Bumping the thread because my wife and I are doing a 2 week UK/Scotland trip in mid September. We are flying into London then taking a train up to Newcastle for a couple days, then a couple days in Edinburgh, a few days in Inverness, back down to Glasgow for a couple days, then the rest of the trip in London.
Lots of good ideas upthread but something I didn’t see mentioned were distilleries. I wouldn’t mind doing a distillery tour while we’re up in the Inverness area. Any good suggestions? Do I need to make reservations ahead of time?
Inverness is on the western edge of the Speyside whisky region, so the short answer is yes, loads within about an hour’s drive.
If youve got a favourite Speyside, this is your chance to visit, otherwise Tomatin is good and probably the closest yo Inverness, Aberlour is worth a visit and has the advantage of being in an attractive small town where you could also b get a meal (never a bad idea if youre doing a tasting).
In Inverness there is a Malt Whisky Experience which while not a distillery will give you a good walk through the history amd process without requiring transport.
Speaking of which, worth looking for a tour operation that will do transport and arrange booking which is safer to have.
Just in case you don’t mean whisky there are gin a few gin distilleries as well. One on the outskirts of Aviemore has tours and one in Perth says it will “soon”. Both are on the train line to Inverness.
Mid September is past peak season, but there will still be plenty of tourists around. Probably better to book, especially if you have one place you want to visit and a short time frame, but maybe not necessary to book very long in advance.
I had a friend visit me who wanted to go to a distillery in the off season. She found the website of a small local one and saw it was all ‘Sold out’, all week. I called them up, as that seemed unlikely, and their response was pretty much ‘Oh, you want to come today? Or tomorrow? No problem, when will you arrive?’ We were met at the entrance and had a private tour. Pretty sure we were the only visitors all day.
It won’t be like that at the bigger places near Inverness, but I can assure you you can find some distillery in Scotland that will have availability if you’re not too picky about which.
That looks awesome. Whisky, Scottish folk music, history… a little bit of everything.
My wife found a couple of tour companies that do one-day trips to a couple of distilleries. And also day trips to Skye. We may wind up doing all three!
When I went to Edinburgh about a million years ago, I remember enjoying it when we hiked up to the top of Arthur’s Seat. It’s not too much of a workout, and the views are very pretty.
The clocks change on the 25th Octobers I’d suggest that’s the latest you want to still be on holiday. Scotland’s about as far north as Hudson Bay so it will seem dark quite early on - and a lot of the seasonal tourist places will close then, or earlier.
As mentioned earlier, Edinburgh in August is packed and very expensive - it’s always expensive, but even moreso in August so I’d avoid it then unless you have a very good reason to visit.
It is packed with museums, galleries and fairly easily climbed hills - small ones in town and up to 2,000 feet on the southern edge. Edinburgh has several castles and if you want one without the crowds but with battlements, dungeons and looking a bit like a ruin, I’d suggest Craigmillar Castle, a short trip from the centre of town. History and stories | Craigmillar Castle | Historic Scotland
There are load of cute little (ex)fishing villages along both sides of the Firth of Forth (the estuary Edinburgh lies on) and some are very easy to get to. North Berwick, for instance.
Dunfermline, which was Scotland’s capital in the middle ages, is also a short journey away, as is Linlithgow, although I think it’s palace is closed for essential work at the moment. It’s still very impressive from the surrounding parkland and lochside walk though.