Trip to Scottish Highlands

Arbiter of Good Taste

Myself and my OH are planning 8-10 days in the Scottish Highlands in October. We want to drive up to Belfast and take the ferry across to Cairnryan.

I did some research last night and put together the bones of the first draft of a plan.

Arrive Cairnryan and drive to Ayr - 1 night
Ayr to Loch Lomond - 1 night
Loch Lomond to Fort William - 1 night
Fort William to Skye - 2 nights
Sky to Fort Augustus - 1 night
Fort Augustus - Stirling - 1 night
Stirling to Ayr - 1 night
Ayr - Cairnryn - ferry to Belfast

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Are there any "must sees" that I've missed out?
Is there anything on that itinerary we should just skip?
Is there any places that we should stay longer? etc, etc.
Is there anywhere closer to Cairnryan that's nice that we should stay on our last night instead of Ayr?

Any comments of criticisms appreciated.

Thanks

Madam

I think you've more or less covered everthing but why would you want to spend another night in Ayr(imo nothing much to do there and its a boring oul place to be stuck in)? Enjoy - October in the Highlands can be really spectacular:)

Arbiter of Good Taste

Madam wrote: »

I think you've more or less covered everthing but why would you want to spend another night in Ayr(imo nothing much to do there and its a boring oul place to be stuck in)? Enjoy - October in the Highlands can be really spectacular:)

Thanks so much!

The second night in Ayr is just so that we are reasonably close to Cairnryan.

We are now half thinking of biting the bullet and just going straight up to Loch Lomond from Cairnryan and just stopping at Ayr on the way back.

pjproby

I wonder if you would consider posting a review on your hols - places to visit , restaurants and accommodation etc when you get back as I would love do do a similar trip soon and would love to hear your recs. Hope you have a lovely time.

Narsil

We did an 11 night driving tour of Scotland back in 2010. Our itinerary was:

-Ferry to Troon

-Drove to Loch Lomond and spent a few hours there.

-Drove onto Fort William where we camped for 2 days. We took a ferry trip from Oban to connect with a tour going to the islands of Staffa and Iona. Highly recommend this if the weather is good, Staffa and Iona are beautiful!

-Onto Skye for 2 nights camping up by Dunvegan castle. Definitely the highlight was Eilean Donan Castle, postcard worthy! Also, great restaurant in Portree called Harbour View, amazing fresh fish.

-We left Skye and drove 5 1/2 hours up to the top of Scotland to get the ferry to Orkney for 2 nights. This was by far our most favourite part of our trip. Orkney is starkly beautiful, full of amazing history and lovely people. We stayed in the Ashleigh B&B and this was the most amazing B&b we've ever stayed in!!

-After Orkney we drove to Inverness/Loch Ness and stayed in a B&B in Loch Ness for one night and Inverness for the next night. Inverness seemed nice and there is a dolphin watching hut near the bridge to view the river dolphins. Also, Culloden battlefield was a great experience and Cawdor castle nearby was fab too

-Then we went onto camp for 2 nights in Blair Atholl which was the perfect place to discover Glamis castle, Scone palace, Blair castle, Pitlochry village etc.

-We made an unintended detour on our last day to Caerlaverock castle in Dumfries before spending our last night in Troon for the ferry.

The surprising thing about Scotland is the road network is so good you can cram way more in than you think. We wanted to see loads of castles and ended up doing a Macbeth tour of Scotland visiting all the places named (Cawdor/Glamis/Dunsinane/Birnam wood)!! I personally wouldn't bother wasting a night in Ayr when you could go to Inverness area/Orkney instead

I'm just a little obsessed with Scotland and have also been to Stirling on a separate trip too so if you have any questions please PM me

pjproby

Thanks very much for all the info. very helpful.

Arbiter of Good Taste

Narsil wrote: »

We did an 11 night driving tour of Scotland back in 2010. Our itinerary was:

-Ferry to Troon

-Drove to Loch Lomond and spent a few hours there.

-Drove onto Fort William where we camped for 2 days. We took a ferry trip from Oban to connect with a tour going to the islands of Staffa and Iona. Highly recommend this if the weather is good, Staffa and Iona are beautiful!

-Onto Skye for 2 nights camping up by Dunvegan castle. Definitely the highlight was Eilean Donan Castle, postcard worthy! Also, great restaurant in Portree called Harbour View, amazing fresh fish.

-We left Skye and drove 5 1/2 hours up to the top of Scotland to get the ferry to Orkney for 2 nights. This was by far our most favourite part of our trip. Orkney is starkly beautiful, full of amazing history and lovely people. We stayed in the Ashleigh B&B and this was the most amazing B&b we've ever stayed in!!

-After Orkney we drove to Inverness/Loch Ness and stayed in a B&B in Loch Ness for one night and Inverness for the next night. Inverness seemed nice and there is a dolphin watching hut near the bridge to view the river dolphins. Also, Culloden battlefield was a great experience and Cawdor castle nearby was fab too

-Then we went onto camp for 2 nights in Blair Atholl which was the perfect place to discover Glamis castle, Scone palace, Blair castle, Pitlochry village etc.

-We made an unintended detour on our last day to Caerlaverock castle in Dumfries before spending our last night in Troon for the ferry.

The surprising thing about Scotland is the road network is so good you can cram way more in than you think. We wanted to see loads of castles and ended up doing a Macbeth tour of Scotland visiting all the places named (Cawdor/Glamis/Dunsinane/Birnam wood)!! I personally wouldn't bother wasting a night in Ayr when you could go to Inverness area/Orkney instead

I'm just a little obsessed with Scotland and have also been to Stirling on a separate trip too so if you have any questions please PM me

Thanks so much. I may need to reconsider a few things now. I think we'll book our ferry and then just work from there.

I did check the Troon ferries a few weeks ago and unfortunately they stop for winter the previous week. That would have been a bit handier. Oh well

Narsil

When we overnighted in Troon to get the ferry home a storm brewed overnight and the Troon ferry was cancelled. We had to drive down to Cairnryan to get that ferry home and I don't remembering it being much of a drive so I think either ferry is grand!