SCOTLAND

Generally Scotland is the rather old fashioned and nicer version of England. There are good roads into most areas now, and very little traffic compared to a similar sized road in England. The water is excellent from the tap as there is no limestone. Very few people speak Gaelic properly. Architecture is very stone based everywhere. Mikes tips:- If you see a petrol station- fill up! Don’t bother finding out what tartan you’re entitled to wear, just buy one you think looks nice!

Aberdeen:- Not particularly good for shopping. Only went there a few times in all the time we lived in Moray. Surrounding country is quite bland. Little to recommend it.
Mikes tips:- By Scottish standards it’s quite an expensive area due to the oil so don’t live there if you have the choice.

Borders:- An area you must drive through as you go to the interesting bits.

Edinburgh:- Nice stone architecture in centre. Take a short trip N by train and back to see the bridges if you’re into that sort of thing. Famous for the festival so good at that time if you’re into the arts. Generally more pleasant than Glasgow.

Hadrian’s Wall:- You have to look pretty hard to find anything really worth looking at as all the stone was taken to build other things anywhere near anywhere something else has been built.

Moray Firth area:- Mike would dearly like to go back to living in this area, where we were for 15 years. This area is like Mecca for Scotch Whisky buffs. Heavily influenced by the 2 large RAF stations and the oil industry offshore, this area is not prone to anti-englishness like some areas of Scotland are. The beach between Findhorn and Burghead is fantastic. The Buckie Aquarium is very good.
The Forres Gazette:- http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/bridgeford/gazette.html

North:- Beware places on the map are much further apart than they seem due to the lack of villages. Very little in the way of tourist attractions and very few tourists really, even it the middle of summer. In Britain this is the place to get away from it all. Vast open spaces. John O’Groats is worth a visit and a drive around the N and W coasts from there to Ullapool is very relaxing if you take it slow. Many A roads in the area are single track with passing places and very windy. There are some superb untouched beaches up there and you can walk virtually anywhere. We all recommend a train trip from Inverness (the only place with any kind of shopping/services) to Ullapool. It’s only an afternoon there and back but truly one of the great railway journeys of the world. Ben Nevis is a good, but reasonably civilised, climb in good weather, but be sure to take care on the top if stuck there in cloud as there are sheer 1000’ drops.

Pitlochry and area:- Definitely the most picture skew area of Scotland, and reasonably civilised with it. Quite a small area though so a week would really be stretching it to just stay in this area.

West Coast:- Very few of the ‘towns’ on the map are really more than a large village. Lots of nice scenery and wet weather.

Western Isles:- So expensive to get to and with so little to put in a tourist brochure that we never went.