Planning a road trip to Orkney

[LarJammer]

I have visited lots of lovely places around the world but never been to Scotland (I did make it as far as Hadrians wall once) and would quite like to take a road trip up to the Orkneys - my ancestral home. The idea is to take a leisurely drive from Buckinghamshire up to Fort William on day one, then take in some Loch scenery and on to the islands on day 2. Clarkson has put me off taking the A9 after his comments about speed cameras - should I be listening or is it nonsense?

I'm wondering if I should spend an extra day in Scotland and if Fort William is the best place to stop, any locals offer any advice and decent places to visit? I'm not really into the whole NC500 thing but would like some culture/historic sites/beer drinking.

[LarJammer]

I'm glad I asked about Fort William! So how do Ayr or Irvine stack up for an overnight stop? The west coast is quite appealing so will plan a route up that way, the links are very useful. Is end of May a good time to go - I'm pretty flexible.
Yes, I will be doing a write up / pics and driving something cool.

[LarJammer]

The time frame is starting to dawn on me... I think I need to choose - Scotland vs Orkney.

[LarJammer]

I have been listening, I promise. BUT the purpose of the trip is to go to Orkney, reading some of the other threads has got me wanting to spend time in Scotland - I have to compromise. So the current plan is:

Day1 - Milton Keynes to Glencoe (8hrs, no pissing about)
Day2 - Glencoe to Tongue (4hrs, plenty of time for tourism and the A386)
Day3 - Tongue to Orkney via JoG (2hrs including ferry)
Day4 - Orkney
Day5 - Orkney to somewhere nice, Perth, Sterling, Glasgow?
Day6 - go home with regret as I couldn't stay longer.

Roughly 1400 miles in total,
sound plausible?