The updated County Information

[Andy Ven]

I bought a big colour coffee table picture book last year from Amazon by Dennis Hardley called Secrets of Scotland. I planned a rough list of places to go to just from that but I will look into the places that you mentioned. Further research needed, I think.

[gillhalfpint]

Research is so hard. I could spend a couple of months on the west coast easily and not get bored.

Gairloch was a weird site. We drove on and saw folk wandering round looking like those Smash figures from the spud advert. Various coloured round heads. Turned out they were wearing muslin thin headscarves tied over their heads to keep midgies out. We made the mistake of setting a meal up outside the tent and were fair game for them. Only place we had bother though. Walked to Poolewe and back from there. A lot fitter then.

Scourie was wonderful. Tiered site curved round like an ampitheatre so everyone got a view. If you get there, have a drive down to Handa Island. If memory serves me right it is this road where the rocks look bare and moonscape like. Strange for Scotland.

Oh heck I will get mordling if I continue. Love it to bits and only going up on East side this year to Kinross area. Unless we just go in October....

Went to Loch Carron in December once, and hired a cottage about 10 years ago. That was amazing and as I love snow we did get some up there. Thats when we did the Applecross run. Lovely cottage by Sea Loch, and if tide was up it lapped on the cottage road we had to go to park up, and we drove over seaweed. It had a real fire and was so cosy though.

Always say we will be back....

[hopwas]

Sorry for me barge in but I couldn't help reading this thread.

Went to Scotland twice in 2006 and again 2007. Visited Lossiemouth, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Nairn, Inverness, Elgin, Aviemore plus few small towns I can't remember. Best of all was viewing over Loch Ness in two seater plane (Which I was co-piloted) and Highland is just so awesome.. Would love go back again. Also loved these Scottish pubs especially 8/- beers...

[Andy Ven]

Please feel free to chip in. I'm going to print off comments and ask my Glasweigan friend during our Dudley crawl on Friday and see what he suggests as well.

[oldboots]

Please feel free to chip in. I'm going to print off comments and ask my Glasweigan friend during our Dudley crawl on Friday and see what he suggests as well.

If you have lots of time and want to see a lot of Western Scotland you could go from Glasgow up the A82 along the side of Loch Lomond. At Tarbet you could go into Argyll and head down Loch Fyne from Inverary then head to Lochgilphead. Here you can go south to Kintyre or just go as far as West Tarbert and get a ferry to Islay - 9, or is it 10 now, distilleries and 1 brewery. If you head north from Lochgilphead to Oban you can go to Mull and back in a day, then head back on the A85 towards Tyndrum - the detour through Glen Orchy is extremely nice and you come out at Bridge of Orchy. Rejoin the A82 and cross Rannoch Moor then go slowly through Glencoe. Head then to Fort William where you could take the road to the Isles and Mallaig. Don't forget Ben Nevis is here. Heading up the A82 please stop at the Commando memorial for a moment, just up the hill from Spean Bridge. Going up the Great Glen I like to turn off at Invergarry and head out on the A87 past the Five Sisters of Kintail and Eilean Donan castle. You can then head over to Skye for a couple of days, (as well as Talisker there's a brewery at Uig at the ferry port) or go up the Stromeferry road on the scenic tourist route (with the famous "No Ferry" sign). Go into Lochcarron where there's a couple of decent hotels then you can tackle the road to Applecross - the highest public road in Britain. Single track, hairpin bends and sheer drops, great fun if the weather is clear, superb dramatic scenery and views of Skye. From here stick to the coast and at Kinlochewe make the trip up the side of Loch Maree to Poolewe - a place with a fascinating World War 2 history. From there head for Ullapool and the Falls of Measach on the way, I've always missed them but they're meant to be spectacular. From Ullapool you can get a ferry out to the Western Isles if you feel like it, an interesting experience. Carry on up the coast for Scourie and Cape Wrath and then Tongue. You could go on as far as Dounray, Thurso and John O Groats or turn south through Glen Naver. Either is good and one way or the other you would end up near Dingwall and a short drive into Inverness. From there you can go back down the Great Glen taking in Loch Ness or use the A9 down to Perth or go over to Aberdeen for a view of the northern Lowlands, a very different type of Scotland to the Highlands. A word of warning, there's very little traffic in the extreme North West, everyone is curteous but they like to drive at 80mph all the time. There are of course other fine parts of Scotland, the exciting city of Glasgow, Dumfries & Galloway, Ayrshire, Edinburgh and the Borders for example but the North West is my favourite.

[gillhalfpint]

Its so good to hear someone else raving about the places I love. So many of my friends down here say Scotland - why go there - its full of midges!!

They don't know what they are missing.

[Andy Ven]

Cheers, oldboots. All advice is most welcome

[Andy Ven]

Just to feedback some comments of my Glaswegian mate.:

Oban is a working port so there are salt-of-the-earth types around there but Connel Bridge and Port Appin nearby are both nice.

He also mentioned Plockton, Skye, Ullapool, the Great Glen Road acros to Inverness then down to the bottom of Loch Ness then further down and cut across at Invergarry to the A9 to Dalwhinnie then north and east to Braemar or Perthshire.

Gairloch - quite nice
Glencoe - with its wild goats is a must see
Inverary - quite nice, nice castle

He wasn't very complimentary about Fort William. There's not much there for the locals and therefore has its social problems.

I also found this website which looks quite useful http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/index.html

[Andy Ven]

Conrad,

Just to go back to the original thrust of this thread, is there any chance you could generate some updated stats for each county so we can see which ones are lacking coverage?

[Conrad]

I am a little strapped for time at the moment, but made a note of it and hopefully should be able to rattle it up over the next week or two, feel free to hassle me if not done in a week though.