It's almost in the can. We have our final weeks apartment rented.
We've narrowed down our first three weeks to a few cottage choices in each of three general areas.
We're going to Scotland for four weeks from mid-June to mid-July.
We are rolling the dice and booking all of our cottages before we book our airline tickets.

I really believe that the airlines will be lowering their summer fares.

Right now they have sales on their spring fares. Come April and they realize that summer travel is going to be flat, I think there will be some bargains to be had.

I'm willing to wait them out.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your trip. Scotland has been on our list but we never seem to get there.

What areas are you looking at? Are you planning on going to any of the distilleries? Will you be doing any hiking?

Hi Marta, We're sticking to Edinburgh and north. First week somewhere mid-coast of the west so we can visit all the western isles. Around Oban, Fort William or Mallaig.
Second week either on the Black Isle or somewhere else in the general vacinity of Iverness. Third week on the Orkney Islands. And final week in Edinburgh.

Yes, for sure we will be doing a lot of hiking. Or as they call it there, "hill walking".
Nothing that requires camping gear or anything, we're wimps. Scotland's hiking will fit our wimp factor nicely.
We are thinking of doing the whisky trail if our rental for that week ends up being close enough. But, at least one distillary for sure.

You will at a great time. Here's one other item to put on your list - gardens! Here's the Scotish Tourism's guide. I'm trying to remember which one we wanted to visit. I think it is Inverewe which has exotic plants. But there are also many other ones. I think mid-June to July will be good because of being far north.

Deborah - I was browsing the gardens website Marta posted, and happened upon this link You and Dan could take a dual passenger chauffeured motorcycle tour of Edinburgh! How very cool is that?

Judy

Deborah, I'm gutted that you won't be making it to London. I have to admit though that Scotland is very beautiful particularly in fine weather. We once went went skiing in the Cairngorms only to find there wasn't any snow, so we were forced to spend our time visiting distilleries (those were the days when one was slightly more casual about drinking and driving). It was a wonderful holiday.

I would also suggest that you try to fit Glasgow into your schedule. It's not quite as gorgeous as Edinburgh, but still has some fabulous buildings and interesting sites. One really worthwhile excursion being to the Burrell Collection, in the south of the city. It's a fascinating collection of one wealthy individual who obviously had diverse interests. The other "draw" in Glasgow is the many traces of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I've never managed to be there at a time when there was an available tour of the Glasgow School of Art, but that link gives all the information on tours. Hope you have a fabulous time.

Thanks for that link, Marta. I checked out the garden scheme that tells you where 400 different gardens are. There are several near each of our four vacation rentals....cool!

Judy I can just see Dan and I on the back of that thing! But, seriously. It does look like fun. I might check into having them pick us up in Edinburgh during our last week and take us to Glasgow for a day.

Beebee...you could always take a little weekend break and meet us in Edinburgh for our own GTG.

Trying to visit all the western islands in a week is not a thing I could recommend. Skye is a wonderful island, both for the Coulin mountains and its little known coast south of the Dunvegan road. There is also a distillery at Carbost, where Talisker whisky is made. It's one of my favourites but some find it too peaty.

Smaller islands that I recommend are Eigg - boats from Mallaig or Arisaig - and Barra - boats from Oban. Iona is historical but if you plan to go there [via Mull] make it as early in the day as you possibly can. The sight of coaches lined up by the ferry terminal later in the morning is pretty off-putting.

The Pass of Glencoe also has history - horrible history - and the walks on either side are splendid but you should keep away from Aonoch Eagach on the north side unless you have good heads for heights. In fact Glencoe would be a good centre for the area as it's easy to get to Oban, Fort William or the Corran ferry. I have a horrible feeling that Calmac no longer runs a ferry on Wednesdays around the Small Isles - they are treated on separate trips. However trips to these islands are grand as is the boat trip up Loch Nevis

In the area of Inverness I can strongly recommend Cawdor Castle - both for the building and for its gardens.

I am an unabashed Sassenach but I do love Scotland. You may get some ideas from my maps and travel notes. I don't want to bore all the world here but by all means correspond through private messages if I can help further.

Hello Deborah

You always write so engagingly about your upcoming journeys. Might I venture to suggest that you are still trying to tackle too much in your four week stay in Scotland. You mention wanting to visit "all the western isles". Had you realised that there are more than forty islands (excluding mere rocks and islets!) in the Inner Hebrides, and yet another forty (or more) in the Outer Hebrides? To even begin to get a flavour of this area would take more than you could reasonably accomplish in a month, let alone a week.

The islands are wonderful, but demand time. Slow travel is the word. For a first foray to the Inner Hebrides, I would suggest Colonsay, and for the Outer Hebrides travel out to Harris, and return from Barra (island-hopping south along the archipelago). But these are each journeys that are mapped in days rather than hours. A day in Skye, nowadays impoverished by having a bridge to the mainland so no longer strictly an island, is for tourists. A real visit to the isles of the west demands much more.

I hope this quick thought helps.
Nicky
______________________
www.hiddeneurope.co.uk

I did a solo hike from the Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness to Aberdeen one year and have always held that as the most wonderful trip I ever have been on....however, I write to say that you should learn about the daily activity cycles of the "midgies" ("midges" if we are concerned with spelling instead of local dialect) so that you don't run screaming off the hiking trails. There were times that I was afraid to come out of my tent seeing the clouds of those tiny monsters hovering out there waiting for me.

I have had other trips to Skye, the western islands, and Orkney and am just as much in love with those areas as with the parts of Scotland that I've walked through.

Thank you all for the great comments.

David and Nicky, I'm sorry if I gave the impression that we plan to visit "all" of the western isles. What I meant to say was we wanted to be somewhere where we could have our choice of all the western isles to visit.

We actually plan to visit only three. All in the south area where we've rented a cottage on Seil.

Mull, Islay, & Jura. Our reasons for visiting Islay and Jura are probably a bit unfathomable to most people. Islay because we really would like to see Kildalton Cross as well as the active excavations of Finlaggan. Jura because it is where George Orwell wrote "1984" and because of its lack of tourism.(See I told you, unfathomable.)

As heretical as it may sound, we aren't even planning to visit Skye at all. My mother can't get over that idea. She fell in love with Skye when she visited about 20 years ago.

As it happens, our second week won't be in the Iverness area after all. We've decided this will be a good week to get our national park fix. So we've booked a cottage near Cairngorms.

Alpinista, on that walk to Aberdeen, you probably passed through the town we will be - Boat on Garten. "Midges" Man, have I done some research on midges. Here in the Midwest USA we call them no-see-ems. Or as I like to call them, "Gods favorite practical joke." I plan to take along two full bottles of Avon's Skin-So-Soft, to deal with them.

I would love to hear more about your visit to Orkney!

Ok, off now to check out David's writings and google maps!

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...you probably passed through the town we will be - Boat on Garten...I would love to hear more about your visit to Orkney!

I would have been close to Boat of Garten....I took my rest day at Grantown on Spey and have very fond memories of that area (something about the first day of sunshine after walking for 6 days in the rain certainly helped).

Orkney was an absolute delight in terms of scenery and people. This was the last trip that my wife camped with me (she was pregnant and not as thrilled with hearing the sound of rain on the tent as I was.....hmmmm, maybe "rain" is a theme here?) The people we dealt with a camp grounds, stores, and hotels (the ones we started staying at after the storm that blew away all the tents around us) were all kind beyond words.

There was a caretaker at Skara Brae who gave us a tour of the site that brought every human element of the inhabitants to life.....every home site and every artifact had a story built around it that made us feel like we were going to see some neolithic residents coming through the door.

Other places like the Stones of Stenness, the Maeshowe grave, the Ring of Brodgar, or any of the small brochs that dot the island were all dazzling.

For more recent history, being able to envision the fleets at Scapa Flow brought so much of my reading to life.

One thing we both loved was the solitude. We were usually the only people at the sites (June) and had everything to ourselves. Although we were admittedly going to some out of the way spots (anywhere there is a mound of stone or an old stone cross, I'm willing to go look for it), the roads were often equally deserted.

Neolithic burial mound and pregnant wife....what more could you ask from life?

I do need to make a disclaimer that the in utero child is now a freshman in college, so the comments above on solitude may be long out of date...but I hope not.

Wow, it appears to me that you blazed the trail for us 18 years ago. All of the things and places you mention landed on our short list as we researched. By the way, your wife 'glows' (as they say about pregnant women), in that picture.

quote:

I do need to make a disclaimer that the in utero child is now a freshman in college, so the comments above on solitude may be long out of date...but I hope not.

I've been to Orkney twice--once as a student in June 1973 and again in June 2004. There were definitely more visitors the second time, but it still wasn't exactly crawling with crowds! At Maeshowe in 1973, the key-holder at the neighboring house just gave my boyfriend and me the key and a flashlight, and in we went into the darkness of the cairn all by ourselves. Unforgettable. In 2004, my travel buddy and I had to go in with a guide and a small group and they'd installed some interior lighting, but it was still pretty damn neat. We did the usual rounds--Stenness, Brodgar, Birsay, etc.-- and while, unlike 1973, we were seldom completely alone, neither was it at all crowded.

The West Mainland (western part of the main island) has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site for about ten years, and Orkney is now on the agenda of a number of small-group archaeological and nature tours, Orkney-based and otherwise. I've seen that there are even day trips from the Scottish mainland to Orkney's Mainland. So I wouldn't vouch for its solitude during the height of summer.

By the same token, the infrastructure has been somewhat modernized for better or worse--the ferry had carpets and cushy seats in 2004, so it didn't feel like an adventurous voyage, but admittedly it was awfully nice to have a supermarket in Kirkwall that was open evenings. There are also more archaeological sites accessible than in 1973, and with better onsite interpretation.

I've been told that the North Isles, even Rousay, the closest, don't get much visitor overflow from Mainland even now. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get there because the treelessness and endless drizzle afffected my travel buddy so badly that I agreed to cut the visit short and head on back to the sunny south (Edinburgh, Borders, and SW). Bummer. I really want to go back.

A while back I did a continuing ed short course in archaeology at the University of Edinburgh (where I'd done an academic-year archaeology course before the first Orkney visit). The tutor was Caroline Wickham-Jones, whom I thought was excellent. She has since moved to Orkney. I know she sometimes leads archaeology tours there for Brightwater Holidays and maybe for other outfits, if anyone's interested. Disclaimer: I haven't gone on any of her tours or any other Orkney tours (though the class did do a weekend in Kilmartin), so I can't give an authoritative recommendation.

You mentioned that you're interested in some "wimpy" walks. One I can suggest is the sea trail south of St. Andrews. Some wonderful North Sea views and quaint fishing villages with some of the best fish & chips I've ever eaten. (Anstruther)

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davidx wrote ... I don't want to bore all the world here

I've just read your wonderful Scotland notes and I can't see how anything you might add could possibly not be of interest to all of us. I can't wait to go back to Scotland and try out as many of your suggestions as possible, starting at the southernmost broch and ending with the puffins near Cape Wrath.

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. We've got all four of our rentals booked now. We've made some very lovely contacts with people in each of the areas we will be visiting and are getting some wonderful suggestions.
I've had our planning on hold until the summer airfare sales start.
Once we book our flights and rental car I'll be getting excited again, I'm sure. So, keep your comments coming.

Hi Deborah,

You will love Scotland. Have fun with your planning. Have you come across the undiscovered Scotland website? I've used it regularly for planning Scottish Holidays.
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/

We had a week in Orkney a few years ago it is marvellous for prehistoric remains. You might find the information on husband's website useful:
http://homepage.mac.com/wasley...rthisles/Menu46.html

For pictures one of the best sites I've found is:
http://www.charles-tait.co.uk/library/orkneyl.html
The Orkney Jar website is fascinating - information about everything you could possibly want to know about and even more.
Finally a good website for pictures of Orkney and other parts of Scotland you are interested in is:
http://www.doughoughton.com/webpage/index.html
Have fun.
Eleanor

After all that I forgot to give you the link to Orkney Jar:
http://www.orkneyjar.com/orkney/index.html

Eleanor

Eleanor, those are great links. Thanks!
Yes, undiscovered scotland has been my most useful site.

I found three of my four rentals there.

quote:

In the area of Inverness I can strongly recommend Cawdor Castle - both for the building and for its gardens.

Macbeth!! The Thane of Cawdor...

quote:

Cawdor Castle - Macbeth!! The Thane of Cawdor...

On my tour of Cawdor Castle, the guide told the story of MacBeth being in residence in great detail.....didn't take kindly to my question about 400 or so year gap between MacBeth and the actual construction of the castle....always knew that all those British history courses would come in handy some day

Bought our tickets today.

Flying in and out of Edinburgh with the OneWorld partnership of American & British Airways.

$811 per person plus $188 taxes and fees.
We just squeeked in under $2,000. NOW no more looking at prices. The sure way to ruin your satisfaction is to find out if you had waited one more week, you could have saved a couple of hundred more.

Time to search for a car now.

We received our PDF file from Secret Scotland the other day.
More than ONE HUNDRED pages of recommendations & links to other websites. All focused on our trip. I've printed of a copy for reading and highlighting. And I've downloaded the file to a thumb drive so we can take it along with us to access the links on our laptop.
Last night I figured out the ferry schedule to and from Orkney. The timing is going to be perfect.

Eleanor, loved the link you posted to the Stone Pages on another thread. Thanks! It is one I hadn't found yet.

Yes, thanks for the link. I'm planning trips to both Scotland and Ireland and that site looks as if it will be very helpful when I come to choose which of the very many stones mentioned in the guide books to visit.

Don't know if you are interested, but here's my trip report from last summer, I spent three weeks in Scotland, mostly in the highlands and islands...

http://www.greendragonartist.c...portScotland2008.htm

Scotland reading list, from A Traveler's Library:
http://atravelerslibrary.com/2...1/books-for-scotland

Green Dragon, your trip report was very cool. Thanks for sharing.

Green Dragon, I loved your photos and report. Okay, now I'm so torn. I'm dying to go to Skye!!! (tearing my hair out!)

Countdown has started. We leave in eight days. I'm not ready. But at least I have a list made for what I need to do to BE ready. Does that count?

I'm so excited for you all, and so excited to read about your trip, day by day. And the phtos! Those will be spectacular, no matter what! Have a great time and be sure to keep us posted!