Scotland in April with focus on scotch, nature, and wool. Suggestions greatly appreciated!

In the borders area, in Selkirk, is Lochcarron of Scotland woolen mill. One can take a tour of its facility. We had a rental car when we visited and were staying in Peebles.

For Skye and a lot of the more scenic areas, you will probably want a car though maybe you can find a day tour that offers you a good experience instead. If you're inclined towards the outdoors, it's hard to argue with a drive through Glen Coe. If possible I'd suggest taking the scenic drive through Glen Etive, it was the most beautiful place but no tour bus is making that drive.

There are several different scotch regions in Scotland.

If you're willing to drive, a nice area that checks most of your boxes is Speyside. Many tours and tastings offered at a variety of distilleries from historic to small, family owned to world famous.

Combining a distillery tour with a tour at Speyside Cooperage near Duff Town to learn about barrel making and a visit to Knochando Woolmill would make a great day. There's also a number of farm shops and markets in the area.

Go to Islay if you're interested in whisky.

A big thank you to those of you responding to my post. How easy is it to drive out of Edinburgh to the areas mentioned? My husband learned to drive in NYC but that was more than a couple of decades ago! We've driven from Paris to Germany but, still, a while ago. Several other posts deemed driving in Scotland as a heart attack waiting to happen…

Whether Islay is the right place to go to for Whisky depends on what style of whisky you like. It is if you like the dark peaty style.
But what Islay does have going for it is ease of access with the flights from Glasgow.
Assuming you have some experience of driving on our side of the road, you are unlikely to have a heart attack. In many, not all, directions leaving from central Edinburgh the traffic is moving too slowly to induce that!!
That is why many people hire from the Airport, beyond the traffic.
St Andrews and the Fife Coast are easy to do by train and bus from Edinburgh.

Selkirk (or any of the textile towns in the Scottish Borders are easy to get to by bus or train. To Selkirk train to Galashiels then a 15 minute bus ride 3 x an hour is a good way to get there.
While in 'Gala' visit the Great Tapestry of Scotland.

Possibly the best/easiest way out of Edinburgh by car is the A1 into East Lothian. In terms of walking/cycling East Lothian would be a good area to visit. You could also visit the Glenkinchie Distillery (also easy by bus from Edinburgh).
From East Lothian by car curl round the corner into the Borders circling back into Edinburgh.

Getting into a sheep mart may be difficult as most are now modern buildings but if doing the East Lothian loop stop in Reston (train or car) and see the abandoned old octagonal Mart building, a fine example of it's type.
Hawick was another good example until closure and demolition in the 1990's.

How easy is it to drive out of Edinburgh to the areas mentioned?

It depends on where you start. I rented a car from Arnold Clark (via Celtic Legend) and they have an office where you can pick up or drop off a rental car on Bankhead Drive in Sighthill, which is about 20-30 minutes outside the city. I dropped mine off there (I had picked it up in Glasgow) and then got a nearby tram that took me to St. Andrews Square in Edinburgh. It was very easy. But if you were picking up, it's easy to get to the M8 or the A90 up to the M90, depending on where you are going. And you don't have to deal with city traffic.

You could also pick a car up at Edinburgh airport, although it's usually a bit more expensive. Regardless, if you rent, I do highly recommend Arnold Clark. I've rented from them twice, and it's always been a good experience. The first time I rented through Celtic Legend, and if you have two drivers, I would recommend that as they allow you to add an extra driver for free. For me, it didn't matter that much since I am solo. However, when I rented through Arnold Clark direclty, it was also a very good experience.

Either way, Arnold Clark is very professional to deal with and they take the time to explain all the paperwork very thoroughly. I've gotten a few upgrades for free and their staff is very very pleasant.

Skye is difficult to drive on, and I would suggest a Rabbies tour for that, but getting to places like Speyside should be no problem. I drove all over—from Glasgow to Ardrossan, then on Arran, on Mull, Skye and Lewis and Harris, but the easiest part of the driving was when I left the Highlands and made my way back to the mainland. You will still find some single track roads, but there's not as much traffic, and the roads are in a bit better shape. I didn't have any problems driving from Inverness and downward towards Edinburgh.

Assuming you have some experience of driving on our side of the road, you are unlikely to have a heart attack. In many, not all, directions leaving from central Edinburgh the traffic is moving too slowly to induce that!!

Ha ha, I'm sure you were speaking figuratively about a heart attack. :-) But I will say in general, driving in the UK is not that much different than driving in another country; except you are on a different side. And after the first couple of minutes, that will become quite natural. Some people tape a note on the dash that reminds them to drive "left" but I've never bothered. The biggest problem will be outside the cities with the multi-lane roundabouts, but if you get confused, the beauty of the roundabout is that you just stay in it until you figure out where you're going. And as mentioned, the single lane roads are pretty easy outside of the Highlands (and really Skye and Mull are the most difficult—at least they were for me). Harris and Lewis were easy.

Like Mardee, we booked our Arnold Clark rental car with Celtic Legends for our last Scotland trip in 2023. Both companies were easy to work with. We picked up in Glasgow and returned the car to the Sighthill location on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Watch a few videos on driving single track roads in Scotland to better understand how it works. Here's a short YouTube video to get you started.

Depending on your itinerary, you may not even come across single track roads.

With a driver and a navigator, driving in Scotland is not difficult. It helps if the navigator/passenger reminds the driver to stay in the left lane when pulling out of parking lots or turning onto another road until it becomes instinct for the driver.

Thanks to everyone for replying to my post and providing a lot of great information for me to think about while our trip becomes a reality.
We are now thinking of exploring Edinburgh the afternoon and morning after our noonish arrival on a Tuesday and hiring a car for Wednesday’s drive to the Speyside area scotch trail. Any suggestions for dinner reservations and one or two night’s accommodation would be greatly appreciated. We’d love to include the Knockando Wool Mill . Are Portree or Oban close enough for accommodations? Or anywhere else better recommended along the trail.
After reading these replies and watching a few you tube sites regarding the island of Skye, I’m looking to book a Rabbie’s tour but believe three days and nights on Skye may be too long given we only have eight days total. We want to explore the Highlands on another one day train tour, at least. We were told bookings for the well known
“Harry Potter” train tour won’t open up until October. Any suggestions for a one or two night tour on Syke would be appreciated. Also, any recommendations for lunch and dinner reservations in Edinburgh and accommodations in the area would be appreciated. I have Rick Steve’s Best of Scotland too, as a resource.
Thank you all in advance!

I meant to ask about Plockton not Portree in the Highlands.

Also, I do find a one day Rabbie’s tour of Skye & Eilean Donan Castle leaving from Inverness.
Would anyone recommend staying a night in Inverness or should we drive into the pick up location with the rental car from outside the city? We will likely be coming directly from our Speyside touring. Are there good options for day long parking in the Inverness area? I’ll also ask the Rabbie’s contact if they have a parking lot to recommend.
Thank you again in advance.

For visiting the Speyside distilleries you should stay in Speyside - around Dufftown and Arberlour would be convenient to the Knockadoo Woolen Mill and the Cooperage, if you plan to take their tour. Do you know what distilleries you might visit?

Oban and Plockton are on the opposite side of the country, much to far to be convenient for Speyside.

How many days will you have in Scotland? I think your trying to squeeze too many places in your 1 week.

Are Skye and the Jacobite train both must dos for you? You really need minimum 2 nights on Skye. And the Harry Potter train, the Jacobite train, usually only runs in the morning in April. This would require an overnight before your train trip. There is regular afternoon train service you could take roundtrip from Ft. William to Maillig. Same route, same view, regular train cars (and cheaper).

Since you have a car, consider the following:

• 1nt Edinburgh
• 2nt Speyside: distilleries, Mill
• 1nt Ft. William: Jacobite train
• 2nt Oban: take the 2 or 3 Island Westcoast Tour
• 1nt Edinburgh area before flight home

I'm suggesting this itinerary to keep driving to a minimum while still giving wonderful scenery, nature, no backtracking, gives you the train and both Highlands and islands.

Here's the link for Westcoast Tours to see what's offered. Mull and Iona are beautiful and provide a lovely day's outing.

Hello,
Thank you for your post Jean. No doubt you are correct and we need to reduce our outings to better fit our seven nights in Scotland. The Skye excursion will have to wait till a next trip. The train ride is still in but on the regular train (thank you for that suggestion!).
We are booked into Edinburgh for 2 nights to give ourselves a full day and a half for sightseeing after our noontime arrival on a Wednesday. We’ll pick up our rental car and drive north on Thursday morning. We are booked into a recommended BandB in Pitlochry for the next 4 nights.
We’ve been surprised how most recommended accommodations, in Edinburgh and the smaller towns, were already booked even 9 months in advance. Knowing that, we decided it would be wiser to drive a bit further than we may prefer, such as a day trip to Oban, than to risk not having nightly accommodation. My husband is looking forward to finding some of the less world known scotch distillers and I’m happy to go along to watch the scenery and local offerings for the next 2 days. Then one day to and from Oban and half a day for the train or do the island outing you recommended. The last full day will be the drive back to our Edinburgh accommodation for our next day’s early morning flight.
Any suggestions, dining or must see location recommendations, or reality checks are greatly appreciated.

That is a crazy idea to be doing Fort William and Oban from Pitlochry. Quite bluntly places are not booked out 9 months ahead of time, especially in Fort William and Oban.

Far more likely they haven't opened their booking calendars for next year.

Doing this long distance commuting you haven't got the time to do exactly what you want to do, seeing other things.
You have lost the flexibility and the whole point of having a car as opposed to using public transport which would have worked well for your current itinerary.
Fort William is 2 hours drive each way from Pitlochry. So you don't get back from Mallaig until about 8pm, having left at 9am. That is on the service train.
Oban is 2 hours 30 each way, and you have to collect your tickets before sailing, and find parking.
The 3 isles tour is from 0925 to 2015. Mull and Iona 0925 to 1755.

So you leave Pitlochry no later than 0600, and get back at 2100 or 2300 if lucky.
You have missed the coastal drive from Fort William to Oban, missed all there is on either the drive or train ride back from Oban to Glasgow/Edinburgh.

With only one possible day to do the trips from Oban, it would be bad luck but not massively unusual to find the ships cancelled due to bad weather.

Less of a problem if you had stayed at Fort William the day before Mallaig, taken the breakfast time train to Mallaig, then transferred to Mull for the tour next day, then going back to GLA or EDI. But even then you would need to allow a buffer day before flying home to allow for ferry issues due to weather.
I just don't accept that in mid April nowhere is available on Mull, as and when booking calendars are opened.

Just doing the Fort William to Mallaig train you have actually missed the best bits of the West Highland line, which are east of Fort William.