June 2023 Trip Notes & Itinerary

Bottom Line: We had visited Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital and most popular tourist city, for three days in 2019. That was enough to fire our imaginations and inspire us to see the rest of Scotland — the real Scotland — where we could chase some clan history, mix it up with the locals in the highlands and islands, try a few wee drams of uisge beatha (whisky), track down some druids, fairies and standing stone circles, and hike the bens and glens of this mystical country. You haven’t been to Scotland if you haven’t spent time in the Highlands!

Much like New Zealand, Scotland is the perfect country to explore by car as you can see virtually all of it, getting to beautiful, rugged places you just can’t reach any other way, and do it at your own pace. Now, after 1,316 miles driving, including the entire North Coast 500, 26 nights in 14 towns, 7 distilleries, 4 ferries, 62 different single malt whiskies, and 36 holes of golf, I can say Scotland truly is a magical country worth every bit of time you can spend there. If I had more time, I’d add Islay and more days in Glencoe, Wester Ross and Speyside. If I had to cut out a week, I’d probably sacrifice Orkney and St. Andrews, simply because of geographical distance, and a day or two in Inverness. And, of course, if you’ve never seen Edinburgh you would have to include it. For us, once was enough.

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Days	Destination	Where We Stayed
1-3	Glasgow	Alamo Guest House

Starting and ending our trip in Glasgow was an easy call, given we had been to Edinburgh and it is, as Scotland’s largest city, a major hub for flying. Our expectations weren’t very high given its past reputation for being gritty and rundown, a once vital ship-building city in decline. Well, let me tell you, Glasgow is fantastic! It has a vibrant food and bar scene, a world class university, impressive museums, and lush, green parks. We could definitely have spent more than 3 days here (given more time) and ending our trip with a 4th night here felt strangely like “coming home”. It helped having daughter Emily and SIL Alex come join us for the start of our trip here. Highlights:

• Our lodging in the more upscale West End, on the edge of huge Kelvingrove Park, was impeccable, a historic building filled with art and lavish touches. Here’s my review.
• The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, named after Lord Kelvin, the thermodynamic scientist who created the Absolute Temperature Scale. Salvadore Dali’s controversial Saint John of the Cross was a highlight.
• Free “Dark and Secret Past of Glasgow” walking tour of Glasgow’s central and Merchant City districts was fun; a great way to get oriented to the city’s layout, culture and fascinating history. Our guide, Marty, was terrific.
• Hiking the Necropolis, the hilltop cemetery and permanent home to the wealthy merchants of Glasgow who built its shipbuilding empire.
• Scotland’s cathedral, just below the Necropolis, is one of the few Catholic religious sites that was never destroyed during the Protestant reformation. Be sure to check out its massive interior arches and wooden ceiling!
• While downtown, pairing a stop at Tennent’s Brewery (we skipped the pricy tour and went straight to the bar for a tasting and free history lesson from the barman) with lunch at Drygate Brewing next door was a hit.
• Ashton Lane in the Hillhead neighborhood, a 20-minute walk from our flat, is the most fun street in Glasgow filled with great bars and one of the best restaurants in town, The Ubiquitous Chip.
• Outstanding dinners at Crabshakk, Hanoi Bike Shop, Eighty-Eight, and the aforementioned Ubiquitous Chip.
• Several excellent pubs worth checking out, including neighborhood faves Islay Inn, Park Bar, Ben Nevis and, further afield, Oran Mor (a former church, great outdoor people watching), Jinty McGinty’s, Brel, The Wee Pub (all three on Ashton Lane), Deep Inn, and The Scotia (Glasgow’s oldest pub).
• For whisky lovers, a stop at The Pot Still is a must. 800 whiskies in the house!

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Days 4-5

Oban

Hawthornbank House B&B

With Alex departing for home, we grabbed our rental car at the airport and headed off to start our Highlands adventure. Our first destination, Oban, is “the gateway to the highlands and islands” and the eponymous home to one of my favorite whiskies, so I was looking forward to this first leg of our journey. To get there, you have a lovely drive past the Trossachs National Park and along the shore of Loch Lomond before turning left and crossing in the Highlands. The geological boundary is fairly striking. The 3-hour drive took us past three more lochs, with worthwhile stops along the way at Loch Fyne Oyster Company and Inverary Castle. Two nights was fine, though a third would have allowed us to spend a day touring the Isles of Mull, Iona and Skappa, which we missed. Highlights:

• A stop and tour at Inverary Castle along the way to Oban is a must do. The castle and its gardens are among the most impressive in Scotland, and its history with Clan Campbell, the Duke of Argyll is vitally important to understanding the region you are entering.
• Loch Fyne Oyster Company makes a perfect lunch stop driving to Oban, but advance reservations essential if you want to eat indoors. We didn’t have them, but outdoors was just fine and the oysters were great. They supply oysters to restaurants around the world, but this place is the original.
• The Oban Distillery tour was an excellent, behind the scenes introduction to the whisky making process, not to mention tasting a few of their excellent drams, including their Distiller’s Edition that is not sold outside the distillery.
  • If you don’t have time for the full day tour of Mull and Iona islands, the two-hour cruise around the Isle of Kerrera is definitely worthwhile. Good sightings of local bird and marine life and three castles.
  • Don’t miss an outdoor lunch at the Oban Seafood Hut, where all their food is fresh off the boat. Just watch out for poaching seagulls.
  • Hike to McCaig’s Tower on Battery Hill for fantastic views over the town and Inner Hebrides and to see the Romanesque structure modeled after the Colosseum, built (but never completed) in 1897.
  • Several good pubs, including Auley’s and Tartan Tavern (both local hangouts), Oban Inn (most atmospheric with a mix of tourists and locals), and Markie Dans, where they sometimes get live trad music.

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Days 6-7

Glencoe to Glenfinnan

Signal Rock Cottage

Glencoe, or the “Weeping Glen”, so called both for its waterfalls and tragic history — the Glencoe Massacre of 1692, when members of the Campbell clan, at the orders of the English king and Duke of Argyll, murdered 38 men, women and children of Clan MacDonald as they slept, after the MacDonald’s had hosted and fed the Campbells for 13 days. Another 40 MacDonalds who escaped froze or starved to death in the ensuing weeks. Glencoe is also renowned for its natural beauty and incredible hiking, among the best in Scotland. One hour’s drive north of Oban, we spent the better part of a day and one night here. If you like hiking, Glencoe is easily worth several days. Be warned though: this is where you will find huge hordes of the Scotland’s famous midges; have your bug spray ready! Highlights:

• The Glencoe Visitors Center & National Trust for Scotland is well worth a visit, with wonderfully done displays telling the history of the region, trail maps, and a thatched roof hut, a meticulously executed reproduction of original clan dwellings in the region that are now long gone.
• Driving the A82 — The Glencoe Highway — is a must do here. It runs the length of the valley with several great lookouts and access to numerous trailheads. Driving a few miles further toward Glen Etive puts you on the famous “James Bond Skyfall Road”.
• We hiked The Study, a fairly short and easy hike with dramatic views of the valley and the Three Sisters, its most famous peaks, and the Hidden Valley Trail, a steep and more challenging trek up a side canyon between two of the three Sisters. Spectacular!
• The Clachaig Inn is a popular inn, tavern and restaurant near the entrance to the valley and a 10-minute stroll from our Airbnb. Roughly half tourists and half locals, the place gets packed every evening, so make reservations for dinner. You may even have to stay there to be guaranteed dinner. Eat and drink in the Boots Bar at the Inn.
• Breakfast at Crafts & Things in the small village of Glencoe was excellent. Not many options in town, we ate there twice. They also have a very nice gift shop and art gallery. I bought the owner’s memoire of traveling the world there.

The next morning, we dropped Emily at the bus stop for her trip back to Glasgow and drove north through Fort Willaim to the “Road to the Isles”, stopping for lunch and more history at Glenfinnan. Glenfinnan was the landing spot for Bonnie Prince Charlie when he returned to Scotland from France in 1745 to lead the Jakobite Rebellion. There is a cool museum that tells this story, a monument to the Bonnie Prince and the memory of all who died in the rebellion, and an impressive railway viaduct made more famous as the route of the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter movie fame. From here we continued to Mallaig, where we caught the ferry to the Isle of Skye. There are faster routes to Skye, but this was better.

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Days 7-9

Portree, Isle of Skye

Marmalade Hotel

Arriving on Skye, we made our way to the harbor town of Portree, the largest town on the island. We spent three nights here, the perfect base for exploring the rest of the island. I’d heard great things about Skye, but there’s nothing like firsthand experience. Spectacular, wild scenery, great food and whisky, and those narrow, mountainside, single track roads sure are fun to drive! Highlights:

• Drive the Trotternish Peninsula Loop, a magnificent drive through rugged country, mostly on single track roads (lots of passing places) with several great stops for hiking and sightseeing. This took us about 6 hours including stops.
• One such stop is The Quiraing, an otherworldly landscape of escarpments and landslips. We made a two-hour hike along the main escarpment to the base of the Needle and back. Incredible views!
• The Old Man of Storr is another famous geologic landmark along the route; actually, the first you’ll see leaving Portree. Great hiking here as well, though we settled for a short stop and look.
• I’d read great things about the Skye Museum of Island Life, built to recreate an original croft settlement further along the route, but it was closed unfortunately. Still, we got to see the exteriors of the many rebuilt croft houses on the site, and it didn’t take us out of our way.
• Other cool stops on this route include Lealt Falls, Flora MacDonald’s grave (she is the heroine who saved Bonnie Prince Charlie), and the Fairy Glen.
• Day 2 started with a drive from Portree to Dunvegan Castle, home of Clan MacLeod. It’s a huge and impressive castle and the self-guided tour was well worth it. From there, a one-hour drive took us to…
• Talisker Distillery, for many years the only distillery on Skye, and whose 18-year whisky was named Best Whisky in the World at the 2007 World Whiskies Awards. Their tour was very good, as was the tasting, but if you’ve done one distillery tour, you’ll find them all very similar.
• Right around the corner from the distillery lies The Oyster Shed, the perfect spot for lunch. Everything is freshly caught off Skye and the outdoor setting is perfect if the weather is fair. It was for us!
• Time permitting, drive 20 minutes to the trailhead for the Fairy Pools. This is a very popular day trip for locals and tourists alike and we found a lot of people out on the trail and in the pools on a hot day. It’s not all I expected it to be, but its location at the base of the Cuillin Hills made it very worthwhile.
• On the way back to Portree, be sure to stop in Sligachan to visit the statue of Scotland’s famous mountain men and Munro baggers, Professor Norman Collie and John MacKenzie, gazing back at the Cuillins. If you’re thirsty, stop for a beer at Seumas’ Bar next to the Sligachan Hotel.
• For a splurge, dinner at the Cuillin Hills Hotel was really fantastic. It’s a short and scenic walk from town.
• A few decent pubs in town, including Merchant Bar, 1820 and Tongadale Hotel, but our favorite by far was the Isles Inn, where we finished up every night, enjoyed a good dinner once, and caught some excellent live music by a couple local islanders.

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Days 10-13

Wester Ross

See lodging details below

Things get wilder, more beautiful, and more remote as we leave Skye and begin our tour of the North Coast 500, by all accounts the greatest road trip in the UK. This first segment took us through gorgeous Wester Ross, with two nights on Loch Gairloch and one night in the coastal village of Ullapool, through Assynt in the far northwestern corner of Scotland, to the north coast where we finally landed for a night in Tongue. Once again, outside of a few hours of heavy rain, we enjoyed mostly very mild weather, wild and unspoiled scenery, and more super fun roads with more sheep than cars.

While one could take this route in less time, you wouldn’t want to. We passed through rustic villages and seaside towns that made us say “wow, I wish we had a few more nights to immerse ourselves here”. We didn’t feel too rushed with four nights, but this is where you’ll want to slow down.

Duration	Destination	Where We Stayed
2 days	Gairloch	Shieldaig Lodge
1 day	Ullapool	Harbor House
1 day	Tongue	Tongue Hotel

Skye to Gairloch

Our first day leaving Skye, we headed across the Skye Bridge to Eilean Donan Castle on the mainland before continuing on to the Shieldaig Lodge, a few miles outside Gairloch, via the Applecross Peninsula. This route takes just over four hours not counting stops. With more time, overnight stays in the charming town of Plockton on the shores of Loch Carron, which we missed on our route, or the village of Applecross look appealing. Other worthwhile stops along the way include Beinn Eighe Nature Reserve and Victoria Falls. While you can shave 60-90 minutes off the drive by skipping Applecross, you shouldn’t. Highlights:

• Eilean Donan Castle is one of the more picturesque castles in Scotland and is worth a stop even if you don’t go inside.
• Driving the Bealach na Ba Pass, the highest mountain pass in the UK, to the Applecross Peninsula was a real thrill. Much of the road is single track and involves some serious hairpins, but the views from the top of the pass are spectacular.
• Lunch at the Applecross Inn was a treat. The Inn is iconic in this region and would be a fine place to stay. It also features prominently in an audiobook called His Bloody Project we listened to on our journey, about a 19th century triple-murder among the local crofter community. Perfect for getting in the mood.
• The Shieldaig Lodge, our most decadent stay in Scotland, is a refurbished 19th century Victorian hunting lodge on a 26,000 acre estate in the West Highlands. Our dinner there one night was excellent, as was their very well-stocked whisky bar. I had hoped to fly fish here on Father’s Day, but alas fishing is prohibited on Sundays in Scotland. We settled for some nice hikes, watching the falconry show on the front lawn, and just relaxing. Highly recommend this place!
• We also had dinner one night at the Badachro Inn just a few miles up the road on the water. Good food, drink and local scene. Eat at the communal dining table and get to know some strangers!

Gairloch to Ullapool

Our next stop was Ullapool, a quaint commercial fishing town known as the gateway to the Outer Hebrides, with daily ferry service to Stornoway on the Isle of Harris. It’s a 90-minute drive to get there through mostly wild, open landscape, though we happened to run into traffic in the form of the CELTMAN! Extreme Scottish Triathlon, with runners and their support teams all over the road for miles. One night is plenty in Ullapool. Highlights:

• The drive itself is great, with beautiful views of Loch Maree early on and passing close by Corrieshalloch Gorge National Park further up the road. Both nice places to stop and stretch your legs.
• Inverewe Gardens, a massive botanical garden complex created in a gorgeous setting in 1862 by Osgood MacKenzie, son of the Laird of Gairloch, makes another excellent stop. The lush gardens have exotic flowers and trees from around the world that thrive here because it’s directly in the path of the Gulf Stream.
• The Seafood Shack is a great, open air lunch spot in Ullapool. It’s run by five young women, including one at the pop-up gin bar in the garden. Get the fresh haddock! If you prefer a beer with lunch instead of gin, grab a bottle to go at the bottle shop just down the street.
• Very nice dinner at the large and popular Ceilidh Place, reputedly the best in town.
• Best pub in town is the Ferry Boat Inn overlooking the waterfront.
• Several small art galleries and a tiny museum in town get the nod from Rick Steves, but they weren’t much if you ask me.

Ullapool to Tongue

It’s another 3-4 hour drive from Ullapool to the north coast town of Tongue, our staging point before heading to the Orkney Islands. But this northwest corner of Wester Ross is just magnificent for its beauty, a land seemingly lost in time, with several nice stops along the way, including Ardvreck Castle, Kylesku and a couple sights just outside the north coast town of Durness.

We accidentally took a wrong turn just past Ardvreck but this proved a stroke of good fortune, as the 45 minutes it added took us on a spectacular, one lane loop through the Assynt peninsula, a stunning landscape, alternately lush and desolate, with the tiny villages of Lochinver, Stoer, Clachnessie and Drumbeg dotting the countryside. This is another area we would have loved to spend a night or two. Other highlights on this route:

• Everyone driving the route stops at Ardvreck Castle and for good reason. Perched on a promintory overlooking pretty Loch Assynt, it has the classic ruined Scottish castle look. The 15th century fortification was the bastion of Clan MacLeod until Clan MacKenzie captured if following a 14-day siege in 1672.
• Lunch at the Kylesku Hotel, on the shores of beautiful Loch Glendhu (and otherwise in the middle of nowhere) — fresh oysters, mussels and langoustines from the loch — made a superb mid-day feast.
• The Old Ferry Craft Shop sits next to the boat launch fronting the the Kylseku Hotel was filled with very cute, nice handmade crafts and gifts. Normally, I don’t care for stores or shopping, and I thought the place was great for its charm and one-of-a-kind gifts . Yep, we stocked up.
• Further up the road we hit the north coast town of Durness, where John Lennon used to vacation as a boy. The John Lennon Memorial Garden, just outside town, was created by Lennon’s cousin and boyhood pal who was often there with him. Small, but worth a visit if you’re a Beatles fan. It’s free.
• Smoo Cave is another interesting site just another couple miles up the road. A massive cavern with an underground river and waterfall that can be toured by boat (for a fee); we checked out the cave but skipped the tour.
• The Tongue Hotel was the perfect layover after a long drive, which ended in the rain, and before another big day to come. Great dinner on site and a nice bar, too, followed by a beautiful sunset over the North Atlantic with Varick Castle looming in the distance.

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Days 14-16

Kirkwall, Orkney Islands

Storehouse Restaurant with Rooms

Having reached the northernmost shores of the Scottish mainland, where do you go next? For us, it meant hopping a two-hour ferry north from Scrabster to the Orkney Islands, a wild but completely different landscape notable for its ancient Neolithic ruins and historic WWII sites. More Norwegian than Scottish culturally, it’s a world unto itself. Three days was perfect for exploring the main island, ironically called Mainland. If you want to explore more of the islands, you’ll need more time. Highlights:

• Sailing to Okrney from Scrabster, you pass the rugged cliffs of the Isle of Hoy and its famous landmark the Old Man of Hoy, a 450′ high sea stack framed by the dramatic cliffs. Very cool.
• Saint Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, founded by the Vikings in 1137, is the northernmost cathedral in the UK. The interior has massive, vaulted ceilings; its walls are lined with intricately carved stone tombs; and 14 color panels opposite the rear altar depict the life of Saint Magnus, including one panel showing his martyrdom with an axe blow to the head.
• 5,000-year-old neolithic sites clustered around the island, including the Ring of Brodgar, Standing Stones of Stenness, Maeshowe (a 5,000-year-old chambered tomb) and Skara Brae are the most dramatic and best preserved in all of northern Europe.
• The Neolithic village of Skara Brae was inhabited for 650 years until it’s residents suddenly left around 2500BC. It then lay hidden under sand dunes until a huge storm in 1850 revealed it to the world. Very sophisticated living quarters, chambers, communal spaces, tools, crockery and jewelry all remained as they were left. The inhabitants of Skara Brae apparently lived like rabbits underground, with all the dwellings originally having roofs of earth and stone.
• Scapa Flow, a massive natural bay with several relatively small entrances, was the primary home to the UK’s and allies’ naval armada in both WWI and WWII. The Churchill Barriers, constructed of huge concrete blocks, were installed to prevent German u-boats from getting from the North Sea into Scapa Flow after one such u-boat sank a British ship there.
• The Italian Chapel was built by Italian POW’s in WWII out of two Nissen huts so they would have a place to worship. It’s truly a work art considering the limited materials they had to use.
• Our full-day tour with our intrepid guide Kinlay Francis of Orkney Uncovered, which covered the aforementioned sites, was terrific. Kinlay was an amazing guide with encyclopedic knowledge of Orkney’s prehistoric and military history.
• A two-hour out and back hike along Marwick Head on the North Atlantic coast leads to the Kitchener Memorial, built and dedicated to UK’s Secretary of War, who along with over 700 men went down en route to a secret meeting with Russia when their ship hit a German mine in June of 1916. The rugged cliffs are beautiful and filled with seabirds – mostly Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots and a number of Puffins.
• Orkney’s two distilleries, Scapa and Highland Park, produce excellent whisky. The 27-year old Highland Park from the Gordon & McPhail Collection was particularly outstanding.
• Excellent dinners at the Storehouse Restaurant (where we stayed as well) and Twenty-One. Our big splurge dinner at the Lynnfield Hotel was a bit underwhelming, though the place was beautiful.
• Several decent bars in the old town center, but the best was the Bothy Bar, a wood timber and stone filled cave-like tavern that featured a terrific, 15-person trad music session the night we were there.

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Days 17-19

Inverness

Castle View Guest House

With two days and three nights in Orkney under our belts, we caught another ferry — this time from St. Margaret’s Hope to Gills Bay — where we completed our circuit of the North Coast 500 with a quick drive down Scotland’s east coast to Inverness, the Highland’s largest town, stopping briefly at John o’Groats, Dunrobin Castle and Glenmorangie Distillery along the way. It felt strange to be back in a “big city” with noisy crowds, traffic and streets filled with stores — in fact, it felt like we’d left the Highlands behind — but a day trip to Culloden Moor, where the Jacobite rebellion was finally crushed – and more than a few Outlander references popped up – helped keep things in perspective.

A lot of people only make it as far as Inverness when visiting the Highlands. Personally, I wouldn’t spend much time here; rather use it as a transit point to or from other more remote Highland locations. Note the massive Inverness Castle is undergoing renovations and won’t reopen until 2025. Highlights:

• Like most European towns we’ve visited, taking a guided walking tour is a great way to get oriented and learn some interesting history, fun facts and local tips on food, drink and entertainment. Thas was certainly true in Inverness.
• Another great walk is along the River Ness from Ness Bridge to the lush, green Ness Islands a mile upstream and back. The islands have nice walking paths with beautifully sculpted wooden benches, tables, etc. and make a great place to hang out in nature. Return via the Generals Well Bridge and Bught Park if there is a rugby or shinty match going on.
• Day trip to Culloden battlefield is a must-do; both the visitor center and guided tour are well worth it. Take a side trip to Cawdor Castle and Gardens, just a few miles down the road. We skipped the Clava Cairns neolithic site as we’d gotten our fill in Orkney.
• Whisky tasting at The Malt Room in the Victorian Market, by far the best whisky bar in town. I heard great things about the Wee Bar as well from our innkeeper, but it was closed when we stopped by.
• Leakey’s Bookstore is a local institution and worth a visit. Once overrun by tour groups, they no longer allow groups of more than five inside.
• Live trad music at Hootananny and MacGregor’s Bar was good, and we enjoyed dinner and drinks at both spots as well. The Gellions, the oldest bar in town, wasn’t as much fun in my opinion.
• I’ve heard the Sunday Roast at the Waterfront restaurant is excellent, and the Mustard Seed is reputedly the best restaurant in town, advance reservations absolutely required. We didn’t get in to either.
• Pizza lunch at Black Isles, along with their own craft beer selection, was good. We also liked the Castle Tavern for lunch, terrific atmosphere and outdoor seating with good views.

Culloden Moor is where 1600 clansmen fighting for Bonnie Prince Charlie were wiped out by the better organized and equipped government army in 40 minutes. Several tactical errors, including choosing to fight on wide open ground instead of attacking from high ground under cover of trees, as was their custom, led to this outcome. Contrary to common belief, the Jacobite rebellion was not Scotland vs England but a civil war.

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Days 20-21

Speyside

See lodging details below

Speyside was almost an afterthought when we first started planning this trip, a place to layover for a day or two between Inverness and St. Andrews. What were we thinking!? Speyside is home to the densest population of whisky distilleries in all of Scotland — possibly the world — and the famous Malt Whisky Trail, linking eight distilleries and the country’s only cooperage. The countryside is also lush and green, filled with rivers and forests that provide said distilleries with the clean water they need, all surrounding the wild Cairngorns National Park. Speyside is also renowned for salmon fishing on the fly, though I hear it’s really suffering with the changing climate and river conditions. I didn’t get the chance to try.

We spent our first night in the tiny village of Craigellachie, just over an hour from Inverness, and a second night in Ballater another hour south. With the benefit of hindsight, I can say this region is worth more than the two days we gave it, starting with at least two to three days in or around Craigellachie (or nearby Dufftown or Aberlour) to more fully and comfortably explore the distilleries — you need a driver, which requires some planning (don’t count on Uber), as no distillery will serve you if you have the car keys — and maybe do a little fishing or hiking.

Duration	Destination	Where We Stayed
1 day	Craigellachie	Craigellachie Lodge
1 day	Ballater	No. 45

Aberlour and Craigellachie

Leaving Inverness in the morning, we made our way to Craigellachie, taking the A9 south until a cutoff routed us to the A95 eastbound. While there are a few different routes to our destination, I like this one as it parallels the River Spey and goes past several top distilleries, including Tomatin, Glenfarclas, Cardhu, Knockando, and Aberlour.

We stopped briefly at Glenfarclas, one of the few, if not the best, remaining independent, family-run distilleries and one of my favorites. Because I was driving and did not have a reservation, neither a tour nor tasting was possible. Our next stop in Aberlour was a more productive diversion before we finally reached our destination. Once there, and with only a one-night stay, we quickly realized our best bet was to explore what we could within walking distance. This, in turns out, worked out just fine. Highlights:

• The Aberlour Distillery is small but charming, and the gentleman at the welcome desk was both welcoming and super helpful. While he made it clear a proper tasting wasn’t possible unless I surrendered the keys, he did offer enough of a mini-tasting to get a sense of their excellent whiskies.
• Next to the distillery is a trailhead for the Linn Falls Walk, a nice one-hour return along a creek through mixed forest to pretty Linn Falls.
• Lunch at the Mash Tun in Aberlour, a short walk from the distillery and trailhead, was great fun, with a terrific atmosphere, some fun art on the walls, and good food. Highly recommended.
• The Artist’s Studio Gallery in Aberlour was filled with whisky-themed art. We got to meet the owner/artist, a charming fellow, and walked out with three of his pieces.
• The Craigellachie Lodge was fantastic. Our lovely hosts, Scott and Jodi, have completely renovated their Victorian mansion with large, gorgeous, comfortable rooms, a splendid dining room (dinner was excellent) and a terrific whisky bar on premises where, with nowhere to go, I enjoyed several excellent drams with our host. When we said goodbye in the morning, we left with a bottle of their own custom bottled whisky, a precocious, cask strength, 9-year old Speyside called Lady Marmalade.
• Across the road from the Lodge sits the Craigellachie Inn, a large 4-star place whose best features are the Quaich Bar, boasting the largest selection of malts anywhere – 800 bottles!!
• The locally famous Craigellachie Bridge, one of many designed by celebrated civil engineer Thomas Telford, crosses the River Spey a short walk from our lodge.

PRO TIP: With some advance planning, you can book a 3-4 hour guided walking tour or driving tour of several distilleries in the area, starting in late afternoon. Meaning you can get a good taste of as many whiskies as you’d like with a single night’s stay, though your head may not be in the best shape when it’s time to leave in the morning!

Dufftown to Ballater

With our next destination just over an hour away, we spent the day exploring the region along our route to see where fortune may take us, starting in Dufftown, the heart of Speyside, just a few minutes down the road before arriving in Ballater later that afternoon. With the former Queen’s beloved Balmoral Castle just up the road, Ballater is the heart of royalist Scotland. I talked to a few older locals who said they’d known Charles (the king) since he was a boy. Yeah, that old. Highlights:

• A two mile walk from the center of Dufftown to the Giants Cradle, an unusual rock feature along a stream in the country outside town, was a nice way to start the day.
• A quick stop at Balvenie, another picturesque distillery where we were warmly welcomed and shown around without a reservation. (We purposely skipped the famous Glenfiddich and Glenlivet distilleries (too popular) and Macallan, which I was sad to hear has gone very corporate and does not welcome drop-ins at all.
• Lunch at the Clockhouse in the village of Tomintoul was good and broke up our drive nicely.
• Visiting the Highland Games Center in Braemar, home to the Highland Gathering, 150 years of tradition, and one of the greatest sports ever invented: caber tossing! Their small museum is really fun and interesting, filled with Highland sporting gear and photos of past champions and royal visitors alike.
• The small village of Braemer, straddling the River Dee, was pretty and walkable. Good coffee at the Bothy Braemer, and be sure to drop into the Fife Arms — supposedly the most luxurious hotel in Scotland — and check out their visually impressive Flying Stag bar.
• A few miles past Braemer and just inside Cairngorns National Park is the Linn of Dee, reportedly one of Queen Victoria’s favorite picnic spots back in the day. With its network of trails, stone bridge and twisting, rocky gorge, it’s easy to see why.
• Dinner at the Clachan Grill was outstanding. Advanced reservations strongly recommended.
• Once again, we really liked our B&B, beautiful and comfortable and a short walk from the town center.

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Days 22-24

Saint Andrews

Hoppity House B&B

Our time in Scotland is growing ever shorter as we make our way south through the Cairngorms National Park out of the highlands and down to St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf, home to arguably the top university in the UK, and some chilling religious history. Michelle found the shopping meh; my single round at St Andrews was epic.

There are a couple way routes you can take from Ballater to St. Andrews, though they will all take you through the port town of Dundee. Glamis Castle is a well-known detour for some, though we skipped this in order to divert through Pitlochry, a postcard-pretty town popular among tourists. Our objective was to visit the town’s two distilleries: Edradour, Scotland’s smallest distillery renowned for an outstanding tour (it was closed, unfortunately), and Blair Athol, which I had heard great things about from locals in Inverness.

Highlights:

• The scenic drive through the Royal Deeside, passing Balmoral Castle and along the River Dee and the Cairngorns and down to Pitlochry is an impressive combination of lush, green forestland and stark, bald mountains on a very lightly trafficked, two-lane road.
• The ivy-covered Blair Athol Distillery is conveniently located right in the center of Pitlochry. We didn’t take a tour but the small samples we were offered of a couple of their whiskies was enough to convince me to buy a couple bottles of their 12-year old — one a gift and one for me.
• Our guided walking tour of S. Andrews was really good, with key historical sites including the Martyrs Monument (in memory of four Catholics burned at the stake during the 16th century Protestant Reformation), University of St. Andrews, ruins of the old Catholic Cathedral, and of course the 18th green of the Old Course.
• An interesting bit of trivia learned on our tour: Greenwich Mean Time was formally established in 1884 as the basis for modern time zones and navigation by latitude and longitude. But James Gregory laid the original Meridian line marking zero latitude in St Andrews 200 years earlier in 1673. Ahead of his time?
• Playing golf on the Jubilee Course was a real thrill. Advanced reservations aren’t taken for single golfers, but I was able to get a tee time calling the day before, and I ended up playing alone with my caddie, Nelson. Proof of a 36-or-better handicap is required to play the Old Course, and I no longer carry a card.
• Michelle is not a golfer, but we had a ton of fun playing the 18-hole putting course, The Himalayas (officially the St. Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club), together.
• Delicious seafood dinner and fish ‘n chips lunch at Tailend, and an even better dinner at the atmospheric Little Italy, a local favorite. Our last dinner at the Bridge Restaurant in the Rusacks Hotel was also good (and pricy), but the window table overlooking the approach to the Old Course’s 18th green made it fun.
• Being a college town, there are lots of bars in St. Andrews. Our favorites were The Keys, a local hangout, the Jigger Inn next to the Old Course’s 17th fairway, and Aikman’s, which featured rip roaring Chicago blues and American rock ‘n roll our last night in town.

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Days 25-26

Stirling & Glasgow

See lodging details below

The final leg of our Scottish Highland adventure took us from St. Andrew’s through the coastal village of Anstruther to a day of castle hopping in Stirling, before one last night back in Glasgow where our trip began. The main attraction in Stirling, of course, is Stirling Castle, perhaps the most important castle historically and architecturally in Scotland, having been home to Scottish royalty for several hundred years. That said, there are many other interesting sights in and around Stirling and the road back to Glasgow, especially if you take the scenic route.

Duration	Destination	Where We Stayed
1 day	Stirling	Victoria Square
1 day	Glasgow	Alamo Guest House

Highlights:

• Stopping in the seaside town of Anstruther, we had a wonderfully unexpected but brief reunion with old fraternity brother, RJ MacDonald. I knew Rich worked for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and to our amazement we stumbled upon their base in Anstruther. After a brief inquiry, we are suddenly standing face to face for the first time in 36 years! Rich is now a senior member of the lifeboat crew. Just the day before he and his team saved a woman from certain death two miles offshore. How cool is that!!? Anstruther is a lovely town, by the way, but we didn’t stop anywhere else.

• The 50-minute guided tour of Stirling Castle was a sold investment. The castle is architecturally magnificent, with some spectacular rooms and displays, and our guide was a font of extremely interesting history about the castle and its past royal residents. Well worth it!
• The Old Town Cemetery, high on a hill next to the castle, make a great self-guided walk and affords great views of the Stirling Castle.
• The Curly Coo was an unexpected find, a small but well-stocked whisky bar — the only one in Stirling. When we stopped by, there was nobody there except us and the owner, Mandy, who had some fascinating tales to tell of her history in the whisky business.
• Good lunch and beers at Nicky-Tams Bar & Bothy, a cool little hole in the wall.
• Very nice dinner at Brea, just down the street from Nicky-Tams.
• Our good fortune with lodging continued with Victoria Square, a lovely and sumptuous guest house in a leafy neighborhood filled with large, classic homes.

• Just a couple miles outside Stirling are two very worthwhile stops: Doune Castle, also known as Castle Anthrax from Monty Python & the Holy Grail fame and Castle Leoch from Outlander, and the William Wallace Monument. Be sure to get the audio guide, narrated by Monty Python’s Terry Jones, for your self-guided tour of Doune Castle. There is a nice hike up through the forest from the parking lot to the Wallace Monument; don’t bother paying £10 for a bus ride up.
• If you have time, as we did, take the scenic route back to Glasgow via the Queen Elizabeth Park and passing by The Trossachs National Park. It only adds 30 minutes but it’s a much prettier drive.

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Returning to Glasgow for our final evening, we celebrated our successful trip with a final dram and a very nice trad session at the Islay Pub.

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Random notes and tips:

• Getting to Glasgow: Connecting flights from London Heathrow is easy enough, but if you have lots of time you might consider taking the train from London.
• Cars: We rented from Sixt as they had the best deal for a car in the class we wanted, and I’ve always been happy with Sixt. 4-wheel drive is nice to have but not necessary; a smaller car with some power is ideal for driving the narrow, single track mountain roads in the Highlands. Normally, you can save money by picking up and dropping at a non-airport facility, but inventory outside Glasgow airport didn’t cut it so the airport it was. You don’t need a car while in Glasgow, so wait until you are ready to leave before getting your car. And if you are uncomfortable driving on the left side of the road, get an automatic. That said, I had no trouble with the stick shift.
• Thanks to heavy promotion of the North Coast 500, the Highlands gets more tourism than it used to, and it remains popular with vacationing Scots, especially in summer. It may see counter-intuitive, but unless you really don’t care what sort of lodging you get, be sure to book reservations for lodging — and dinner at nicer restaurants — well in advance. The same goes for ferries and distillery tours!
• If you are a whisky drinker, I recommend drinking regionally, that is enjoying the local malts based on where you are. There is certainly a local, hometown distillery — or several — within a few miles of wherever you are staying.
• Whiskies I tasted by region: