Scotland 8 night trip

Glasgow and Stirling are so close together I wouldn’t stay in both. Pick one or the other and do a day trip to either. Also you’re missing Edinburgh completely??? I would try to fit a day trip there at the minimum. St Andrew’s is wonderful! If you’re into golf I wouldn’t miss that but if it were me I also wouldn’t miss Isle of Skye. So if you don’t want to move so much just pick to locations to stay- one close to Isle of Skye and one close to Stirling/Glasgow/Edinburgh/St Andrew’s. If you’re fine with driving there I wouldn’t miss do the driving tour Rick Steve’s suggests in his guidebook. You’re going to love whatever you do!!! Hope that helps. We just spent 3 weeks there if have any more questions let me know.

Skye is an over 8 hour roundtrip from Glasgow. Inverness to Skye is a 4 hour roundtrip. A circular route can be designed to include all or at least most of the things you want to see. There is fantastic scenery and castles everywhere, so there is no compelling reason to stretch yourself thin. Edinburgh is someplace you don't want to skip. You can daytrip from Stirling to there or vice versa. Glasgow to St. Andrews is an hour and 30 mins. If you want to visit the islands you need to allow more time. You can drive onto Skye, but others require making ferry connections. Preview most locations www.visitscotland.com. This a great gateway site for more info.

Thanks for the quick response! Should've said so but Edinburgh is part of our plan as a day trip. Were just looking for more affordable lodging which is why we're not staying in Edinburgh.
I'm leaning more towards potentially committing to 4 nights in Inverness and 4 nights somewhere in between Glasgow and St Andrews. Do you have any strong opinion on staying in Stirling vs. Other towns such as Falkirk or Cumbenauld? Or perhaps ones we should avoid? We're really open to staying anywhere that gives us a midpoint between Glasgow and St Andrews.

Long ago with our daughters and my mother-in-law we used a cottage near Stirling as a base for a week. We visited most of your destinations except Skye from that base. We went to St Andrew’s, Edinburgh, Loch Lomond, Oban, did the Fort William to Mallaig train, etc. I recall only one day with a lot of driving.

Good luck planning your trip.

I never discount anywhere, but Cumbernauld is a very functional new town, although look hard and there are historical bits.

If I just wanted cheap and great motorway access maybe.....

I agree with Falkirk and would suggest Dunfermline as another good place to look at.

Ok.... After a closer look, we've decided to extend our trip. This is how its looking now:
Isle of Skye 4 nights. We plan on also doing a day trip to Raasay as I've heard great things about the distillery there and why not :) Skye made more sense than staying in Inverness given we'll have a car and doing a day tour through Rabbies I think would've felt rushed as we want to hike and take our time (we enjoy photography). We'll ge to Skye via the Mallaig ferry as we'll be driving north from Glasgow.
After 4 nights in Skye, we'll head over to Oban and spend 3 nights there to explore the island of Mull, Glencoe area. I'll continue researching for things to see but seems like a good spot to spend a few nights and explore surroundings. My wife is a big Harry potter fan so we might have to go to glenfinnan and watch the train go by! Does anyone have any distillery recommendations in the area, other than the Oban distillery?
Lastly, we'll be spending another 4 nights in the fife region, still undecided on where specifically but this makes the most sense as I dont want to be rushed when visiting St Andrews and we'll be close enough for day trips to both Edinburgh and Glasgow. I also just learned the fringe will be on so excited to get to see some of it!
Aly I'd love any suggestions on any sandwich/quick eatery shops! my wife and I love a quick bite and prefer snacking on "real" food while on the road :) thanks in advance!

limonv, you mentioned a castle stay near Stirling in your original post. Are you still staying there?

In 2023 we spent 2 nights at Barcaldine Castle, about 20 minutes outside of Oban. We booked the Mull and Iona day trip. Even though we had a rental car, we had a taxi take us into Oban and return us back to Barcaldine after dinner in town so we wouldn't be driving in the dark and our driver could enjoy a glass of wine at dinner. This worked great for us.

If you do decide to watch the train go by at Glenfinnan Viaduct, get there early as parking is really limited. We weren't able to stop because the lot was full and the police were waving everyone to keep driving.

Jeanm is not that castle, we were looking at Menstrie castle but now might move even further east into Fife to be closer to St. Andrews.
Did you do the Mull and Ioan day trips through a tour company our on your own? Curious if we can do Iona and the rest of the Island without staying the night in the island.

There are 4 days in the week - Tuesday to Thursday and Saturday when it is possible to do Iona and Mull in the day if you take the first ferry over and the last back.
But both the Craignure and Mallaig ferries need to be booked as soon as your plans are fixed.

We booked the Mull and Iona tour with Westcoast Tours. They offer several others tours, also. We were traveling with another couple and we all thought it was a great day trip.