Scottish Roadtrip recomendations

[tom_loughlin]

Hi All,

On Sunday I am heading off on a bit of a road trip with my other half, my brother and his mrs.

We decided on Scotland a while ago, and wondered if anyone has any suggestions of places we must see/amazing roads?

The plan is to leave my brothers place early Monday, and to return on Friday.

So far, the route includes:
Loch Lomand - Fort William road, with an overnight stay on Oban.
Head over to Skye., back to Pitlochry,
then Stirling and home.

If anyone had any suggestions/places to stay/scenic roads/nice places to eat that we simply must do whilst there, please let me know.

It is our first time in Scotland, so want to make it a memorable trip.

Once I've plotted the rough route on Google, I'll upload it here for suggestions

Cheers

Tom

[L1OFF]

I'm doing similar in the tvr in September. My itinery will be
Drive to Oxford (over night stay)
Then to fort William
Mallaig by steam train return
Fort William for the day
Drive back to Buxton day /night
Drive back to Somerset

Looking forward to it.

[DeeElle]

We went for our first visit in March, thought the A82 was a tremendous road due to its variety. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. If you can, its definitely worth a stop off at the commando memorial just outside of Fort William.

[Escort3500]

Great routes you've chosen. There are also a good number posted on the 'Roads' thread.

[Allyc85]

26 pages of inspiration here..

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Enjoy

[-Ad-]

If you have time, drive the Lochleven loop and stop at Glen Coe for lunch. Amazing road to drive and a cracking place to stop!

Another good drive is the Road to Dunvegan on Skye (A863)

[tom_loughlin]

That was a quick pile of responses!

Here is the my planned route so far:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=20934107609...

[ch108]

Northwest coast round the Wester-ross area has some good and fairly empty roads.

[pboyd]

Fail
Missing lots of cracking roads

[delboy735]

You can't possibly go that far and not do "Applecross pass" ...........can you ??
The further North you get, the better the roads and scenery.....just ask GetCarter !!!

[skelters]

It's Lomond as in Loch Lomond.

[bencollins4]

You can't miss out the A82 from Tyndrum to Glen Coe over Rannoch Moor - it's an epic stretch of road. Great views and visibility and very quiet traffic-wise.

[delboy735]

If you can fit it in, get yourself up past Ullapool, over the Kylescu Bridge, then take the loop and back down to Lairg....the last stretch, approx 35 miles of single track road...think when we did it, we saw only one other car on that stretch !!!

[sjabrown]

Couple of suggested changes to your google maps route:
Day 2, instead of crossing the Ballachulish Bridge go round Loch Leven via Kinlochleven. That'll cover the 'scotsburgring'.
Day 3, I'd include the Applecross loop and drop the loop from Kinlochewe round Loch Ewe - cut right to Achnasheen instead. Take your time and stay further north than Pitlochry - the A9 from Inverness down to Pitlochry is dull and a 50mph queue. Maybe stay in Grantown on Spey and to get there go Inverness-Nairn-Dava-Grantown.
Change Day 4 to start Grantown, then Tomintoul, Ballater, Braemar and south.

if oyu do keep the same overnight stops then on day 4 go further into the Trossachs. The bit from Callander to Bridge of Allan/A9 means you miss the Duke's Pass via Aberfoyle.

[sjabrown]

And watch any 30 and 40 zones for speed guns. A82 across Rannoch Moor (not on your current route) is rife for speed vans at the moment.

[tom_loughlin]

Thank you all for your suggestions....

I have updated the route now to include the Applecross loop :-) as well as other suggestions.

The reason for Pitlochry was that I need to get to Newcastle the following day, and tried to even days out as much as possible.

Is the A82 from Tyndrum to Glen Coe better than the A828 coast road I have planned?

Thanks again for all your help - will make sure Ems takes her proper camera :-)

Ems thinks I'm strange plotting a route with a load if internet people I haven't met - she just doesn't understand. She will do though when she sees how giddy I get peering down the nose of the cerb with some of the (hopefully) finest roads the UK can throw at us!


And thanks for the speed cam warnings sjabrown... Thought you would be safe (relatively speaking).

Edited by tom_loughlin on Friday 24th May 20:54

[tom_loughlin]

Thank you all for your suggestions....

I have updated the route now to include the Applecross loop :-) as well as other suggestions.

The reason for Pitlochry was that I need to get to Newcastle the following day, and tried to even days out as much as possible.

Is the A82 from Tyndrum to Glen Coe better than the A828 coast road I have planned?

Thanks again for all your help - will make sure Ems takes her proper camera :-)

Ems thinks I'm strange plotting a route with a load if internet people I haven't met - she just doesn't understand. She will do though when she sees how giddy I get peering down the nose of the cerb with some of the (hopefully) finest roads the UK can throw at us!


And thanks for the speed cam warnings sjabrown... Thought you would be safe (relatively speaking).

Edited by tom_loughlin on Friday 24th May 20:57

[rallycross]

Applecross pass is a must.
If going back to Newcastle take A68 via Jedborough some great corners in the hills .

[rallycross]

You must include the apple cross route!

If going back to Newcastle take A68 Edinburgh via Jedborough past Keilder into Newcaslte great road some great corners up in those hills and plenty of safe overtaking spots.

[sjabrown]

The coast road from Oban to Ballachulish is great itself - lovely view of Castle Stalker and a nice cafe half way up. I do that as a commute about once per week. Quite quiet too. Hugs the coast.