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Scotland in December/January

Posted by (Washington, DC) on

Hello! My husband and I are planning a trip to Scotland for 10 days between Christmas and New Years. We will be flying into Glasgow and spending a night in Glencoe before heading to our main base in Falkland (free lodging because of a friend of a friend, otherwise not my first choice of location) and then Edinburgh for New Years Eve. We will have a rental car but have never driven in the UK before (although we did drive through rural Italy last summer). I have a few questions for the Scotland veterans:

  1. With the weather being what it will be, is it advisable to try and island hop from Mull to Iona after our night in Glencoe? Would we have time to do this and then make it to Falkland for the night? Or should we be satisfied with sticking to Oban and having the light to see the scenery on our drive East to Falkland? We also want to be able to take in Glencoe for a bit in the morning, since we have splurged on a very nice hotel and want to enjoy it.

  2. While based in Falkland, we want to take a day to drive and see the Culloden Battlefield and Clava Cairns, and then hit a few Speyside distilleries before we return (my husband is a scotch fanatic). Do you think this is too much to fit in one day? It is worth the drive to see Culloden (the visitors center will not be open, but we will be able to see the graves of the clans--which includes my family) and Clava Cairns? Does anyone have a route that would be better than others? I am not looking for the most scenic route or with places to stop, just make it to the above locations and back to Falkland with enough time to enjoy ourselves (I have been in the Loch Ness area before).

  3. In the winter, is it worth seeing some of the seaside towns in Fife (St Monans, Elie and Earlsferry, etc) or do they mostly shut down during this season?

Thank you so much for the help!

Posted by
1642 posts

I would seriously recommended you reconsider your plans. Snow can close the main road up to Inverness, the ferries do not run on 25th Dec or 1st Jan with a limited schedule on the following days. You would also need to plan visits carefully as most NTS and Historic Scotland sites close over the winter months. If this time of year is plan, I would stick to Fire, Dundee and the central belt, even then being prepared for disruption.

Posted by
2639 posts

I would agrre with MC,you really have little chance of doing what you are considering,also you will have at best around 7 hours of daylight at that tiem of year.
are you intending to overnight in Edinburgh?

Posted by
1819 posts

Scotland is our favorite country to visit and we have been there many times. The only places I would even consider in winter are the larger cities. Check out weatherbase.com and you will see what the average weather and day lengths are.

Posted by
1448 posts

Scotland is at the same latitude as the Southern part of Alaska. You have limited day light hours. Take the advice of most that you should enjoy the festivities of the bigger towns and cities. Chances are that the ferries may cancel runs to the islands if the seas get stormy. Some of the inns and sites are shuttered for the winter season. Culloden will be a boggy field if it is not under snow. Check on line for places that have special holiday activities. Check Visit Scotland and the World Heritage sites. Good Luck from me: Clan Ogilvy. My Husband is Clan Campbell but we don't talk about that!

Posted by
7 posts

Thank you for the replies! I have done lots of research on what places will be open and how much daylight we will have. We are primarily there for Hogmanay in Edinburgh, which explains the timing. We will be spending one night there, for New Year's Eve. The rest of the time we will be in Falkland since it is the free lodging that is making this trip possible.

I appreciate the advice about the ferries; they have not posted a schedule online for winter yet, so I did not have a way to know what that piece would be like. I think we will stay in Oban and enjoy a whisky tasting there instead of braving the ferries.

I had read many other places that the weather was unpredictable but severe snow storms that shut down roads are fairly rare, and that the Gulf Stream kept things milder than the longitude would otherwise suggest. My understanding was to expect more rain than snow. Being originally from Canada, perhaps I am also braver about snow than others, however please correct me if I have come to the wrong conclusion.

Is the A9 north to the Speyside region often closed in the winter? Is a closure something that we can check before we hit the road? Perhaps we can hope for the best, make a plan, but stay flexible if the roads don't allow us to make our way north.

Posted by
1650 posts

I was wishing for a parka, hat and gloves at the end of May.

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