Are we insane? (1 Viewer)

[Jane And Rog]

We’re planning a 4 week trip to Scotland in May. Us, new Adria Twin and Flynn the German Wirehaired Pointer. Originally the plan was islands - not just the Outer Hebrides but also some of the Southern ones, especially Islay for a couple of HWMBO’s favourite distilleries. I’ve also always wanted to walk in Skye and we have friends there.

Now it appears that HWMBO also wants to go to Orkney (Highland Park).

We live in Kent. We think we can get to Orkney in 3 days, then I presume spend something like 5 days there, then drive across to get ferry from Ullapool.

Would this leave us enough time for the Hebrides? If we cut something out, what would it be? I suppose a whisky tour might make sense - just Orkney and Skye plus Southern Hebrides? Or much less driving and just Hebrides.

 

[Nonose]

We’re planning a 4 week trip to Scotland in May. Us, new Adria Twin and Flynn the German Wirehaired Pointer. Originally the plan was islands - not just the Outer Hebrides but also some of the Southern ones, especially Islay for a couple of HWMBO’s favourite distilleries. I’ve also always wanted to walk in Skye and we have friends there.

Now it appears that HWMBO also wants to go to Orkney (Highland Park).

We live in Kent. We think we can get to Orkney in 3 days, then I presume spend something like 5 days there, then drive across to get ferry from Ullapool.

Would this leave us enough time for the Hebrides? If we cut something out, what would it be? I suppose a whisky tour might make sense - just Orkney and Skye plus Southern Hebrides? Or much less driving and just Hebrides.

That sounds like a fab trip. If you have the option, could you not make it up as you go along based on your mood /wishes etc. This would free you from an itinerary leaving you to choose your destination as you go. Regardless of the decision you make, have an amazing and safe adventure.

 

[mitzimad]

sounds like too much to me further north you go the slower youll travel

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[Gellyneck]

Given HWMBO's obvious superb taste in single malts you might want to base a bit of your trip around this?
http://www.highlandwhiskyfestival.co.uk/
Running from 10th to 17th May.

Do Scapa distillery if going to Highland Park. You can walk between them in less than half an hour.
If going to Skye you might want to factor in Talisker.
Factor in Oban if you're going to get on \ off a ferry there.
Dalwhinnie, just off the A9 if that's how your heading up, is the highest distillery in Scotland and is pretty good (watch out for the new speed limits on the A9).
Also, remember our stricter alcohol limits for driving.

Personally, I think you may be trying to squeeze in a bitty much for effectively 3 and a bit weeks once you knock off travelling to get here.

 

[bigtwin]

Do Scapa distillery if going to Highland Park. You can walk between them in less than half an hour.

If you’re going to do the one, you might as well ......

Ian

 

[lorger]

i think it's doable but as someone mentioned why not make it up as you go, you don't get a discount on ferries for booking early so do it as you go.

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[Riverbankannie]

I’m glad it’s only midday so I cannot justify getting out the bottle of Highland Park we bought on Orkney last September - only a little left!

When there we noted that the Northlink Ferry to Stromness was significantly cheaper than the others.
https://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/ports/stromness/

As someone has said above, I would plan the first part to visit Orkney and then decide where you want to go after. That’s what we did.

 

[Gellyneck]

Pentland Ferries are similarly priced to Northlink and is faster crossing.
You can leave your dog (if you have one) in your vehicle.
http://www.pentlandferries.co.uk/tariff/

 

[Jane And Rog]

Thanks all. My gut feeling was that it’s a little too much, hence the question. But I’m very keen on Orkney apart from the even more massive drive, so many interesting historical sites to see, so maybe it does make sense to start there and just see what we fancy.

Whisky festival seems to be perfectly timed! Sadly I don’t drive the van so I think it will have to be little sips for sir unless we manage to moor up nearby, which should be possible in Islay. And there’s supposed to be a very good bar in Kirkwall (which has campsite in walking distance) with over 800 malts, which will take even HWMBO a little time to complete.

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[nicholsong]

Yes, I think you are insane.

Unless you know where you are going for a holiday to recover afterwards.

Also you would be passing some incredible places/views/parking spots/castles etc. without time to enjoy them.

I know some of the ferries on shorter routes run frequently but you may have to wait for the next one and on the longer routes you will be constrained to getting there on time to board.

Yes, insane.

Geoff

 

[Gellyneck]

For a wee change you could also visit the new gin distillery down at the harbour in Kirkwall. https://www.orkneydistilling.com/
You could walk to all the distilleries from here http://orkneycaravanpark.co.uk/ with the furthest being around 30 mins.

ps pickled liver is not an optional extra at this rate!

 

[Kannon Fodda]

It's a few years now since I was in the Orkneys. I recall getting off the ferry at Scrabster at midday and somehow being back in Surrey at around 9:30 pm. And that was in a beaten up Renault Espace fully overloaded with 4 blubbery blokes each with a week's worth of technical scuba kit (Scapa Flow is a diving hotspot for the 1st World War German fleet). Some roads may be better now, but there will certainly be more cameras to slow you down.

The Highland Park Distillery was a great tour, one of the few distilleries they did everything right from the original malting of the barley. But there are loads of other historic stuff like stone age villages, standing stones, and other WWII stuff like the Italian Church in a Nissan Hut.

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[mitzimad]

It's a few years now since I was in the Orkneys. I recall getting off the ferry at Scrabster at midday and somehow being back in Surrey at around 9:30 pm. And that was in a beaten up Renault Espace fully overloaded with 4 blubbery blokes each with a week's worth of technical scuba kit (Scapa Flow is a diving hotspot for the 1st World War German fleet). Some roads may be better now, but there will certainly be more cameras to slow you down.

The Highland Park Distillery was a great tour, one of the few distilleries they did everything right from the original malting of the barley. But there are loads of other historic stuff like stone age villages, standing stones, and other WWII stuff like the Italian Church in a Nissan Hut.

are you sure it was an espace and not a formula 1 cars shaving 3 hours of a journey is impressive

 

[Gellyneck]

are you sure it was an espace and not a formula 1 cars shaving 3 hours of a journey is impressive

Averaging c75mph non-stop.

 

[Kannon Fodda]

are you sure it was an espace and not a formula 1 cars shaving 3 hours of a journey is impressive

It's only an average of 75mph, and it's downhill all the way I seem to recall one pit stop for fuel

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[Gellyneck]

It's only an average of 75mph, and it's downhill all the way I seem to recall one pit stop for fuel

Guess wind would have to have been behind as well!

 

[Stagman]

Scapa Flow distillery is currently shut for renovations until at least end of April but possibly well into May. I am a little gutted but will visit Highland Park while we are there. We sail Friday and are there for 4 nights. We know that can only be a taster of the area.
We are currently in Scotland on an 8 week tour and there is still so much we won’t see.
Islay is nice and there’s a good slip of land to wild camp just before you get to bruichladdich distillery. You could both stagger back to the van. Their gin is lovely too.
Agree with the others you would be taking rather too much on in a short period of time.
Our 1st trip without a dog in a hired motorhome from Perth was exhausting. Would be even worse with a dog to walk and stop for.
We shot round so fast in the two weeks we had, we hardly saw anything it was frustrating.
Our last trip up here was 4 weeks for Dumfries and Galloway, Kibtyre peninsula and Arran only.
We filled those weeks....but really felt we had seen a lot. Still didn’t see it all.

 

[Jane And Rog]

I agree. Our current plan is to see Orkney, Skye and maybe the Outer Hebrides. We’d leave Islay and all things southern for a different trip, possibly including Northern Ireland.

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[WillH]

Outer Hebrides is three weeks , Orkneys are two and Shetland is three. Best do some forward planning for 2021/23.