Ireland / Scotland Itinerary Question

Rabbies.com has a whiskey tour. They leave from Ediburgh. Even if you don't take the tour, it could give you a good idea for a route.

The Glenmorangie place is just a couple miles west of the Edinburgh airport. If it's castles, you're nuts if you don't spend some time in Wales.

Jason, I don't have this fully thought out. These are more just broad ideas. So please don't take the as well-planned thoughts. But if you could fly from Ireland to either Inverness or Aberdeen in Scotland, then you'ld be right on the edge of Speyside, home to an unbelievable number of distilleries. And quite a few castles.

Looking at ViaMichelin (www.viamichelin.com) a drive from Dufftown, in the heart of Speyside, to Edinburgh takes about 3.5 hours. But you should add about 25% to ViaMichelin times. That's easily doable in one day. Or, after 2 days in Speyside, you could drive south to Pitlochry, then the next day to Edinburgh. Pitlochry is home to the Edradour and Blair Atholl distilleries. The Edradour tour doesn't provide a free sample at the end. But they have a GREAT tasting room with many unique whiskeys, some from distilleries that no
longer exist. Rather than inflate the cost of a drink like most bars, they pro-rate the cost, according to the cost of the entire bottle. So it's a great opportunity to sample a 300 pound (not dollar, pound) bottle of Scotch.

As to distilleries in Speyside, several come to mind quickly: Aberlour, Glenfarclas, Macallan.

As to castles, I found the Lonely Planet Scotland book to be a great resource. As to other distilleries, here's one of the best resources that I've found: http://www.scotchwhisky.net/

If you want to experience some gooooood whisky, try to get to Dalhwhinnie. It is not far from Aviemore and is doable from Inverensss. You can get there by bus or train from Aviemore. Several other Speyside distillereis are also "reachable" from there. As mentioned above, Dufftown has several- try Bellvinnie (my favorite single malt).

Thanks everyone! I can't find a direct flight to Inverness from Dublin that meets our timetable, but we'll rent a car and drive up there following the castle route. Next day hit the distilleries from our Inverness homebase. We like this option 'cause we can see the Loch / Culloden / Cawdor from there too. Next day drive back to Edinburgh to turn the car in.

Thanks again all!

Inverness is a good alternative base to Edinburgh for seeing Scotland. Cawdor Castle is a good. You can get to the Spey valley and those distilleries fairly easily from Inverness. If you're driving north from Edinburgh and are looking for some good castles, consider slipping off the A9 and checking out Blair Castle. It's very good. There are lots of pubs and clubs in Inverness. If you want a great place to have a pint outside, walk up behind the castle in Inverness and look for The Castle Tavern. If you want to hear some Scottish music check out
Hootenanny. There are two venue on the site.

BTW if you don't want to stop off at Blair Castle, you might look into taking the train north to Inverness and picking up the car there. It's a nice train ride.

Pam

Inverness is a great base! It is my favorite Scottish city. I also second Pamela's idea about the train- Scottish trains are wonderful- we NEVER drive in the UK! I also second the idea of Blair Castle.

I almost forgot. This being a "guy trip", you have to check out Doune Castle. This is the castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. http://www.scotlandthemovie.com/movies/mpdoune.html

Oh yes, Doune Castle is great. It's not far from Stirling. Pam