for the full-time between Inverness and the Lake District was less than two rentals in either area and gave better flexibility than taking the train between the two while adding more driving time, of course.

Hi, Kristina,

In the event that you do decide to visit both Skye and Mull, and assuming that you would return from Skye via the Armadale to Mallaig ferry, you could shorten your travel time to Mull by taking the Kilchoan to Tobermory ferry.

You would take the A830 to Lochailort, the A861 to Salen, then the B8007 to Kilchoan. The drive from Salen to Kilchoan takes you through some stunning scenery.

In either case, best wishes and safe travels!

Mike (Auchterless)

I recently spent 4 nights in the Lake District and got to see a lot, even though I was relying on the bus. Since you’re driving, you’ll be able to be a lot more efficient with your time. IMO I would do 4 nights Skye, 2 nights Mull and 2 nights in the Lake District. Since you have to change accommodations on Skye, I wouldn’t recommend cutting it to 3 days since switching places will take a little time away from your trip.

Just personally, I wouldn't try to add in Mull- it will add quite a bit of travel time plus factoring in the ferries. I think what you have with London/Skye/Lake District sounds plenty. Skye to Lake District is a full day of driving. An easy place to break it up would be Loch Lomond which is on the route, in case you want to see more scenic areas of Scotland. Good luck- you will definitely get good food and beautiful scenery!

Firstly Mike has said what I would have said about the Skye to Mull transfer.

I have to bow to @skyegirl and say that I don't think two nights on Skye is adequate. Three or four nights is the right timespan. And on one of the 'middle' days fit in Raasay. I hear your worries on Skye. When the Skye to Outer Hebrides ferry goes to a two boat service next year that will increase further the visitor and traffic pressures that started when the Skye Bridge was opened. Until then numbers were self limited via the 3 ferry routes. There is no obvious way to put that genie back in the bottle.

Skye, as my ancestral island, is a very, very vexed question.

I also admit that I don't know much about walking on Mull. It's not what I or most other people on this forum go there for. I know there is very good walking. But even if you don't walk and do the usual more touristy stuff (Iona, Staffa, wildlife boat trips) I agree that two nights is your base minimum. If only because one of those days could be impossibly bad weather. You never know, that can happen at any time of the year.

In the Lake District the pressure to book places is way, way less than on the Scottish Islands. We are now mid January, four months to the trip. That is an issue I would be pretty relaxed about.

I can't settle the Mull debate for you. That has to be your personal decision. There is a balance between advice and influence which I may have over-stepped re the Lake District above.

So if the Lake District comes down to 4 nights then it has to be a two centred visit.

I'm not sure if you have booked your car rental but if it is now Inverness to the Lake District there is now the possibility of doing it with Arnold Clark/Celtic Legend and returning the car to their Carlisle facility (only fifteen minutes beyond Penrith).
AC will take you from their yard to Carlisle railway station.
From anywhere north of Ambleside it should only be a 60 minute drive to Carlisle.
When Mardee did that last year it was in the morning peak traffic and it took an hour to get the three miles from drop off to railway station. I could probably have jogged in faster. But when I had been up to AC an hour earlier to check the road for any issues like roadworks the 30 minutes anticipated would have been plenty good. You may wonder why I am taking you back north for drop off. The answer is that if the West Coast line is having a nervous breakdown that day then from Carlisle there are two other routes to London- via Leeds or Newcastle. From Penrith or Oxenholme you would just have to live with any issues.
In late afternoon you would be travelling counter peak into the city, so 60 minutes from Arnold Clark to station is reasonable.

Thanks all for the very helpful suggestions. We so appreciate this community!

I think we are back to the (most recent) original plan, which has us four nights on Skye (split between two locations out of necessity/availability) and six nights in the lake District with one very long, travel day in between.

This seems the most reasonable plan without feeling too rushed anywhere. Unless there is a compelling argument to be made to swap Skye for Mull. We were only contemplating Mull at all on the basis of Rick’s comments in his book. Perhaps that will be another trip.

Kristina -

I think we are back to the (most recent) original plan,

Is, in my not terribly humble opinion, the right answer!

Ian

Having been to both islands and having read through all this, I think you are making the right decision for you to go with your original plan. Mull is indeed wonderful but so are many other places and islands in Scotland. And to factor in weather, 3 nights is even better. So just plan a return trip. LOL.

Thank you all! We feel good about this decision having explored now all the options & more (haha!) This will be a long and expensive trip for us so we appreciate all of the thoughtfulness and help working through the different scenarios. We are very excited for this trip, and starting now to map out specific hikes based on suggestions provide provided on my other posts.

Also appreciate pulling us back from the edge of overcommitting!

Hi once again, Kristina,

I have a really wild idea for you - it involves a bit of ferry travel, but it would give you an opportunity for a flying visit to Mull, and possibly whet your appetite for a future visit.

You could take the Kilchoan to Tobermory ferry on your way from Skye (if you're leaving via Mallaig), stop for lunch in Tobermory, then take the Craignure to Oban ferry to get back to the mainland. From Oban, it's a relatively easy drive to Glasgow, where you can pick up the motorway south for Carlisle and the Lake District.

By going this way, you have more of an opportunity for viewing some fantastic scenery, and Tobermory is a charming and colorful little town. You would definitely need to coordinate the ferry schedules. CalMac used to offer a discounted multi-voyage ticket for this route (Armadale-Mallaig, Kilchoan-Tobermory, Craignure-Oban), but I think that they phased that out a few years ago.

Anyway, something else to think about...

Have a wonderful holiday!

Best wishes,

Mike (Auchterless)

p.s.: If memory serves me correctly (and sometimes it still does), there is an illuminated sign at the Lochailort turnoff from the A830, letting you know if the Kilchoan ferry is not operating that day for weather conditions. If that's the case, you can carry on to Fort William.

That would be a very, very, long day's journey.

You would need to leave Portree at about 0630 to make the 0810 (ish) ferry over. Then the two hour drive to Kilchoan for the 1145 ferry to Tobermory.
Then lunch and the drive to Craignure that is the 1540 ferry to Oban. By the time you are off the ferry it is now close to 1700.

It is then every minute of 4 hours 15 minutes drive to Penrith- at legal speeds and without breaks.

I'd try to get to Abington services for the one and only break (although suspect I would put in a two minute restroom break at Tarbet, Loch Lomond). The legal limit is 70mph, but south of Abingdon in mid evening its a road that'll take three figures, if you don't get caught. Abington to Exit 40 Penrith is 75 minutes exactly at legal speeds, although I've done it in 60 minutes.

So you'll be reaching Penrith after 9pm, Ullswater or Keswick after 9.30pm.

In mid May that is last light.

Thanks (again) to you both for the suggestions! We will probably aim to drive straight through given the long transit day — but appreciate the recommendations for breaks enroute, including perhaps even a (casual) dinner stop before we get to Ullswater, so we can just go to bed upon arrival!

My suggestion for a dinner stop would be the town of Moffat. There are a number of pubs and restaurants in the attractive town centre (a conservation area). I suspect that Brodies is the best, but for casual maybe one of the pubs would be better.

The one NOT to go to is the first you come to as you turn in off the M74- the Edinburgh Woollen Mill outlet store with it's attached cafe.