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Rental car pick up in Edinburgh and route to Oban

Posted by on

We will be picking up our rental car after a couple of days in Edinburgh and driving to Oban for our next two day stay. Wondering about best pick up location. Currently, we are picking up our car at the airport so will just need to get taxi there (6 of us), but I didn't know if there was a better city center location to avoid taxi expense. I assumed it would be best not to drive out of the city and the airport location would get us on our way to Stirling Castle which will probably be our first stop of the day.

We have seen Doune Castle on a Rabbies tour that took us as far as the Rest and Be Thankful pass several years go. I was thinking about driving up to Killin for lunch as I have heard it is a nice village and then take A85 to Oban (seems to be the most direct route). We probably need to decide if we are touring Stirling Castle as I'm sure that would take a couple of hours. I'm leaning toward no if we want to spend time in Killin - Falls of Dochart, Finlarig Castle. Also, would like a short stop at Kilchurn Castle.

Suggestions? We plan to pick up our car around 8 am and have the Oban distillery tour scheduled for 3:30 that day, so that is our drive time for the day. Looks like a 3 hour drive if you were not stopping anywhere. We will be driving to Oban on a Tuesday in May.

Thank you!

Posted by
2320 posts

Edinburgh Airport pick up makes sense . Three hours is a bit optimistic. I'd be inclined to allow four hours for the drive. You probably need to allow at least a couple of hours for Stirling Castle, which allows for time to park up etc. Allow an hour for lunch at Killin, so that is beginning to look a bit tight on getting to Oban Distillery tour at 3.30.

Posted by
8157 posts

Who are you renting the car from? If it's Arnold Clark, they have an office that is closer to the city in Sighthill (16-18 Bankhead Dr, Sighthill, Edinburgh). I'm returning my car there although I'm picking it up in Glasgow.

Posted by
1869 posts

As of June, 2022 Kilchurn Castle was fenced off - no access. However, there is a good viewpoint if you detour a mile or two down the A819. Stirling Castle is worth a visit - IMHO it is more interesting than Edinburgh Castle. Some lovely tapestries are on display there. We were there a few years ago, but I remember the cafe there had acceptable food. Maybe eat there or push on to Oban for a late lunch. Killin didn't make much of an impression - it was okay.

Posted by
4164 posts

I'll tag on to Cynthia's comments about the tapestries - It was known that James V possessed a set of Unicorn Tapestries , that had gone missing ,and a recreation was undertaken by Stirling Castle with the cooperation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY City , A set owned by the Met was duplicated for The Palace at Stirling , along with the restoration of the building . Having taken nearly fifteen years , the results are spectacular including decorative artwork , period furniture and other textile arts . I'll be paying a third visit to the castle this coming fall , some of the best eye candy ever . An article here - https://www.stirlingcastle.scot/discover/highlights/the-stirling-tapestries/ Be sure to watch the included short video ! Another video here - https://youtu.be/p_jjbtKQdLQ

Posted by
4624 posts

We probably need to decide if we are touring Stirling Castle as I'm
sure that would take a couple of hours. I'm leaning toward no if we
want to spend time in Killin - Falls of Dochart, Finlarig Castle.

You could race through Stirling Castle in 2 hours, but it's best left to a time that you can spend more time. We spent 4.5 hours there.

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