Scotland Roadtrip — Lauren Terry

This October we spent a week in Scotland visiting Edinburgh and the Highlands. I thought the itinerary was really great, so much so that it inspired me to set up this site and share it here.

I’d highly recommend October as a time to visit - the autumn colours throughout the landscape were beautiful and we were pleasantly surprised by the weather, although it did rain sometimes we also got a fair amount of sunshine too. If the weather was bad we usually just had to wait a bit and it would turn around.

Edinburgh

We took the sleeper train from London Euston to Edinburgh. This is more expensive than getting the standard train up in the day but meant we could head up Friday night and be ready to enjoy Edinburgh first thing on Saturday, plus it was quite fun too!

Drink: I’d really recommend Smith & Gertrude wine bar - great wine, cheese, lovely interiors and the friendliest staff. It’s also located in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh which is a great area to wander around and enjoy some of Edinburgh’s best Georgian houses and plant-filled mews.

Visit: The National Museum of Scotland is great. I’d particularly recommend catching the hourly chime of the millennium clock tower (it’s insane in a great way) and also heading up to the rooftop for a great view over the city. Another great viewpoint over the city is Calton Hill, and it’s good bang for your buck in terms of it not requiring too much effort (it’s very close to the train station and the climb up isn’t much at all) but delivers a great view.

Eat: We had a delicious lunch at Fin & Grape. We stayed with family so didn’t do too much eating out but another place that I thought looked really great was Micheal’s.

Oban/Inverlonan Bothy

We stayed at Inverlonan, a remote bothy on a loch near Oban. The stay in the bothy was a really special experience in itself, the bothy is off-grid so you cook your food on the log fires and there’s an outdoor shower. You can swim in the loch and there’s also paddleboards or a kayak you can help yourself to.

Eat: The first night we made pizzas with dough and toppings provided by Inverlonan (there’s also an outside pizza oven) and another night we got the beef and beetroot stew and (very buttery!) mash also from the chef at Inverlonan and I’d highly recommend both of these. They also offer a private dining experience that looks very special.

Visit: If you’re into ceramics then Argyll Pottery is a great stop.

Day trip from Oban: Glencoe

One day we drove from Inverlonan up to Glencoe and simply just driving around this area is a real treat.

Hike: We left the car at this car park (really just a layby at the side of the road) and hiked up Beinn a’ Chrulaiste which gives great views along the steep-sided Glencoe valley and across to it’s very impressive neighbour Buachaille Etive Mòr. I will warn you that the hike is almost exclusively a steep walk up and then a steep walk back down, but honestly gives some incredible views as a reward. [Distance: 7km, Elevation Gain: 560m.]

Glenelg

Glenelg is a small village on the mainland opposite the Isle of Skye. It felt like such a special place to stay with the local sheep and even some cows roaming free around the village.

There’s a great car ferry that joins Glenelg to the Isle of Skye. I’m a real loser so loved everything about getting the tiny car ferry, plus we saw seals on the crossing!

Eat: The local pub, The Glenelg Inn, is incredible - open fire, tartan carpet and I think the best meal I’ve ever had in a pub (we had langoustine, scallops and beef shin). Book ahead if you want to eat dinner here. We liked it so much we came back for a drink every evening we were staying here, to the point where the staff started to recognise us.

Stay: We stayed in this airbnb, which was very well equipped and quite reasonably priced.

Day trip from Glenelg: Isle of Skye

You can either just drive from Glenelg to the Isle of Skye, or you can take the car ferry (which slightly shortens the journey).

Visit: We mainly just enjoyed driving around the Isle of Skye but a particular highlight was the drive up to and the stop at The Quiraing. If the weather had been better a hike from this spot would have been lovely too.

Eat: We stopped for lunch at Birch Cafe which serves soup, sandwiches, pastries and great coffee. Everything we had was delicious.

Stay: We didn’t stay on the Isle of Skye but a couple of places I really like the look of are The Crofter’s House and The Black Shed.

Day trip from Glenelg: Applecross

Another great day trip from Glenelg is to Applecross including the famous Bealach na Bà mountain pass drive. We were a tad unlucky with the weather that day and the top of the Bealach na Bà drive was covered in clouds, so we didn’t quite get the best of the views, but I’d still really recommend.