Scotland
This is part of our holiday of Scotland, Norway and Amsterdam, and seeing the remarkable Northern Lights.
When you think of Scotland you probably conjure up images of craggy mountains, crumbling castles and majestic landscapes worthy of royalty. Truth is that’s not too far from the truth.
In February 2024 we spent about ten days travelling around Scotland. Many people spend weeks doing this, so it was a quick tour of the highlights – and there are many.
This was our journey:
- Fly into London, then a quick BA flight up to Edinburgh
- In Edinburgh we stayed at the Virgin Hotel at the top of the famous Victoria Street (that looks like it’s straight out of Harry Potter)
- In a hire car, driving up through the snowfields area to Spean Bridge near Fort William
- A couple of nights on the Isle of Skye, enjoying the crisp clean air and the Scotch that makes this place famous.
- A few days in a rustic stone cottage in Aviemore, giving us access to lots of beautiful destinations around the Highlands
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is a beautiful city that is steeped in history – from the famous Castle that sits with a view out over most of the city, to the Royal Mile and some more modern history from the Harry Potter books.
Spean Bridge
Spean Bridge is a little village about two hours drive from Edinburgh, close to the larger town of Fort William.
It’s an area that is famous for its skifields (at least in winter when there’s been enough snow, which isn’t this year), and access to many of the Lochs and mountain walks in the area.
The drive there takes you past postcard scenes with snow capped mountains hovering over lochs, in places like Ben Lomond and Stirling, home of a beautiful castle that is open to the public.
Isle of Skye
The Isle of Skye is probably responsible for those images locked in your head of those brown and fawn coloured rolling hills, that glowing light, and the smell and tastes of ocean and whisky.
The drive there was wild, mainly because of the weather, but also because it took us through some beautiful countryside – up and down mountains, over historic bridges that seem to have been there for hundreds of years, and whizzing past castles that have been there for even longer.
We stayed at the Cuillin Hills Hotel at Portree. Much of the town was closed because it was quiet season. A quick drive away was the famous Talisker distillery which makes Scotch, and little inns which serve up fresh seafood like mussels and scallops from nearby.
We were treated to a quick dusting of snow, and a spectacular sunset.
Scottish Highlands
We based ourselves near Aviemore, a moderately busy village where in the deepest parts of the Scottish winter, is normally bustling with skiiers. It’s a town with lots of adventure sports.
We stayed in a beautiful little stone cottage which had red squirrels and robbins which would visit us regularly.
We visited local lochs, which were like glass, and came across herd of the famous Scottish Highland Cows.
It was also a couple of hours drive through snow and rolling mountains to Balmoral Castle, where you could walk through the grounds and see where the Queen spent so much time.
