pamp@bcsaic.UUCP (pam pincha) (08/30/85)
I'm in the middle of planning our honeymoon to Britian the end of September.We are staying in London first, then taking the train to Inverness,Scotland.We are picking up a car there and would like to drive to what we can in three days. Any suggestions as to what is a good route and what sites might be of interest? (We prefer country activities to big cities.Castles and such are also of interest.) Thanks in advance, Pam Pincha
clewis@mnetor.UUCP (Chris Lewis) (09/03/85)
In article <253@bcsaic.UUCP> pamp@bcsaic.UUCP (pam pincha) writes: >I'm in the middle of planning our honeymoon to Britian >the end of September.We are staying in London first, >then taking the train to Inverness,Scotland.We are picking >up a car there and would like to drive to what we can >in three days. Too bad you didn't arrange to pick up your car a little bit farther south and have some more time. We did approximately the same thing for our honeymoon, last Oct., that you are going to do, except that we took the train to Chester and had 3 weeks to drive around. Anybody want to see our itinerary? We got an awful lot in (Wales, southern/central England, and Scotland). >Any suggestions as to what is a good route and what sites >might be of interest? (We prefer country activities to >big cities.Castles and such are also of interest.) This is what we did, you could reverse the direction. We circled from Edinburgh up to Inverness via a easterly route - Craigievar castle, Braemar, the Cairn Gorms Mountain range - is quite nice to drive thru - had snow when we were there, stayed the night in Inverness then west along Loch Ness (we saw Nessie at least three times! :-) (AVOID the Loch Ness museums!) and south - another mountain range, Ben Nevis, Pitlochry (old town and dam. The Blair Athol Palace is quite a spectacular hotel), Blair Castle, Balmoral, Firth bridge, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, the Edinburgh Crystal factory (really neat! They have tours every day), and the following day - Sterling Castle. It took us 3 days or so. Check ahead of time at some of the Castles. Some are likely to be closed after Sept 15. If you had some more time, there's lots more interesting things to see around the Edinburgh area - Tantallon Castle (one of the most spectacular of the 25 or so that we saw), Jedburgh Abbey, and York/Yorkminster (sigh...) - though somewhat farther away etc. etc. etc. (BTW: Edinburgh Castle has Mons Meg, the 18 inch canon used on Tantallon - made quite a mess, but the defenders still managed to hold out until many years later and Cromwell). Make sure that you start early each day. Night falls early that time of year and it's not too terribly exciting to see such things in the dark. Next time we go, we're going to go farther north than Inverness. But it's going to be in the summer not October! Actually, my wife and I rather disliked Inverness for several reasons. One of which were their traffic signs. We arrived late, and were kinda tired and looking for a place to stay. "Hey, there's a Hilton sign! Let's follow them." Half an hour later, the signs led us to a hospital. The following day we were trying to see a couple of things before leaving, and a Forest Ranger (we were trying to find an Iron-age hill fort from a Inverness-published map, and we asked him where it was. He had never heard or seen of it (in spite of the fact that he was based within the black dot that was supposed to be it) told us to go take a look at Craig Phedraig - another Iron-age hill fort. So, like the naive tourists we were, we thought the "Craig Phedraig" signs led the way to it. Nope. Another hospital - another two hours wasted. I could make a snarky remark about the Scots being too cheap to put an extra word on their signs but I won't. :-) No, because my wife and I really loved the rest of Scotland AND the people. We wished we had more time. -- Chris Lewis, UUCP: {allegra, linus, ihnp4}!utzoo!mnetor!clewis BELL: (416)-475-8980 ext. 321
jj@alice.UUCP (09/03/85)
Well, we went to Scotland in July of this year. We've been planning to put up a trip report, but we've been too busy giving slide shows... In any case, the area around Inverness (that's inverNESS :-) is pretty nice. You can wander through the great glen (it's a good day's cruise, on some typical Scottish roads, half of them single track with passing spaces...). Near Inverness is Castle Cawdor, which is sort (hack, cough) of commercial, it's got a parking lot damn near as big as Edinburgh castle :-(, and Fort George (or is it william?) On the road to Cawdor is another Castle that's still a residence, it's open some times. If you head south (Stirling, Dunblaine, Doune), there are two nice castles. Doune is an abondoned castle that's been taken over by the Friends of Scottish monuments, and you can peruse all the parts that aren't collapsing, which is mostof the castle. Stirling is still in use (Stirling castle, that is), but is sort of nice, and bigger than Doune (but you can't wander about freely). Dunblaine isn't much of anything, except for a good B&B, called Birchcrest (or Birchwood). (Mrs. Peggie is the owner. Tell her that the Johnstons said hello.) Be nice to them. Inverness itself is sort of grubby, by Scottish standards, or so we thought. There is a Scottish Castle Map, made by someone or other, maybe I'll post who tonight, that is useful in finding castles. There are lots, of various sorts, around Inverness. In general, if you want to see a castle or two, see Doune. If you want to see scenery, head west from Doune, pass the FIRST woolen mill and stop at the second, (if you want to look at good woolens) stop at the waterfalls. (now that's class 6 water, guys. I think the only way to do that rapids is on belay :-) Head north from there to the middle of the great Glen, and come up around Loch Ness. Remember, Scotland is smaller than you think. Drive carefully, and PASS ON THE RIGHT, stay to the LEFT! There's lots of other nice places to go, of course, I can only vouch for what we've seen. Enjoy. The day will be rather short late in the year, you'll want to do some of the travelling in the dark, I think. -- SUPPORT SECULAR TEDDY-BEAR-ISM. "These affairs are simply rotten, better far is WOAD." (ihnp4/allegra)!alice!jj
darryl@ISM780.UUCP (09/04/85)
In Dunnfield (I think!) is the Glenfiddich Distillery. I don't know your tastes, but I certainly enjoyed the tour (and the hospitality room afterwards!). In fact, there is a road marked as the distillery trail which leads to a number of single malt distilleries. --Darryl Richman, INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. ...!cca!ima!ism780!darryl The views expressed above are my opinions only.
thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas) (09/12/85)
In article <36600008@ISM780.UUCP> darryl@ISM780.UUCP writes: >In Dunnfield (I think!) is the Glenfiddich Distillery. It's actually Dufftown. It's on the "whisky trail", a route laid out by the British Auto Club (or is it RAC?). You can get a good map showing the locations of all the distilleries that have tours (a fair number, to be sure!) I bought my copy at the tourist information center in Edinburgh, while waiting for them to come up with our B&B reservations in Dufftown. We used the tourist bureau room booking service all over Europe, and were always able to get a pleasant room at a good price. We didn't reserve ahead for anything except our first night in London (nice to stumble off the plane and know you have a room waiting). We did try to make sure and get into town early (for example, by taking a night train), so the selection was still good. I imagine, though, that had we been in Edinburgh during festival (we missed it by 2 days), that the situation might have been different. -- =Spencer ({ihnp4,decvax}!utah-cs!thomas, thomas@utah-cs.ARPA) "The difference between reality and unreality is that reality has so little to recommend it." -- Allan Sherman
rchrd@well.UUCP (rchrd = Richard Friedman) (09/16/85)
When you get to Britain, look for the series of FARM HOLIDAY GUIDES.
These are available for England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
THey list farms that operate guest houses. MOst are very cheap
and small (only a few bedrooms) but feature real farm breakfasts
and sometimes dinner. They are usually located off the beaten
track, and you get to meet the locals.
I've always used them when travelling in Scotland and Ireland
and they've never failed to result in very memorable experiences.
However, if you are expecting Holiday Inn type accomodations,
look elsewhere.
--
[rchrd] = Richard Friedman
Pacific-Sierra Research, 2855 Telegraph #415
Berkeley, CA 94705 (415) 540 5216
UUCP: {dual,hplabs,ptsfa,apple}!well!rchrd