Scotland Road Trip - Is there a better way?

Looks fine to me especially getting the car in Inverness.
Dont over worry about roundabouts it will feel more straight forward in person besides roundabouts in the Highlands are rare things after you leave the edge of Inverness I think you will only encounter one just as you exit the Skye bridge and not meet more until Fort William.
The cafe in Staffin is good its attached to the supermarket.
Try and spend some money at the Mackenzies store too ..lovely people run it.
I have friends at Breackrey so can recommend the short walk down to Brothers Point.
Good time to be travelling Skye will be busy enough but not utterly heaving .

No promises ,I was on Skye last April and saw the northern lights so you might want to sign up to aurora watch on Facebook or Glendale aurora site...you never know.

I think this sounds really well paced and definitely best to get the car in Inverness, from where it would be about 3.5 hours to your accommodation in Skye (if you didn't stop at all on the way), so you should have time to stop and take photos etc on the way. As you will already have seen Loch Ness I would recommend leaving Inverness via the 'northern route' - heading towards Ullapool before turning left at Garve and heading west towards Skye. Stop at the Midge Bite in Achnasheen for lunch (very informal little cafe).

You'll definitely have time to pause in Glencoe (don't miss Glen Etive just off the main A82 road) on the way to Doune. You'll see plenty of water on your trip so might not want to bother with Loch Lomond. If you turn left off the A85 at Killin you could see Loch Tay or alternatively you could see Loch Earn. Both lovely.

Eating in Skye. The Hungry Gull in Staffin gets good reviews. The Galley seafood cafe in Earlish is excellent. Also Amy's Place Tearoom in Torrin if you're headed to Elgol at all. The Old Inn in Carbost. The Edinbane Inn in Edinbane. Gasta in Portree. The Dunvegan or the Old School in Dunvegan. All good informal places. If you want fancy then Edinbane Lodge. The Lochbay. The Three Chimneys.

Do read up on driving in single track roads with passing places. You will encounter those!

I think you have quite sensibly figured out the parts for which you (definitely) do need a car, versus the parts where you can rely on trains / buses.

Some of these parts of Scotland are so remote that you indeed need a car. And their remoteness contributes handily to their beauty - i.e., they are well worth taking the trouble of getting to.

The trip looks wonderful. Loch Ness itself was actually prettier than I expected, Skye was stunning, and I wanted to move to Edinburgh. Yes a car would be the best way to get to some of those places on your list. But I'm sure you are more driving-confident than we were. It probably won't be scary for you. We loved Scotland, and want to return, but we did not like driving in Scotland at all and it led to a lot of stress. We did the train from London to Edinburgh, then rented a car for a kind of West Highland Way, Isle of Skye, and Inverness loop. Narrow roads, lanes, and roundabouts freaked us out. Never really got used to it for four days. Unfortunately we didn't learn our lesson and several years later had a very similar experience in Ireland. We now know to just use public transport/taxis/buses/ride share in Europe. But of course that does limit us to some extent, as far as off the beaten path.

This looks doable, even with a couple long driving days. Personally, I drove right past Loch Ness, there are much prettier lakes in Scotland, and I’m told the castle there is just a ruin. If you are going to do a guided day trip out of Inverness, see if you can find one that does Culloden, Clava Cairns, and Cawdor Castle. Though I’m told you can get to all of them via public transit, but I’m not sure how easy that would be.

Culloden you can get to by public transit (every 30 minutes from central Inverness), and Clava is not that far away on foot. But Cawdor only has a school bus service- open to the public, but runs at School times only.

Another in the " Loch Ness is a bit dull camp" the A82 relatively heavily trafficked as compared to the much quieter and beautiful Lochcarron route

Thanks, everyone! I will look into these route and food suggestions. I feel a little better about the driving time now....just hoping I'll get the hang of driving quickly. I know I will be a ball of stress about it until I actually do it.

One more (probably dumb) question regarding driving...especially in the remote areas where it's single lane roads. I've read that you don't want to follow too closely to vehicles in front of you because if someone is coming from the other direction, the person in front of you would go into the passing place, but then you would still be in the road....blocking the oncoming car. So, how do you prevent that? How much distance should you keep between the car in front of you so this doesn't happen?

Typically passing places can hold 3/4 cars even if a stream of traffic meets cars coming the other way it mostly works out as the ongoing cars pull adjacent to the first car in the passing place,halt, then the longer stream then passes them.
Passing places are close so really if you have eyes on the road you should have to reverse.Brit drivers have good road etiquette.
Inept motorhomes are the ones who can really bring things to a halt.

I agree with richard. Your biggest problem will be getting stuck behind a large camper van that that is slowly creeping along the road. Scottish drivers are very courteous, on the whole, and you should not have any problems. I spent 2 1/2 weeks driving throughout the Highlands and the Isles and never had any problems finding or using the passing places. After a day or so, it will come very naturally. :-)

Just remember, if the passing place is your left, you pull over, if it’s on your right, the other car pulls over. Every time you get behind the steering wheel say “stay to the left” three times out loud and by the end of the first day it will feel like you’ve always driven on the left.