How much time to do London drive to Scotland?

I did a trip where I took the train to York and picked up a car and headed north after a brief stay in York. You can spend a lot of time doing this. I visited Howard House, Rievaulx Abbey, a little hike in the Dells, Celtic Christian Church, Durham Cathedral, Hexham and Hadrian's Wall (with a walk). I think veered back south again to the Lake District before heading north to the Borders where I saw The Hermitage and then stayed in Melrose checking out the abbey's for a couple of days. So, you see it could easily be a complete trip!

How much time it takes depends on your interests. A minimum could be to drive through a bit of the Dales, visit Durham, and Hadrian's Wall and then an Abbey and on to Edinburgh. I think I would take three days to do this, but others would do it faster or slower.

I would suggest that you use the route planner on Via Michelin http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm Bear in mind to add time for touring and driving more slowly than a commuter. ; ) Some people add a blanket 25% to their times others longer. But it's a great tool and will help you.

Pam

When are you going? It makes a big difference in daylight. In fall and early spring, it gets dark around 5ish. In summer, it gets dark around 10. Makes a big difference on sight-seeing times.
Car rental in York makes sense. Driving from London to Scotland (I have done this 3 times - slow learner!)takes two people. One to drive and one to navigate. Once close to York, driving becomes easier. Do not forget the bus system in UK. It is cheap and they have a lot of routes available, if price makes a difference. We traveled from London Heathrow to York for around 52 pounds -26 pounds each- for both of us. Booked ahead, the fares are around 29 pounds per person now. I tried doing the train but it was way too much for me. Took bus the last two trips to Scotland, where I got a car.

In Inverness-look at :
http://www.ardgarryguesthouse.co.uk/

We stayed there and service was wonderful.

Hopefully, you will do open jaw ticket and save a lot of backtracking.

It might be easier for you to take the train to York, enjoy it for a full day, then get your rental car and head up into Scotland. (Our plan for next summer).

Depending on what you want to see, you can zig-zag north from York over to the Lakes district, then head north towards Glasgow. If you have more time, head up towards Skye and Plockton, then through Glencoe up to Loch Ness and Inverness. From Inverness, you can take a (very long) day tour to the Orkneys. Then head back to Edinburgh.

If you have less time, head over towards Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.

From York, you could also head straight north, enjoying Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland castles and coastline, and the border abbeys before heading to Edinburgh. From Edinburgh, you can then either head north towards Inverness, Glencoe, Plockton, Skye, then fly home from Glasgow, or just head over to the Trossachs, Loch Lomond, Glasgow. To get a handle on driving times, try this site: theaa.co.uk. We have found their routes and drive times to be very accurate. I would allow three weeks to enjoy this trip with the Inverness-Glencoe-Plockton-Skye option. You could trim out 4-5 days by skipping either Inverness or Skye (but I wouldn't want to miss those areas.)

Just doing some research now to see if it will work for us, but our plan would be to go in May or June. We have a cruise planned out of Copenhagen for June 1st (although we really aren't cruise people, but it was cheap)so our land travel would be on either end of that.
The place in Inverness looks great!

We would like a slower, comfortable place, but also don't feel like we need to see all the sites. At this point I don't even know the sites so I guess I wouldn't be missing anything!

I've done London-Inverness, avoiding the motorways until north of Edinburgh and not stopping to explore along the way. That was a two-day trip, with an overnight very near the border of Scotland.

There are two passionate groups on this board- those who swear by driving and "taking the back roads so we can stop..." and us "train freeks". The train service in the UK is excellent. From London you could train up to York - stop for a day or two, then go to Edinburgh for a few days, then any of several "villages"- our favorite is Aviemore- for a few days, then train to Inverness. You could also do more very easily. We find that gas is unbelieveably expensive, parking is hard to come by and also very expensive, and in the cities, and even some of the towns, traffic is AWFUL. We've been able to get where we want by train or bus and do day trips to places we want to see with tour companies or bus/train and walking. Why bother learning to shift AND drive on the other side of the road, have to navigate, etc. On the train I can relax and look at the scenery, rest, sketch and my husband can listen to his music while he watches the view- he has even taken some very good pictures out the train window. We use BritRail passes so we can have flexibility.