Highlands

[mak2503]

We have just returned from a week away in Fort William. Travelled from Aberdeenshire so took the Cairn o Mount road towards Ballater. Then to Aviemore via the Tomintoul road which is just incredible. I love roads where there is plenty of vision to overtake safely.
Round about Fort William we travelled up and down the Glen Nevis road quite a few times. On one day we went towards Mallaig and enjoyed the roads along there. It is amazing that these roads are only a few hours from home so will be travelled again and again.

The weather helped a lot.

We had a MK1 MX5 and a Clio R27 and both the cars were different but incredible tools for roads like these.

[Mostro]

Somewhat belatedly, I thought I should post up a report of my 3-day tour of the Highlands from the week that straddled the end of April/beginning of May. But first of all, many thanks to all the contributors on this thread whose recommendations helped form the final route, and particularly to GetCarter for his advice on when to travel. The weather forecast for the week wasn’t great but ended up mostly dry and the roads were deserted for long stretches.

A mate and I had been planning the trip for a year or two and our contrasting approaches to enjoying our driving are reflected in our cars; his somewhat modified Evo X and my subtly modified RenaultSport Clio, lacking in power but countering in the ‘chuckability’ stakes.
We cruised up to our start point on the Monday night – Dumbarton Travelodge @ £22 for a family room(!) for 3 x ~300mile days’ driving before cruising back from Stirling on Friday morning. The 3 day route was the PH default +/- a few optional extras, with overnight stops prebooked at Broadford on Skye and Tongue in the far north.

So the route:

Day 1 : Dumbarton to Broadford, via
- A821 Aberfoyle / Dukes Pass
- A84/A85 Crianlarich
- A82 Glencoe


- B863 Kinlochleven/Scotsburgring
- A82 Invergarry, via Commando monuent
- A87 Shiel Bridge
- Mam Ratagan pass over to Glenelg and the Skye ferry




- Check-in at Broadford and A87 to Sligachan to commence a fast lap of Skye
- A863 Dunvegan
- A850/A87 across to Uig and through the Quiraing



- A855 east coast road via Portree and A87 back to Broadford


Day 2 : Broadford to Tongue, via
- Skye Bridge to Eilean Donan Castle



- A890/A896 via Lochcarron
- Bealach Na Ba over to Applecross, dry at the bottom, hailstones at the top…





- Loch Torridon coast road past GetCarter Towers to Shieldaig – traffic jam caused by this fella and his mates


(taken from the driving seat!)


- A896 Kinlochewe plus detour up and down Glen Docherty on A832



- A832/A835 via Gairloch to Ullapool
- A835/A837 Loch Assynt



- A894 via Kylescu to Laxford Bridge



- A838 to Durness and on to Tongue



Day 3 (Thurs) : Tongue to Stirling – drizzle but the roads were essentially dry
- A896 via Altnaharra and Lairg to Bonar Bridge
- B9176 Struie Hill and through to Inverness



- B9006 Culloden and Cawdor
- A939 via Grantown-on-Spey and Tomintoul towards Ballater
- A93 via Braemar, Glenshee to Bridge of Cally



- A924 Pitlochry
- A9/A827 Aberfeldy
- A826/A822 Creiff
- A822/A9 into Stirling to finish at the William Wallace monument.

906 miles of the most incredible roads, matching scenery and midweek we had large chunks of it to ourselves. On Wednesday teatime we drove the 30 miles from Durness to Tongue without seeing a single other car. itn files of the route are available if anyone wants them; we found 300 miles a day to be just about the right mix of intensive driving and stopping for photos, fuel and food.

Will be returning when we can.

Edited by Mostro on Friday 31st May 10:38

[Mezzanine]

Looks like the perfect road trip

[Red Devil]

Nice write up and great photos.

I know the the Dumbarton Travelodge very well. Its where club members from different parts of the UK get together for our annual Highlands bash. The fun part is dodging the traffic to get to The Stonefield for dinner/breakfast.

Your Day 1 was the same as ours as far as Invergarry. After that we continued to Fort Augustus, the B862 to Inverness and A9/A835 to Ullapool. We're doing Skye next year. Unfortunately our group will be too big to make it practical to go via the Glenelg ferry. A shame as the route over the pass is the best by far. We'll be taking the big boat from Mallaig to Armadale instead.

Btw, the shot of Glen Docherty/Loch Maree means your 'Highlands Club' dues are now fully paid.

[Mostro]

Red Devil said:

Nice write up and great photos.

I know the the Dumbarton Travelodge very well. Its where club members from different parts of the UK get together for our annual Highlands bash. The fun part is dodging the traffic to get to The Stonefield for dinner/breakfast.

Yep, carvery for £4.19 and decent breakfast - we actually drove there!
(for BP Ultimate for afters)

Red Devil said:

Btw, the shot of Glen Docherty/Loch Maree means your 'Highlands Club' dues are now fully paid.

I tried to avoid posting too many of the 'classic' photos, but I have them alright

[f1ten]

Hi Mostro
how funny you did pretty much an identical trip to us, we were there at the end of April as well. Only variation we did was Isle of Lewis and Harris then onto Skye heading south before looping back up to Loch Carron and Torridon. I think Torridon and Tongue were my favourite bits of the trip...

[Mostro]

Also, I've gotta say that the little Clio Sport was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT on this trip. OK, so on the long wide straight sections it held the Evo up somewhat, but with Eibach springs, new ContiSport front tyres, wheel alignment just done, a new 320mm Momo steering wheel and such light weight, it was an absolutely joy to hurl round the twisties. Brilliantly composed, and the steering is superb. Never a moment of angst in 900+ miles of making progress. Don't remember the ABS kicking in once.



I bought a Caterham the day after we got back from Scotland, so this is likely to be the little car's last proper roadtrip - what a great way to retire. Pound-for-pound (it's prob worth 2 grand tops these days) it's the best little car I have ever owned.

[Mostro]

f1ten said:

Hi Mostro
how funny you did pretty much an identical trip to us, we were there at the end of April as well. Only variation we did was Isle of Lewis and Harris then onto Skye heading south before looping back up to Loch Carron and Torridon. I think Torridon and Tongue were my favourite bits of the trip...

I'd concur with those. I think the basic loop of Loch Lomond > Fort William > Ullapool > Durness > Tongue > Inverness > Cairngorms has become pretty settled amongst the Highland roadtrip fraternity, with optional extras like Mallaig, Skye, the Outer Hebrides, Applecross, Lochinver and JO'G to personalise your route depending on preference, time and money!

Wales is good - and more accessible for most of us - but the Highlands are in another league entirely.

[Red Devil]

Mostro said:

Red Devil said:

Nice write up and great photos.

I know the the Dumbarton Travelodge very well. Its where club members from different parts of the UK get together for our annual Highlands bash. The fun part is dodging the traffic to get to The Stonefield for dinner/breakfast.

Yep, carvery for £4.19 and decent breakfast - we actually drove there!
(for BP Ultimate for afters)

It probably took you longer to negotiate both traffic streams than to do the kamikaze dash on foot!
The whole point of going up there is for the thrills that aren't on offer south of the Wall.

[kingstondc5]

Hello all,

Ive got a quick question for you....

Currently based in Newcastle and im tempted to head to the location that 'Skyfall' was filmed at (yeah that road), now according to theaa.com, its about 3.5 hours one way to get there.

So my question is, is the road really worth the drive or would i be better off hunting out nice driving roads in the area in between? im just looking for nice smooth roads, ideally free of traffic etc

Im looking to go this Sunday

[quiraing]

looks like it was a great trip, thx for post and pics

[Blown2CV]

kingstondc5 said:

Hello all,

Ive got a quick question for you....

Currently based in Newcastle and im tempted to head to the location that 'Skyfall' was filmed at (yeah that road), now according to theaa.com, its about 3.5 hours one way to get there.

So my question is, is the road really worth the drive or would i be better off hunting out nice driving roads in the area in between? im just looking for nice smooth roads, ideally free of traffic etc

Im looking to go this Sunday

they're all great roads, compared to england

[GetCarter]

kingstondc5 said:

Hello all,

Ive got a quick question for you....

Currently based in Newcastle and im tempted to head to the location that 'Skyfall' was filmed at (yeah that road), now according to theaa.com, its about 3.5 hours one way to get there.

So my question is, is the road really worth the drive or would i be better off hunting out nice driving roads in the area in between? im just looking for nice smooth roads, ideally free of traffic etc

Im looking to go this Sunday

Stay in a B&B Saturday night, get up very early Sunday and have the Highlands to yourself. The place is littered with great roads and if you start at 5 a.m. you'll probably not see another car for 3 hours.

Well that's what I would do

[sjabrown]

I used a full tank of petrol yesterday by just getting up early and going for a drive. Oban-Lochgilphead-Rest and be Thankful-Balloch-Duke's Pass-Callander-Crianlarich-Dalmally-Bridge of Orchy-Glencoe-Loch Leven ring-Ballachulish-Oban.

280 miles, empty roads, Peugeot 205, bliss. Quite possibly the best drive I'll ever go on.

[rufusruffcutt]

GetCarter said:

kingstondc5 said:

Hello all,

Ive got a quick question for you....

Currently based in Newcastle and im tempted to head to the location that 'Skyfall' was filmed at (yeah that road), now according to theaa.com, its about 3.5 hours one way to get there.

So my question is, is the road really worth the drive or would i be better off hunting out nice driving roads in the area in between? i'm just looking for nice smooth roads, ideally free of traffic etc

Im looking to go this Sunday

Stay in a B&B Saturday night, get up very early Sunday and have the Highlands to yourself. The place is littered with great roads and if you start at 5 a.m. you'll probably not see another car for 3 hours.

Well that's what I would do

Regarding the Skyfall Locations:

The shot where the Aston is parked up on the Glen Etive road is approximately 4 miles from the A82 junction, these are the lat & long for it.

Lat 56°37'10.05"N Long 4°55'52.50"W

If you get to a road bridge (private driveway) over the river on your left then you've gone past it.



The middle aerial footage is the A82 towards Glen Coe just before the Ski Centre, they took the signs down for it for the filming.

The second Glen Etive shot (the aerial footage flying north to south) is a bit further down the Glen on the same road, starting roughly at:

Lat 56°34'59.71"N Long 5° 1'35.95"W

which is a good 10 miles from the A82 junction.

As you get close to it there is an old wooden shed, close to the road on the left hand side. Followed by a driveway on the left, then a driveway on the right.
If its clear Ben Starav will loom ahead in the distance between the trees on either side of the road.



In the film it then cuts to Hankley Common in Surrey for the Skyfall driveway and house sets.

As you are almost at the end of the road, you might as well visit the head of Loch Etive. Stunning part of the world - Enjoy!

[ukkid35]

Mostro said:

So the route:
- A87 Shiel Bridge
- Mam Ratagan pass over to Glenelg and the Skye ferry

Great road

http://vimeo.com/44451957

[moribund]

Mostro - just read your post and now feel insanely jealous as I've not got a highland trip arranged this year! Top posting!

[kingstondc5]

Thanks for that Ruf, unfortunately i ended up sticking to the border roads as once i stuck the co-ords in sat nav, i suggested that its 4 hours away - bit to far for a day trip for me but ive past your post onto others who are interested in doing said road.

Thanks again

[matt3001]

GetCarter what do you do for a living out of interest being based up by Torridon?

[GetCarter]

matt3001 said:

GetCarter what do you do for a living out of interest being based up by Torridon?

I'm a composer. Can do that anywhere these days.