Highlands, continued!

[goldpendant]

I posted a while back trying to find the right trip for DH's 50th.

I have the following planned;

Fly to Edinburgh, drive to Dundee V&A

Drive to Pitlochry, stay overnight

Drive to Dalwhinnie distillery for tour

Onwards to Torridon for two nights

Birthday Lunch at Applecross Inn booked

Drop car and fly home from Inverness

I plan to do the above in February, and where possible would like to take the scenic route (NC500?)

So my questions for any Scots or locals;

Is this too ambitious? The cancellation policies aren't favourable if the forecast turns bad before we fly from London.... should I look to April to be safer or do you think my routes will be clear even in bad weather? Happy to cosy up with a bottle of red in the hotels but I just need to be able to get to them!

TIA

I wouldn't bother with the v&a it's a big detour

We have to do the V&A! He's a designer and super keen on the architecture and modern art..... I guess my question is to anyone who knows these roads, will they be passable in bad weather?

Over how many days is the fly to Edinburgh, drive to Dundee and visit v&a

I would either stick on east coast ish (Dundee, Pitlochry etc) or west coast. It’s a long drive to torridon/applecross.

And if the weather is very bad then roads will get blocked for hours at a time. Especially Pitlochry/dalwhinne

Why dont you fly to Dundee? It all seems a bit disjointed! Scotland is a big place!

I'd do Inverness & Highlands OR Edinburgh & east coast OR west coast & Islands etc.

Have fun!

The Torridon to Applecross road is single track with passing places and would be very difficult to pass through in heavy snow, but it's just a gamble as to whether or not there will be much snow in Feb. However it's absolutely stunning so I'd either take the gamble or consider April. It is very far from Dundee mind you. Don't forget that a lot of the miles in that area will be on single track roads so you'll not be going fast. Have a fab time!

Bad weather - A9 is often shut and Dalwhinnie is the highest distillery in Scotland and it can be v v cold (although presumably not inside). Applecross road also tricky in bad weather. Last year was mild in February but other years not so much .

it is too much to cram into one visit in winter all lovely ideas but you can't do them all in a week; some of these roads have snow gates and when they are shut the detours are long
ie in heavy rain there can be mudslides at come rest and be thankful this is the main road to Dunoon and Inveraray from Glasgow if it(A83) and the relief road shut the detour is 84 miles some of the other single track roads while technically having a 60mph not knowing the road and where it bends next you will be lucky to do 35mph and for huge stretches there are no straight enough stretches to overtake so you could be stuck behind a slow moving vehicle for 20-30 miles
in English terms what you are suggesting is fly to bristol drive to cardiff for a museum spend overnight in swansea then drive to chester take all the high back/ farm roads through Derbyshire to visit Cambridge have lunch in Diss then drop car at luton and fly back

If you say what is really important to include after the V&A we can maybe come up with some east coast / perthshire alternatives to Applecross I wouldn't do the N500 in winter it would be beautiful on a crisp winters day but winter is most likely to be driving rain windscreens wipers on full blast and barely able to see tail lights of car in front

Thanks all so much, I appreciate the reality check!

V&A I suppose could be cut, but if it's the time of year that will really scupper things then I'd rather push it back to April.

E coast alternatives to stunning dramatic Torridon then, with gorgeous hotel and seafoody restaurants??

East Neuk of Fife has some great seafood - the Seafood Restaurant at St Monans, Craig Millar etc. Not far from Dundee, lovely fishing villages etc. Not dramatic like the highlands, but you’re less likely to get snowed in. Also, remember, in February you won’t have much daylight.........

The Peat Inn near St Andrews is absolutely lovely...the restaurant is Michelin starred and they have rooms too.
Its probably about a 40 minute drive from the V&A.
Alternatively, the Malmaison Hotel in Dundee is just across the road, and is very nice too. There are always deals available for booking it if you look online.
The rest of Dundee isn’t so nice, but the East Neuk of Fife is gorgeous. The fish and chip shop at Anstruther is legendary!