Scotland 3 day Road Trip

[Mouse1903]

Hey guys. Thinking of doing a 3 day road trip end of August (leave on Friday morning and home by Sunday night). I stay just south of Aberdeen and furthest North I've been is Inverness. Fancy trying the route below:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Newtonhill,+St...

Does this look realistic in 3 days? Plan would be to stay in Inverness on the Friday night and on Isle of Skye somewhere on the Saturday. Only bad thing about my Abarth is it only has a 300 mile range on it's tiny 35 litre tank!

[stevenr]

Link doesn't work for me.

Why would the 300 miles be a problem though? There are petrol stations north of Inverness too you know

[speed8]

Unless you have a real need to tick off the John O'Groats box then I probably wouldn't. There are so many other good roads to get out on that I wouldn't want to waste the day going up the A9 and then back again. I would also skip out the A9 from Grantown to Inverness and head more north from Grantown to Nairn and then Inverness.

Wouldn't worry about 300 miles to a tank either. To be honest I try and limit myself to about 200-250 miles for a run on the back roads. Means I don't do too much in a day and leave some energy for the next day. However, I don't think twice about a 400+ mile slog to get to the good bits if I have to

If I had 3 days I would head towards Inverness for a night and dinner with a friend, then head A87 (as per your route) do the Applecross circuit, round towards Gairloch and Ullapool. Spend the night at Ullapool. Next day I would head up to Ledmore, turn right down the single track, over the top from Bonar Bridge, maybe a circuit of the Black Isle then head back towards Aberdeen somehow.
Not sure on the mileage of all that but proabably similar to what you are planning. Just get an early start in the mornings as August is still traffic hell at times.

[Mouse1903]

stevenr said:

Link doesn't work for me.

Why would the 300 miles be a problem though? There are petrol stations north of Inverness too you know

Do they do V-Power though :-P

Cheers for the suggestions guys. Just need to do a nice little route plan

[FamilyDub]

Mouse1903 said:

Do they do V-Power though :-P

Google is your friend...

Shell Garage Locator

[JM]

Mouse1903 said:

Do they do V-Power though :-P

Cheers for the suggestions guys. Just need to do a nice little route plan

No V-power, but there is some 97 ron about.

Try this as a route, keeping John O'Groats in and presuming you don't want to follow the coastline all the way round. possible route

[Mouse1903]

Ok up we go again. I ended up going to Malta last year instead. Friends being boring again so decided to revisit this idea next month.

Day 1: Leave Aberdeen, head up towards Tongue via Bonar Bridge, stay the night there (or anywhere within an hour east or west better?)
Day 2: Head down west coast toward Applecross, stay the night at the Applecross Inn
Day 3: Head to Isle of Skye, do some touristy stuff, stay the night
Day 4: Head back to Aberdeen from Isle of Skye via some recommended roads

Sound good, any improvements?

[scz4]

Just did that exact route a couple of weeks ago, but all in one day! 12 hours of driving, 580ish miles.

Absolutely awesome, don't think I'd change any part of it.



Brief thread here.

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

[alangla]

FamilyDub said:

Mouse1903 said:

Do they do V-Power though :-P

Google is your friend...

Shell Garage Locator

Shell sold all their Highland sites to Gleaner though - that link you posted shows absolutely nothing west of the Great Glen, the nearest site to Applecross being either Inverness or Clydebank! I'm not sure if Gleaner do super & at what sites, their website doesn't seem to tell you - http://www.gleaner.co.uk/network.html

[8bit]

scz4 said:

Just did that exact route a couple of weeks ago, but all in one day! 12 hours of driving, 580ish miles.

Absolutely awesome, don't think I'd change any part of it.



Brief thread here.

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

Great route there, I'd suggest from point I to head south on the A9 (yeah I know but suffer it for a wee while) and round to Pitlochry. From there the road to Glenshee has some amazing sections and then Glenshee to Braemar is awesome too. I did something similar (but a bit shorter) late last summer.

[Hollowpockets]

I'd forget the huntly part near the end of the route and take another route back through the gorms/Deeside.

I fancy doing this soon too, probably at the end of the month, head over on a sat then back on sunday to Aberdeen

[scz4]

Hollowpockets said:

I'd forget the huntly part near the end of the route and take another route back through the gorms/Deeside.

I fancy doing this soon too, probably at the end of the month, head over on a sat then back on sunday to Aberdeen

Good point, although I actually did the Cabrach road to Rhynie, didn't go all the way to Huntly.

[rossybee]

A90 between Forfar and north of ABZ via Anderson Drive?

No pleasure to be derived from that!

Why don't you go over Cairn o' Mount, or up the B979?

[scz4]

Also, come back down the West coast via Durness from Thurso, then jump over to AppleCross.

And for the last leg, go back via Glenshee.

[Hollowpockets]

I'm no good with google maps but tomorrow you may spot me going over strathdon, up to Inverness, down past Loch Ness, over to Applecross for lunch, down to Glen Etive for some Skyfall photos, then south on the A82 towards Perth and up over Glenshee and back in North/south Deeside to Aberdeen.

Can't wait!

[GetCarter]

Hollowpockets said:

I'm no good with google maps but tomorrow you may spot me going over strathdon, up to Inverness, down past Loch Ness, over to Applecross for lunch, down to Glen Etive for some Skyfall photos, then south on the A82 towards Perth and up over Glenshee and back in North/south Deeside to Aberdeen.

Can't wait!

You in the Tiv? I'll wave if I see you (I'm on the Applecross coast road)

[Hollowpockets]

Na wasn't in the Tvr today, Where are you roughly? I only went to the ice cream van at the Applecross inn then turned round, the roads are great and the hills are beautiful. Some pics will surface soon.

[GetCarter]

Hollowpockets said:

Na wasn't in the Tvr today, Where are you roughly? I only went to the ice cream van at the Applecross inn then turned round, the roads are great and the hills are beautiful. Some pics will surface soon.

I'm on the coast road, on the 'loop'.. the other side of Applecross.

[Hollowpockets]

Heres the route I went yesterday, on the way out I went out Deeside, over Strathdon and towards Carrbridge, looped past Inverness, down past Loch Ness and out to Applecross as planned, however it took an hour longer than expected as I kept stopping to take photos every 10 miles past Loch Ness, a total of 6 hours to get there so decided against heading south to Glen Etive and went back north to inverness which was nice but then stuck to main roads home via Keith/Inverurie etc as it was chucking down with rain from Aviemore onwards, return journey only took 4 hours.

The west coast really is like a different country, the hills and scenery especially down at the coast and around the Lochs is stunning. I'll make a point of going more often! hopefully next time for a few nights and get a proper look around.



G

[slipstream 1985]

told you you needed to come on the hoons with us. thats the roads we are always on!