Chit Chat
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
And it was a bloody long drive.
My offician tour guide for anyone journeying from the south of England.
If anyone else has done this trip, I'd be interested in knowing if you found it the same.
About 600 miles each way plus a bit of driving round the Island and the area generally.
Every property, shed, shack, caravan and anything else with a roof is a B&B or guest house.
Staying in the bit of mainland near the Skye Bridge (which was a bit smaller than I'd anticipated, but nonetheless quite impressive), was boring.
Plockton, which had been raved about by others - hence the trip is small and incredibly unexciting. Duirinish, consisting of a few small houses in various states of repair and nothing else, and other tiny villages, were all a bit boring.
The last bit - about 70 miles - of the drive was through mountains and soon became uninteresting and samey....
But...
Once over the Skye bridge, the scenery, the road and the general difference to the mainland, made it all worthwhile. Just a mile or 2 in and there's a reasonable sized co-op supermarket, which was jolly useful, then it's about 32 miles more to Portree, (capital/main town of Skye) and with every corner turned and every mountain driven round there is a new and beautiful piece of scenery to gawp at. A little stroll around town, which was pleasant enough. A visit to "The little cake shop" where I was almost certainly - and quite deliberately the 20th person of the week to ask if she had any "little cakes". Bought some big cakes.
Then it's a big loop around the top of the island (120 miles total on Skye) with a couple of hitch-hikers (a young couple -French and S. Korean, who instead of going to their destination decided to travel most of the island with us!), before back over the bridge and driving to Stirling, randomly picked because it would be part way home and save on the big drive back, and mostly because once you've spent day around the Kyle of Lochalsh and surrounding area, you've pretty much seen it and there isn't much else to do.
There were, naturally enough, 1000's of tourists, most seemed to be European, and in both our boarding houses nearly every guest was German apart from a couple of Portuguese ladies and a Chinese couple.
In the various cafes and Bars on our travel around, there were a few Australians working there and other accents I couldn't tell the origins of, but we didn't see/speak to any other English people during our 48 hours in Scotland!
The route, just in case anyone fancies emulating it:- M11, A14, A1, A68 (I love this road)... stop in Jedburgh, cup of not lovely coffee, nasty Bacon roll. Carry on A68 to Edinburgh, go round Edinburgh, then M9, past Falkirk and Bannockburn, to A85 try to stop in Callander - REALLY busy place can't find anywhere to park so don't bother, carry on to Lochearnhead, turn right (not on route) towards big water. Stop have coffee look at big water, jet skiiers, boats. Very nice. Back up A85 to A82, towards and through Fort William - Busy place again, looked quite nice but we didn't stop. Ben Nevis was just to our right apparently. It IS a bit hilly there. Then a bit more A82, some A87 to just short of Skye. Stop, absorb general moans about nearly everything. Get some crappy food in an overstretched restaurant in Plockton, back to B&B absorb more moans about nearly everything, look out of window to a quite lovely view and see it's still quite light out and it's 11.30pm!!!!!
Get up, lovely breakfast, say "Sorry only 1 night", make excuses, pay, go round Skye. Then at about 3pm back over bridge - after discarding hitchhikers, head south... back down A87 until we find a place with Wi-Fi because we'd like to book somewhere to get head down for the night. Find and book a place in Stirling - set up sat nav. Start getting agitated by slow drivers, and even more (possibly unreasonably) agitated by all the hoards of motorbikes everywhere. Get past Fort William - about a 10 min traffic jam, the only one anywhere, so far. Down A82... continue down A82, get lied to by SatNav about staying on A82, when it probably meant go on A84, fiddle with satnav, which still said stay on A82, listen to satnav say "where possible, make a U-Turn", a bit difficult as the A82 travels alongside and down the entire sodding length of Loch Lomond.
and we needed to be on the other side of it, 30 mile extra detour and about 45 minutes extra in the car, we eventually get to Stirling. Average B&B, Local chippy, v nice. Bed. Up, less than good breakfast, in car, decide to go home quickest way, M80, M74, M6, refuel in Penrith - 1/2 a mile off motorway is about 18p a litre cheaper. A66, stop in Appleby-in-Westmoreland, Pretty, very small, easy to park, nice snack and coffee. A66, A1, A14/M11 Massive gridlock traffic jam (both sides of road having had separate incidents) get held up about 90 minutes. Not nice in V hot weather after so much driving. Go to brother's house, swap his nice new auto (was a good idea to swap), for my old banger. Home. 6am Sunday - to 9pm Tuesday.
1350 miles covered.
Bed. Sleep 9 hours straight. Back to work.
Overall:
Even though it was perfect weather and a real break...
We could have had a week in Spain or similar, with all food and spending money and been waited on and at this point have been only half-way through the holiday, for less money!
My offician tour guide for anyone journeying from the south of England.
If anyone else has done this trip, I'd be interested in knowing if you found it the same.
About 600 miles each way plus a bit of driving round the Island and the area generally.
Every property, shed, shack, caravan and anything else with a roof is a B&B or guest house.
Staying in the bit of mainland near the Skye Bridge (which was a bit smaller than I'd anticipated, but nonetheless quite impressive), was boring.
Plockton, which had been raved about by others - hence the trip is small and incredibly unexciting. Duirinish, consisting of a few small houses in various states of repair and nothing else, and other tiny villages, were all a bit boring.
The last bit - about 70 miles - of the drive was through mountains and soon became uninteresting and samey....
But...
Once over the Skye bridge, the scenery, the road and the general difference to the mainland, made it all worthwhile. Just a mile or 2 in and there's a reasonable sized co-op supermarket, which was jolly useful, then it's about 32 miles more to Portree, (capital/main town of Skye) and with every corner turned and every mountain driven round there is a new and beautiful piece of scenery to gawp at. A little stroll around town, which was pleasant enough. A visit to "The little cake shop" where I was almost certainly - and quite deliberately the 20th person of the week to ask if she had any "little cakes". Bought some big cakes.
Then it's a big loop around the top of the island (120 miles total on Skye) with a couple of hitch-hikers (a young couple -French and S. Korean, who instead of going to their destination decided to travel most of the island with us!), before back over the bridge and driving to Stirling, randomly picked because it would be part way home and save on the big drive back, and mostly because once you've spent day around the Kyle of Lochalsh and surrounding area, you've pretty much seen it and there isn't much else to do.
There were, naturally enough, 1000's of tourists, most seemed to be European, and in both our boarding houses nearly every guest was German apart from a couple of Portuguese ladies and a Chinese couple.
In the various cafes and Bars on our travel around, there were a few Australians working there and other accents I couldn't tell the origins of, but we didn't see/speak to any other English people during our 48 hours in Scotland!
The route, just in case anyone fancies emulating it:- M11, A14, A1, A68 (I love this road)... stop in Jedburgh, cup of not lovely coffee, nasty Bacon roll. Carry on A68 to Edinburgh, go round Edinburgh, then M9, past Falkirk and Bannockburn, to A85 try to stop in Callander - REALLY busy place can't find anywhere to park so don't bother, carry on to Lochearnhead, turn right (not on route) towards big water. Stop have coffee look at big water, jet skiiers, boats. Very nice. Back up A85 to A82, towards and through Fort William - Busy place again, looked quite nice but we didn't stop. Ben Nevis was just to our right apparently. It IS a bit hilly there. Then a bit more A82, some A87 to just short of Skye. Stop, absorb general moans about nearly everything. Get some crappy food in an overstretched restaurant in Plockton, back to B&B absorb more moans about nearly everything, look out of window to a quite lovely view and see it's still quite light out and it's 11.30pm!!!!!
Get up, lovely breakfast, say "Sorry only 1 night", make excuses, pay, go round Skye. Then at about 3pm back over bridge - after discarding hitchhikers, head south... back down A87 until we find a place with Wi-Fi because we'd like to book somewhere to get head down for the night. Find and book a place in Stirling - set up sat nav. Start getting agitated by slow drivers, and even more (possibly unreasonably) agitated by all the hoards of motorbikes everywhere. Get past Fort William - about a 10 min traffic jam, the only one anywhere, so far. Down A82... continue down A82, get lied to by SatNav about staying on A82, when it probably meant go on A84, fiddle with satnav, which still said stay on A82, listen to satnav say "where possible, make a U-Turn", a bit difficult as the A82 travels alongside and down the entire sodding length of Loch Lomond.
and we needed to be on the other side of it, 30 mile extra detour and about 45 minutes extra in the car, we eventually get to Stirling. Average B&B, Local chippy, v nice. Bed. Up, less than good breakfast, in car, decide to go home quickest way, M80, M74, M6, refuel in Penrith - 1/2 a mile off motorway is about 18p a litre cheaper. A66, stop in Appleby-in-Westmoreland, Pretty, very small, easy to park, nice snack and coffee. A66, A1, A14/M11 Massive gridlock traffic jam (both sides of road having had separate incidents) get held up about 90 minutes. Not nice in V hot weather after so much driving. Go to brother's house, swap his nice new auto (was a good idea to swap), for my old banger. Home. 6am Sunday - to 9pm Tuesday.
1350 miles covered.
Bed. Sleep 9 hours straight. Back to work.
Overall:
Even though it was perfect weather and a real break...
We could have had a week in Spain or similar, with all food and spending money and been waited on and at this point have been only half-way through the holiday, for less money!
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 58
|
By:
A very extensive review and hats off to you for finding the time to put it on here.A good read.
|
|
By:
Yes, marvellous entertainment from STUDYFORM.
Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXD62-5GQNw |
|
By:
^Only the bit at the start of course.
|
|
By:
I agree with twizzle22.
|
|
By:
 Apart from the back to work bit   |
|
By:
workshy fop
|
|
By:
study, dont stop in callender go on to kilmahog about mile after ( if that ) parking there failing that carry on over stone bridge, carry on up road with loch on left and newish car park on lochside- very nice, have to pay to park but minimal charge. also got caf and toilets .
wont be many english on skye as kids not broke up yet- was no spare rooms last year during english school holidays and police advising only to travel to island if got accommodation. a68 is nice road , very quiet , up to carter bar ( border ) and then down into scotland - hairpintastic. |
|
By:
A very interesting read. I have been considering a trip there, but was wavering. Thanks for helping me make up my mind, Study.
|
|
By:
Flying to Inverness from Gatwick for example is an option. Hire a car and drive to Skye.
|
|
By:
I did that some years ago, injera. flew to Inverness, drove round the top, via John O'Groats to ullapool.
Was quite good. |
|
By:
Only 'quite' good?! I'm thinking of doing that. Been to Inverness and boat trip on Loch Ness before which was stunning.
You did well to drive it but doesn't sound like much of a rest! |
|
By:
Henry Cole did a similar trip on a motorbike, don't think he was very impressed either.
|
|
By:
I had a great break in Inverness. There are several small hotels on the banks of the river about 50 ft from the water. Plenty to see-trips on the lock, Castle Urquhart, Culloden, Loch Ness Monster Centre, walks along the river bank. Highly enjoyable.
|
|
By:
The midges the midges beware of the midges.
They even wrote a song about them: https://www.bing.com/search?q=the+midges&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IETR02&pc=EUPP_UE10&conversationid= Itch scratch swat, there's no escape Jimmy. |
|
By:
It was in 2000, and I found the Inverness-Ullapool drive quieter.
The kids were little and it was even OK for them! There were a few interesting places to visit; Sweet shop in Dingwall, Glass place in Caithness, John O'Groats, Caves of Smoo, Ullapool, (playing a little round of golf at 10pm was fun. I seem to remember visiting a museum and some gardens and then Culloden when we got back to Inverness. This week's trip had nothing notable. Never saw any midges - despite warnings and midge spray. |
|
By:
|
|
By:
"I have never seen so many motorbikes as over those 3 days."
All down to North Coast 500 study which has took off exponentially. Did Lands End /John O Groats cycling last year and despite trying to book accomodation 6 weeks in advance out of school holiday period had great difficulty getting accomodation in the Highlands. |
|
By:
Must be a few thousand square miles of nothing but places to stay.
I'd be surprised if the school holidays made that much difference, not least because it's not all that interesting for kids compared to nearly every other type of holiday. That's the first time I've heard of the north coast 500. It's mostly around the area to the north of where I went. Though I do notice Plockton is part of it  .The rest is pretty much the route I took in 2000. I'd probably have sworn at even more motorbikes if I'd gone on that road! |
|
By:
Apparently someone is going to take the midges caught in midge catching machines and make midge burgers out of them :)
|
|
By:
A wee bitty too much driving in that short period on Sheety roads ,getting annoyed at Bikers was the stress and frustration kicking in ,if only you had got out the car and took a stroll up Bruach na Frithe or similar it would have helped the headach ,sore eyes and eased the deep vein thrombosis ,you might of even seen a midge too.
|
|
By:
It was a lot of driving, but as I say, having a decent auto with good aircon made it a lot easier.
I found the motorway driving worst overall. My mild irritation with bikes was well contained. (I used to ride a motorbike years ago). You are right though - It did make me a bit tired in the end. |
|
By:
Plockton, which had been raved about by others - hence the trip is small and incredibly unexciting
what were you expecting, a water park? Plockton is a tiny wee place on the road to nowhere. Pretty wee village tho |
|
By:
Not a water park, no, I wouldn't have liked that.
But only 2 places to eat and nothing else there. That said, the staff in the place we did eat in were many and friendly. The overwhelming feeling is though, that they know there will be loads of one-time only visitors, so they don't have to be too marvellous with food. Anyway, just writing as I find. |
|
By:
it is what it is but any service can be improved, i love that part of the world so a bit bias.
i dunno about you but when i'm "home" i'm way more critical of service because i'm embarrassed if it is poor. i will put up with sh1t service overseas but will pull them up over here. a line must be drawn  2 |
|
By:
To be fair, the service was brilliant. The food was poor.
I think my main issue is with the 2 people who said how fantastic Plockton is! Given the volume of tourism through the place, it really could be improved a bit. I don't mean like Benidorm, but maybe somewhere with tables/chairs outside? |
|
By:
Plockton is famous because of Hamish Macbeth, who was a maniac in trainspotting.
|
|
By:
Plockton? Plenty of small hotels on Skye and all serving decent grub.
Not stayed overnight for ahile but The Broadford Hotel was good. Stayed in a B&B in Uig where the view is dramatic. Scenery in general superb and loads of places for a swim. Need to get out of your car and go walkabout to see the local wildlife. Red Deer, Otters and the adorable looking Pine Martins albeit they are few and far between. Take a boat trip to see the seal colonies or the Whales and Dolphins. Always loved my trips to Skye. |
|
By:
Want to get over to the east coast imo. East neuk of Fife my fav place on the mainland.
i do love Mull tho |
|
By:
Had never heard of Plocton until last year ,place keeps cropping up in convos ,think its that 500 route thing,foreign dude I know told me he was going there in March /April I told him to wrap up but he suggested it was palm trees a postcard picture place ,he nearly got stuck there with the snow and done same thing ,drove up and went around sky ,Eileen Donan castle etc and back down in with one night stopover ,tried to tell him to go up past the Kyle to Ullapool (some ugly birds up thar ) and over to Inverness and come down A9 but he was having none of it rambled on about this route 500 thang ,was once fishing the River Moy on the east coast many years ago , but it was warm and dry and one night we drove to ullapool for a plate of scampi on a fri night ,thar was music ale and birds (ugly wans
 ) and I stayed for the weekend ,  |
|
By:
outlander
 time of year makes a big diff sept is good - less quiet |
|
By:
Reading the thread title I thought Study was set to regale us with a traditional Caledonian folk song.
♫ Oh, I just came down from the Isle of Skye ♫ ♫ The men wear skirts and shout "och aye" ♫ ♫ The lassies could drink an alehouse dry ♫ ♫ I'll be back up on Friday ♫ Once more with feeling. |
|
By:
problem with plocton is a properties are second homes, place is dead lot of the time, think ex labour women cabinet member has got one there ( sorry cant remember her name ) .
recommend mull to anyone who hasn't been- try and keep out of kiddies holidays as very busy, particularly now with lower ferry fairs. |
|
By:
I thought the thread title was obvious. PM.
I was thinking of "Donald where's your troosers" |
|
By:
They are not old enough to remember, Study. It was a very popular choice with Uncle Mac on Children's Favourites on A Saturday morning on BBC Radio.!
|
|
By:
Ya ripped ya knickers Jock!
|
|
By:
Gunna get a motorsickle and rediscover my youth .
|
|
By:
The Black Watch - finest regiment in the world.
|
|
By:
I've been to plockton, and had a pint in the pub (is there more than one)?
If my memory was it was right on the street so no place to put anything like tables out front. I think there was a chip shop in a caravan, or did I imagine that? Aha! https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g319815-d1776356-Reviews-The_Harbour_Fish_Bar-Plockton_Ross_and_Cromarty_Scottish_Highlands_Scotland.html This has tables and benches outside. It IS like disneyland! |
|
By:
The chip shop was in a sort of shed, nearly opposite the pub/restaurant - tbf, it couldn't be far as there are only a few streets. It closed at 8pm. we got there at 8.03, the bloke inside didn't even look up when we tried the door.
|