Would appreciate any and all suggestions for traveling the less traveled areas of especially the northern highlandswe'll have about a week, will likely travel from London and will need to get to Dublin (perhaps via Norhtern Ireland). Places to stay, sites to see, the usual Back Door interests. Gratefully...
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New York City, NY, USA
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Julianne, I have lately been staying in Fortrose on the Black Isle north of Inverness. We like it because we like The Anderson, and it's easy to travel west, north south and even east for our walks. If you want to hit the west coast primarily then you should consider Plockton, Gairloch, Ullapool, or the even more remote Applecross. On the north coast we spent one night in Durness, we didn't take the ferry / bus out to Cape Wrath and I wish we had. The Kyle of Tongue had a nice small hotel or two. Look these towns up on Undiscovered Scotland to see what you think of them. Another interesting area is Argyle. It's not Highlands, but it is small villages and you don't get a lot of American tourists. I stayed in Tarbert. Arran, the island not far from Glasgow is supposed to be the Highlands in miniature. It's on my list to visit. Then of course there are the island. I love the Orkney's and you won't find as many tourists there. It's a long way and I would recommend flying there from London via Edinburgh or take an overnight ferry from Aberdeen. You can return via Thurso and the train to Inverness where you could pick up a car and drive to the south east via the west coast. Other islands of course include Skye, but you will find lots of tourist there. Mull is beautiful and if you stay on the island you escape some of the tourists who generally come for the day. I hope that this gives you some ideas of where to start your exploration. Tell us a bit more about your interests and we can probably help further. Pam