Scotland itinerary

I suggest your private message Pamela. She loves to drive the 'wee roads' of Scotland. She can probably give you realistic drive times- remember many roads in Scotland are truly 'wee'- some are still single lane. Have you checked about picking up the car in York and dropping in Scotland? Is there an extra fee- and do you know what it is?

Checkout, dalbeattie area including rockcliffe and kirkcudbridge. Arty area with lots painters overs the years and little potteries. Also, when you are in lockerbie, you'll need to go to the lockerbie pam am disaster memorial. S

Prior to our stop in York, we will be with friends in the Stonehenge area for a week. We hope to rent a car in Bath, then head north to York. We've found several car rental companies with offices in Bath and the Edinburgh area, Alamo, National, Hertz. Is one better than another? We're not sure of the rental cost, but we think a car would best fit our needs. We're stopping overnight in Lockerbie because we plan on sightseeing between York and that city.
Hopefully, the drive between Lockerbie and Oban is doable in a day.

What's the question? How long to make the drive? Are some of the places not worthwhile? Are there better places to see along the way? The magic wand says fifteen hours driving time just to touch Skye, maybe five or six more if you go all the way to Duntulm an back. There isn't much in the way of wee roads on this jaunt. Except for the Skye spur and the shot along the Caledonian it's all four-lane without a heck of a lot of traffic (maybe not for the first ten miles coming out of York, I can't picture that one). Lockerbie to Oban is three hours, again all four-lane.

Ed, Thanks for asking for clarification. I've spent weeks reading Rick Steves' Scotland book; reading the forums, etc. The more I read about Scotland, the more I knew I wanted to spend more than a few days there. Knowing we couldn't "see everything," otherwise, we'd be driving long days, and having a stressful trip, I decided to focus on three areas: Edinburgh, Skye, Inverness. My main reason for posting our itinerary is to get feedback. Have we planned wisely for our nightly stops? We don't necessarily want to drive "wee" roads. We would want to be on well-traveled roads. We mainly want to see the most popular/common sights in the Skye and Inverness areas. That's why I planned for 2 nights in those two locations. Don't know if we'd drive from Pitlochry via St Andrews to Edinburgh. Would that be doable? We plan to turn in the car when we reach Edinburgh.
Then, we'll either take the train or fly to the Heathrow area the day before we head home. Our decision will depend on cost and convenience. Would appreciate input on that also.

My wife and I made our first visit to Scotland last August, driving over 800 miles in 10 days! Edinburgh and Skye were absolute highlights we would visit both of those again. (The visit to Neist Point was worth the time it took! But don't take the walk to the lighthouse head up the hilll from the parking lot and you'll get great views) Didn't visit Oban, but if you're visiting Skye you might be able to skip Oban since you can get a similar experience on Skye (others who have actually visited Oban might disagree). Glencoe and Fort William are quite nice and very doable as you head out of or on to Skye. We also enjoyed stopping at the Glenfinnan viaduct (Harry Potter fans will recognize both Glencoe and the Glenfinnan viaduct). The "A" roads in Scotland are no problem. It's the "B" roads that are often very narrow and they're not just in the upper highlands. Some of the narrowest roads were on our way from Dundee to Aberfeldy. I'm not sure if Inverness is worth two nights, unless you want to spend a lot of time at Culloden and Loch Ness. St. Andrews is nice but unless you're into golf, can be skipped. The same with Glasgow. Loch Lomond is nice, but not as special as some other places. We regretted not spending more time in Stirling we only spent half a day there. The newly refurbished palace in Stirling Castle is very well done and Braveheart fans have to visit the Wallace Monument. Finally, in the lowlands you might want to consider Alloway/Ayr and the new Robert Burns museum. But my wife is a Burns, so maybe that was just kind of special for us. Let us know your interests (whisky, history, nature?) and you might get some more specific recommendations. Regardless, you'll have a great time!

I have to disagree.... Inverness is probably my favorite city in Scotland. 2 days is a very SHORT visist there. We've stayed as long as 5 nights. We did day trips (great Tourist Info office there) and that was after we'd visited several time before. You can explore the city, do a cruise on the firth, a cruise up Loch Ness with stops at Urquart Castle and Durmnadrochit, maybe a trip over to Aviemore and Mt. Caringorm, trip(s) to distilleries, go to Eliean Donan castle (though you might do that on the way to Skye), and lots, lots more.

Nowhere in scotland consists mainly 4 way highways except the main arterial routes. There are little roads everywhere ... I know
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Thank you so much for all your comments and suggestions. As a result of your responses, I'll probably tweak our itinerary a bit. I "wrote" an long response this morning, with 78 characters to spare, but when I hit "send" I got a message saying my reply could not be posted and it just vanished! So, I'll respond to individuals separately and see what happens. What are we interested in? We are both retired educators, love to delve into the history of the area to have a greater appreciation for what we see and experience; love scenic drives and vistas; husband is an avid photographer who is always in search of the perfect "photo op", love to eat where the locals eat. We chose to rent a car because we don't like to adhere to a strict schedule. We want the opportunity to linger longer at places that hold our interest. We want to stop to admire scenic vistas. Our downfall is we always want to know what is "around the next bend or over the next hill."
We tend to lose track of time. We just want to savor being in Scotland for 10 days.

Ron: Thanks for the the info on Neist Point. Where was your home base on Skye? What hotel or B & B did you stay at? Our granddaughter is HUGE Harry Potter fan. Would you recommend staying in Ft. Williams rather than Oban on our way north? We're skipping the Lowlands because I didn't think we had time to do both the Highlands and Lowlands. How was your experience in driving in Scotland? Toni: Thanks for your enthusiastic response for Inverness. We'll try to include the cruise on the Loch Ness. Where did you stay? Sandi: We'll have to add Stirling to our list. Your "day loop" of Inverness, Loch Ness, and Ft. Williams is just the kind of scenic drives we like. Our daughter loves Monty Python. We'll have to include Castle Doune for her. Thanks also for the tips for Edinburgh and York. We're staying in York three nights, so hopefully we'll be able to take in all the popular sights. And not being golfers, I think we'll skip St. Andrews. I originally included it because I thought it would be a picturesque college town.
Once again, I really appreciate all of your responses and suggestions.

I can't tell you how much my family LOVED Scotland last summer. We did a home base near Stirling, and did all day trips, as we had our teenagers with us, and needed bigger accommodations. We loved Edinburgh, do the "Mary King's Close" tour...really neat! We did day trips to St.Andrews (which was nice, but was for my golfer husband) and Stirling (twice - loved it). We also did a long day to Inverness, Loch Ness and Ft.William "loop", which turned out to be our favourite day- such amazing scenery! Oh..and if you are a Monty Python fan, don't miss Castle Doune! They even supply coconuts! We really enjoyed York, and used it as a halfway point from the Bath area to Scotland. Do a haunted hike -lots of history! You don't even have to book it, we just showed up, lots to pick from! In the Bath area, there is soooo much to do also. We did Bath (twice!), Stonehenge and Avebury (my boys loved that the goats are amongst the stones), Laccock Abbey (for HP fans), and some Cotswolds villages (LOVED). We also did Oxford and Blenheim, but not really our thing (a bit too over the top for us). Have a great trip...we LOVED the areas you are going.

We've stayed at the Royal Highland Hotel. It is attached to the train station and makes a good base. Just a short walk to the center of town, well located for a walk along the River Ness through town (nice after supper), near the Victorian Arcade for unique shops, not a bad walk to the bus station, and sometimes a pick up point for some tours (though most leave from the tourist info office).

On Skye we stayed at Cul na Creagan B&B (Just OK better choices out there) near Portree and at Homeleigh B&B (a good place with very nice hosts) in Ardvasar, very close to the Mallaig ferry. I highly recommend Lynver Guest House in Inverness it was the best B&B of our trip. Not sure which way you're heading so I can't really say whether Fort William is better than Oban (Oban is just a little out of the way if coming up past Loch Lomond, but not much). Ben Nevis is right at Fort William, so it might give more of a "highland" feel. We did things a little backwards from most folks starting in Edinburgh, then heading north to Stirling, St. Andrews, Inverness, over to Skye, and then back down via Ft. William and Loch Lomond to Glasgow. You might also want to look at B&B's near Glencoe. Look for the Clachaig Inn near Glencoe another Harry Potter movie site Hagrid's Hut scenes filmed there.

As for driving, expect two lanes and not four! The only four lane roads were right around and between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Everywhere else it's two lanes. Lots of single lane roads on Skye and we actually like that it kept the speeds down and you didn't have to worry as much about drifting too far left, particularly when other vehicles are coming at you. And with the sheep all over the place on Skye it was actually fun just plan on it taking you a long time to get anywhere. One other interesting note on driving you have to force yourself to use the rear view mirror. I mainly uses the two side mirrors never got the hang of looking up and left. If you head out to Neist Point (and you definitely should if you love vistas and photo ops), I would recommend eating at the Red Roof Cafe and Gallery in Glendale very small and local place with good food. We also ate at the Clachaig Inn and that was good (this can be a bit hard to find, but ask at the Glencoe Visitor's Center and they'll give you a good local map) Lastly, the Elephant House in Edinburgh is touristy, but your granddaughter will be envious that you visited it. Sounds strange, but take a camera into the bathroom people write all sorts of Harry Potter graffiti on the walls!

One more thing: make a quick stop by Castle Stalker on your way between Oban and Fort William. It's "Castle Aaaaaargghhh" from Monty Python -- the one at the end of Holy Grail. Worth a photo for your daughter.

'The only four lane roads were right around and between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Everywhere else it's two lanes.' The trips starts at York and is four-lane as far as Glasgow. So is the shot from Pitlochry to Edinburgh. That's about half of the planned drive. I noted the exceptions previously, but think I pictured Inverness to Pitlochry as being four-lane, but it might not be. I really screwed up Glasgow to Oban - - that's got to be two-lane.

Just double checked on Google Earth and it looks like much of the road from Pitlochry to Inverness is two lane. As I recall, it wasn't bad though - lots of shoulder room. Zooming in using Google Earth can really give you a good idea of what you're in for and I used Street View a lot (when available) for our B&B's and other stops because it gave me a good mental image of what to look for when we got into those areas.

Ron & Ed, Thank you for the valuable information. We have now committed to reservations at several locations, as well as reserving a car in Bath, England and making airline reservations to Heathrow. York: 3 nights Lockerbie: 1 night Oban: 1 night Glencoe/Ft. Williams 1 night Skye: 2 nights Inverness: 2 nights Pitlochry: 1 night
Edinburgh: 3 nights

I am a bit confuses as to why you are staying in Lockerbie. Is it just an overnight? I guess if you are looking for the fastest way from York to Scotland it would make some sense, but it strikes me as staying in Toledo on the way to Chicago from Pittsburgh. ; ) If it were me I would be exploring the border a bit more. It's only 2.5 hours per via Michelin from York to Lockerbie. And granted you need to allow more time as you're touring, but what do you plan to do once you get to Lockerbie. Personally, I would explore routes that let me look at Hadrian's Wall or to explore the Abbey's or check Hexham and the Debatable Lands. The Borders are an interesting area and it would be a shame to go sailing past them on an the M road. If it were me, I would push on to Fort William and spend two nights in this area. You can explore the Ardnamurchan area, or Glen Laggan (home of Monarch of the Glen) or just enjoy Glen Nevis. (BTW there is a lovely monument to the Commandos of WWII just north of Spean Bridge.) Pam

Carol- That's the place. We like to spend at least a night or 3 there when we can. LOTS to do and lovely area. Lots of GREAT distilleries, a local microbrewery, a steam train that goes along the Spey river, then Mt. Caringorm itself, the Rothemurchie estate has walks/hikes, too and cannoeing, horseback riding, etc. and you can easily get to Blair Atholl Castle, too. The hotel we like is the Caringorm Hotel- looks like a miniture castle outside and a hunting lodge inside and has THE BEST restaurant!!! The train station is cute, too- lots of Victorian 'gingerbread' trim - LOL!!! It is a good break between Edinburgh and Inverness when we travel by train.

Have to aregee with Pamela about Glen Laggan- beautiful area!!! Friends took us on a full day drive through the area. You can stop at the Heather Center or Reindeer preserve near Aviemore or even take the steam train for a lovley roundtrip view along the Spey River. Or go up Mt. Caringorm on the funicular for a break.

Pamela: Glad to have you onboard. Your name was mentioned days ago to pm you, but I didn't know who you were. I chose to overnight in Lockerbie because we were planning to drive Hadrian's Wall route and figured there'd be lots to tempt us to stop and linger. We could stop beyond Glasgow and then spend two nights in the Ft. Williams area rather than Oban. Our neighbors drove as far northwest as Oban years ago and she said it is a lovely area. I haven't made reservations between York and Inverness yet, so I'm open to suggestions. Toni: I looked up Mt. Caringorm (Is it spelled Cairngorm?) That's where my iPad map app took me) Lots of cars in the parking lot; walking/hiking path, visitor's center? We love places like that. Will stop there when we head out to Pitlochry from Inverness. Same for the Heather Center or Reindeer preserve near Aviemore. Hope we'll have time to stop there also.
Appreciate all your suggestions.

If you want to explore Hadrian'a Wall and the Borders look into staying in Melrose. You don't have to oe want to stay on the M roads. ; ) Pam