West coast of Scotland

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

Planning a road trip next week, starting in Dumfries and heading up the west coast of jock land, maybe as far as Fort William.

 

I'd appreciate any advice on places to see / things to do from folk who've been up there.

 

Cameras and walking is the main reason for going. Maybe a distillery trip. Ferry over to one of the isles?

[Monkeys Fist 39296]

The drive from Fort William to Skye is pretty spectacular.

Talisker Distillery on Skye too.

If you go to Skye, the Cuillins are the biggest , but here …

… is my favourite part of Skye. The stack is called the Old Man of Storr, in the North East of the island.

[Renton 18326]

I'm jealous. The west coast of Scotland is simply stunning, it's a pleasure driving up the A82. You have Loch Lomond, then Crianlarich, Ben Dorain (looks like a mini Mount Fuji), the Blackmount, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe, the Mamores, and then Fort William (bit of a dump). Definitely worth taking a detour to see Glen Etive and Glen Nevis (looks alpine). If you go further North it just gets better. Skye is an obvious choice but Torridon also looks like something from Lord of the Rings. Gairloch on the coast is canny and things just get surreal north of Ullapool. Worth considering visiting other Hebridean islands as well - Mull would be a good choice.

 

But there's a snag. The weather is likely to be completely shit and cancel out any views you might get. But you might be lucky.

 

I'd like some advice on distilleries too. If you're passing through Glasgow you could try the Glengoyne distillery just south of Loch Lomond. I went there this summer and had an interesting tour and the tour girls are hot. Tartan skirts always do it for me.

[Tooj 17]

 

Go and see Eilean Donan castle.

[JawD 48]

Love it up that neck of the woods like. From that film above you could drop by and see the castle at Eilean Donan. It's higher than Fort William but if you are going up that far you should go the extra bit and go across to Skye anyway.

[Guest alex]

As mentioned Fort William is nowt special but the route there (via Glen Coe) is amazing. It depends how long you're going for as well and if you're only away for a short break, then whilst Skye is beautiful it's a hell of a long way to go to just basically drive there and come straight back. You need a few days to even begin to appreciate it. I've been to Mull a few times and it's a beautiful island. It's also a lot easier to get to than Skye (ferry from Oban). The ferries are quite expensive though and you should probably book ahead to be on the safe side. Skye can be accessed by road rather than by ferry, the bridge is at the Kyle of Lochalsh.

There's a Munro on Mull (Ben More) and several on Skye if you fancy a challenging walk. I've done Ben More.

Also, there aren't as many distilleries around that neck of the woods as you might expect. However, there's a one at Oban, one at Tobermory (Mull) and one on Skye (as mentioned before - Talisker). The latter is the nicer whisky of the three imo Also an alternative to making an island trip would be to drive up to Ullapool as the coastline there (Wester Ross) is really spectacular too (sea on one side, mountains on the other).

I'm off to Scotland next week as it happens although I'm going to the Central Highlands this time (I usually go to the West Coast / one of the islands).

[ajax_andy 0]

If you're starting in Dumfries then just keep the pedal to the metal until you are out the other side of it.

 

The missus and me went camping there in the summer and it's a shit hole of the highest proportions.

[Lake Bells tits 1]

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

Thanks to all for advice, gives me something to go on.

 

I think Oban is probably going to be the furthest town North now rather than Fort William. Looked at ferry over to Mull but £70 seemed too steep to really justfy it given time constraints.

[Guest alex]

What about heading over to 'Scotland in miniature', Arran? Especially seeing as you're not far away at all in Dumfries and you're a bit pushed for time. The Highland/Lowland divide cuts through the island so the south half is all rolling hills whilst the north is rugged and mountainous. It has a distillery (at Lochranza) too. I've done the tour there and it was pretty good. Worth thinking about anyway.