Scotland Trip Itinerary

Susan & Alana’s Fabulous Trip to Scotland, 2012

(most refs are from Frommer, but Lonely Planet augments)

• Edinburgh
• Newington: Aonach Mor guest house
• Tourist center:  MacBraens Ferry : check for “rover deal” to islands
• Edinburgh Castle (Royal Mile)
• Holyrood House (Royal Mile)
• (maybe) Scotch Whisky Heritage House (RM)
• Ntl Mus of Scotland (2 blks from RM): be sure to visit
• Royal Botanic Garden (28 acres): www.rbge.org.uk
• Dundee
• Perth
• Kinnoul Hill: view of geologic Highland Line dividing Highlands from Lowlands
• Branklyn Garden: www.branklyngarden.org.uk  
• Kirk of St John the Baptist set on Pictish foundation
• Old Scone on Tay, ancient Pictish capital
• Stone of Destiny now in Edinburgh Castle
• Pitlochry
• Beinn Bhracaigh www.beinnbhracaigh.com (12 units)
• good hotel: S side of Tay: Ardeonaig, less trafficked side of Tay
• Edradour Distillery www.edradour.co.uk
• Scottish Crannog Center, outside Kenmore, reconstructed 3000 BC dwelling interpretative center (LP:118)
• Heathergems craft shop (LP:123)
• Add stone sites
• Aberdeen
• Inverness 1
• Clachaig Inn: www.clachaiginn.com
• Glencoe “most dramatic glen in Scotland”
• island of Hanna? W from Inverness N of Ullapool
• Ft. Wm.
• Lochview Guesthouse (6 units): www.lochview.co.uk
• W Highland Museum
• Elgin: Speyside Whisky Road
• Kingussie
• Homewood Lodge; www.homewood-lodge-kingussie.co.uk (4 units only!)
• Highland Folk Museum
• Inverness 2
• Glen Mhor Hotel: www.glenmhor.com
• Culloden Battlefield (1745)
• Loch Ness
• Inverness Museum & Art Gallery
• Drumnadrochit
• Urquhart Castle
• Lybster, etc
• Grey Cairns of Camster (LP: 234)
• 4 mi N of a turn off from A99 E of Lybster
• Hill o’Many Stanes (22/600 orig. in fan shape)
• 2 mi beyond Camster turn off of A99
• Stunning view
• Cairn o’Get
• 1 mi NW of Ulbster--boggy
• Achavanich Standing Stones (30)
• 5 mi NW of Lybster
• To Orkneys
• Buy Orkney Explorer Pass –covers all HS [Historic Scotland] sites: £17 (LP: 275)
• Orkney : ferry from Scrabster via North-Link Ferries: www.northlinkferries.co.uk
• Orkney Ferries Ltd, Kirkwall: www.orkneyferries.co.uk to other islands
• Kirkwall
• Berstane House, St. Ola, outside Kirkwall (manse – family-run B&B: 3 units only!): www.HYPERLINK "http://www.berstane.co.uk/"berstaneHYPERLINK "http://www.berstane.co.uk/".co.uk
• Wideford Hill Cairn (3 concentric walls around passage & chamber): walk 3 km W
• Tankerness House/Orkney Museum, Broad St: (01856/873-191)
• Mine Howe farm, Tankerness: Iron Age
• Stromness region, along A965
• Cuween Hill Cairn, low mound over passage grave (see farmer for key)
• Maes Howe, 3rd c BC slab stones; Viking runes (F); (LP: 274—check Winter Solstice webcams: www.maeshowe.co.uk ),  buy guidebook
• *Summer Solstice recommendation: Ring of Brodgar (1560 BC): 36 stones surrounded by ditch [LP:274 says 21/60 still stand]
• Stenness Standing Stones  (4/12) nearby, 3300 BC
• Barnhouse Neolithic Village see it, LP:275)
• Unstan Chambered Tomb (01856/873-191)
• Skara Brae: village & passages (F:); visitor center w/museum, café, guidebk (LP: 272-3)
• Brough of Birsay (Norse settlement & 16th c Earls’ Palace); walk to it @ low tide (LP:275)
• Stromness
• Mill of Eyrland (old mill, now B&B: 5 units only!): www.millofeyrland.com
• Bkshop: Stromness Books & Prints (Orkneyinga Saga)
• Rolandsay
• Tomb of the Eagles, 3000 BC chambered tomb S of Windwick Bay (call Mr. R. Simison of Liddle Farm for tour): www.tomboftheeadles.co.uk ; visitor center; speculation that 340 human interments were sky burials (skellies of 14 sea eagles found LP:284)
• Shapinsay
• Ferry from Kirkwall, Orkney
• Balfour Castle: www.balfourcastle.com (6 units only)
• Grey seal & puffin colonies on adjacent uninhabited island
• Several Neolithic sites—most unexcavated
• Rousay has ca. 200 prehist monuments
• Ferry from Kirkwall, Orkney
• Midhowe Brock & Tombs = Iron Age
• Blackhammer Cairn – people & cattle bones, 3rd millennium BC
• Eday – crafting community; is matriarchal lairdship
• Ferry from Kirkwall, Orkney
• Standing stones & chambered cairns
• Sanday
• Ferry from Kirkwall, Orkney
• Belsair Hotel (3 units only!), Kettletoft, includes island’s only restaurant (01857/600-206)
• Quoyness Chambered Tomb on Elsness Penninsula [spectacular], 2900 BC
• Brochs & Viking burial grounds
• Papa Westray: rich in arch sites
• Ferry from Kirkwall, Orkney
• Holland area: Knap of Howar, 3000 BC =earliest standing house in NW Europe
• St. Boniface Church/Celtic site
• Red sandstone slab graves = Christian Viking (see quote, F: 428)
• Hoy (“High Island”)
• Ferry from Kirkwall, Orkney
• Dwarfie Stane: only eg of Neolithic rock-cut tomb in Britain (LP: 286)
• 10-min walk from Rackwick Glen
• 2 sml, burial chambers
• 3000 BC
• To Hebrides
• Lewis
• Ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway
• Marshy peat bogs
• Stornoway
• *Callandish 13 standing stones & cairn: 26 km W, off A858
• Lewis Blackhouse: 24 km NW, off A858
• Clach an Trushal @ Balanthrushal Barvas = lrgst standing stone in Scotland
• Dun Carloway Broch (Iron Age) , 32 km NW, A858
• Dun Borranish 1831 excavation “Lewis Chessmen,” ca. AD500 (replicas available)
• Cabarfeidh Hotel (collection of stag antlers/trans of name), Viking longship bar: www.cabarfeidh-hotel.co.uk
• 600 weavers
• Harris: *extraordinary landscape from Tarbert: wild water is like swimming in champagne!!
• fine hotel:
• Ferry from Tarbert to Uig on Skye: www.calmac.co.uk
• Rodel Hotel: www.rodelhotel.co.uk (only 4 units!)
• Kirk (?): lay-preacher Hamish Taylor preaches in Gaelic on Sunday
• Clach Mhicleoid (standing stone) S from Tarbert
• Scarista Standing Stone @ Sound of Taransay
• Uist
• N (Uibhist A Tuath)
• Ferry from Tarbart, Harris, to Lochmaddy & back to Skye
• Blashaval (hamlet)
• 3 Standing Stones of the False Men (Na Fir Bhreige)
• Bhaarpa Langass & Pobull Fhinn (Finn’s People): chambered tomb & stone circle
• From Langass Lodge Hotel, 6 mi S of Lochmaddy, off A867
• Berneray (Bearnaraigh) offshore island
• Borve Standing Stone
• Sollas: cairns & Standing Stones on both sides of main road
• SE to Bayhead, take A867 toward Lochmaddy
• Ben Langass: 1000 BC cairn on mt slope (excavated finds in Ntl Mus, Edinburgh)
• Main road S to Carinish Stone Circle
• S
• From Lochboisdale A865 W to B888 S to Polchar Standing Stone
• Barra ? “Garden of the Hebrides”
• Skye
• B&B (Tori & Kessler recommended)
• Dunvegan
• “ Castle: www.dunvegancastle.com said to be Britain’s oldest inhabited castle
• Skaebost Bridge
• Old cemetery w/4 Crusader graves
• Mull: a couple of 13th c castles
• Coll
• Scarinish Hotel: www.tireescarinishhotel.com
• Totronald: 2 Standing Stones, Na Sgeulachan (“Teller of Tales”)
• Tyree: Ringing Stone @ Balephetrish
• Iona ?
• Jura (Norse jura = deer): www.isleofjura.com
• Jura hotel: www.jurahotel.co.uk
• 5-minute ferry from/to Islay
• Islay
• Ardbeg distillery: www.ardbeg.com
• Bowmore distillery: www.bowmore.co.uk
• Kildalton Kirkyard Crosses (Celtic), NE of Port Ellen
• Gigha
• Ferry from Tayinloan, Kintyre Penn
• Ogham Stone
• Viking ruins
• Achamore House Gardens
• Arran
• Ferry to Brodick
• Brodick Castle mid 13th c
• Isle of Arran Heritage Mus
• Tormore
• Cairns & Standing Stones
• Kildonan
• Kildonan Hotel: www.kildonanhotel.com
• Argyll (Earraghaidheal)
• Oban
• Dungrianach B&B (2 units only!): 01631/562-840
• Dunstaffnage Castle www.undiscoveredscotland.com seat of Dalriadic monarchy from 8th c to 10th
• Kilmartin Glen (LP: 70)
• Kilmartin House Museum
• K. Sites
• Linear cemetery
• Temple Wood (2 stone circles)
• K. Kirkyard: 10th Celtic Crosses (Knights Templar?)
• Dunadd (3.5 mi S of K. Village)
• Glascow
• Advance Reservations Service (3£ service chrg/2 wks notice: 0845/225-5121)

To be put in context:

• Angus Glens
• Glen Lethnot
• Brown & White Caterthuns: 2 Iron Age hill forts
• Strathpeffer: Eagle Stone, pre-7th c Pictish (LP:222)
• Rosemarkie: Groam House Mus: www.groamhouse.org.uk (fine coll of Pictish stones LP:219)
• Blairgowrie: 8 mi E off A94: Meigle Museum has 26 Pictish stones, 7th-10th c (LP: 144)
• Portmahomac: Tarbat Discovery Center: Pictish Stones, Crop Circles, Iron Age settlement (LP:226)
• *Try to bk in advance
• *Always check w/local tourist offices!!!
• *”Take bite-sz chunks”
• *Figure for contingency plans for bad weather
• *Ferry booking important!!--do as far in advance as possible
• *Will have to make day X day decisions: savour ea experience