Scotland Route/Itinerary Advice and Suggestions Requested.

You have worked hard on this itinerary, congrats! Seems to me that the golf should happen at St Andrews- legendary at the very least! Thank you on the route from Dublin to Glasgow, sounds perfect and scenic. You'll have a grand time!

You have a nice amount of time! You have quite a few options.

I think if I were you I would head straight for the Fort William area. I would go via Glencoe and maybe stop at the visitor center. You can easily be in Fort William by lunch time. There are lots of walks you can do in that area. I thought that Glen Nevis was particularly beautiful. I drove all the way and just had a wander near the river. Have you found Walk Highlands? Here are their walks. Neptune's Staircase is right outside of Fort William so you could stop and see it depending on how much walking you want to do. (BTW in Scotland Walking = Hiking.) I think I would spend the night in this area either in Fort William or Spean Bridge.

From here you've got a couple of different ways that you could go. One would be to drive past Glenfinnan, see the viaduct and where Prince Charlie landed, and take the ferry at Mallaig. Or you could go up through the great Glen and then west to Kyle of Lochalsh. (No matter which way you go, I recommend that you detour a little way up the A82 to see the Commando's Monument and the gorgeous view of Ben Nevis.) If you take the Great Glen way, you might want to take a little side trip to see Glen Garry. It's beautiful and no on is there! There's a drover's trail at the end, but I have never walked it. This will be about a three hour drive. Here's a viamichelin for the Great Glen route. Here's the Mallaig route. They appear to be about the same amount of time, but notice that they have not allocated any waiting time for the ferry....it's as if you arrive, roll on the ferry and roll off with no lines or waiting. My experience is that you need to be in line for a ferry at least a half before departure.

I've got you going to Portree. You don't have to stay in Portree. It is centrally located. And if I were you I would stay on Skye at least two nights. There are so many walks. A longer walk is one that takes you up into the Cuillins--but not rugged--so that you can see Loch Coruisk.

There are so many choices that it's hard to decide where to send you! My favorite places include Applecross and Torridon, Gairloch with Loch Maree, and Ullapool. Here's a crazy ViaMichelin that includes them all. I would suggest that you look at these places on Walk Highlands and on Undiscovered Scotland. If I were you I would spend a couple of days in the West. Ullapool is one of my favorites. BTW back on Skye if you like peaty whisky visit Talisker.

There are other places for lovely walks. If you want a long circle walk in a beautiful Glen head to Glen Affric. It's north of Loch Ness.

If you do all this, you're down to only three more days and while I've gotten you to Inverness, I didn't get you to Loch Ness, so you would need a half day to zip down to Drumnadrochit And I've not found you much art. (Well you will find some interesting galleries in Edinburgh.) Hootenanny is a great place in Inverness for music. There is also a put I like that is right behind the castle. You can sit outside and enjoy your ale. I would recommend seeing Culloden and Clava Cairns. You could do that on your way out of town to Speyside. I've not spent time Speyside. I love whisky, but I haven't felt the urge to tour the distilleries.

Other options for your time would be to head to Aviemore and do some more walking on the Rothiemurchus Estate that is in the Cairngorms. Or you could choose to head for Perthshire and spend a couple of days in either Aberfeldy, Dunkeld or Pitlochry. One of my favorite pubs is in Dunkeld--The Taybank--they have lots of live music. There are walks in all three places. Aberfeldy also has the Cranog Centre, and Glen Lyon. Pitlochry has the Explorer's Garden, the Festival Theatre, which can be good, and two distilleries. Or you could head over to Deeside and explore castles and work your way south that way. There are some good galleries in that area as well as more stone circles.

I think that gives you some things to think about. :)

Pam

Ack! I forgot the golf. Of course you can go to St. Andrew's but from all I've read it's a bit tricky getting on it and it will take you out of your way. It might be more fun to go really local. Here's a link to golf courses in the Northwest of Scotland. Gairloch looks pretty good to me! At least you would have wonderful views while golfing! Here's another link for courses nearer to Inverness.

And I also didn't have a castle for you. There are lots of castles to visit and there are sites to help you find one to stay at. The only one I've stayed at was down in Argyll so not on your route at all. Here's Celtic Castles list. Here's another. And one more. They are going to overlap.

In general, the big cities are the places for art and architecture. I thought the Book of Kells was well worth the visit in Dublin. We also really enjoyed seeing the high crosses at Monasterboice and going to Newgrange, even though the weather was typical for the October we were there -- cold and rainy. We also enjoyed the Rebel Walking Tour in Dublin. Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, so it could be very special.

I hope you are planning to visit some of the Mackintosh buildings in Glasgow and the art collections inside some of them on your one day there.

We did the Rail and Sail the opposite direction. The whole process took the better part of a day. So counting the waiting between each of the steps, you should consider that to be a travel day by the time you check out of your hotel, get to the port in Belfast, sail, get off the ship and on the train, get to Glasgow and check in at your hotel.

I notice that you have no indication of how you are getting back from Edinburgh to Dublin to fly home. Are you flying?

Sometimes the logistics determine where you will go and when, so as you are planning, keep that in mind.

If you have not purchased plane tickets yet, think about flying out of Edinburgh, just to save yourself that travel day. We did the same loop you are planning (Glasgow to Edinburgh) in 16 days, and wished we had more time. We flew into Glasgow and out of Edinburgh. We found that having at least 2 nights in each place was really a must if you want to do any hiking, golfing, etc. Otherwise you just feel like you are driving and unpacking the whole time. Travel takes longer than you expect, and many of the roads are very small, especially on Skye. You definitely need to be at the ferry in Mallaig at least 30 min early, more if you plan to get any food in town. We really enjoyed Oban. It is pretty and the seafood is amazing (the Fish House was our fav). The Oban distillery was good and they give you whisky glasses at the end of your tour :)

A word of advice when booking accommodations: the blood alcohol limit in Scotland is now very low. Do not plan to have drinks (even 2 beers is too much) and then drive to your hotel or B&B. Walk or take a cab or one of you will have to be the DD.