Scotland Get away

Last summer we did a driving trip of Scotland and did some amazing things!  I highly recommend spending the night in Fort William and taking the  classic Jacobite Steam Train (aka the Harry Potter train!) to the west coast for a day trip- it's 2 hours each way and you spend about 2 hours in Maillag, a really charming fishing village.

http://www.steamtrain.info/

I also recommend going to see the Working Sheepdogs demonstration, it is incredible how disciplined and intelligent these dogs are:

http://www.leaultfarm.co.uk/

If you want, PM me and I can give you our entire itinerary for our drive around Scotland- we took 2 weeks and really did a lot.  It was the trip of a lifetime!

I'd be happy to send you ours as well.

Last summer we did a driving trip of Scotland and did some amazing things!  I highly recommend spending the night in Fort William and taking the  classic Jacobite Steam Train (aka the Harry Potter train!) to the west coast for a day trip- it's 2 hours each way and you spend about 2 hours in Maillag, a really charming fishing village.

http://www.steamtrain.info/

See, we did that too and I wasn't totally impressed. Honestly, I think we were on the wrong side of the train! The scenery wasn't as great on our side. I thought 2 hours in Mallaig was more than enough. It was the perfect thing to do with my parents, but I think I would have rather been hiking or driving to see the different villages and such along the way.

If it's Leakey's on Church St, the large converted Church then it is still there.  I enjoyed a nice hot chocolate and lunch there last weekend.   

that's it, it was Leakey's! Highly recommended.

I third that recommendation. I was indifferent about Inverness on the whole but it was a nice base, airport, lots of B&Bs, restaurants. Plenty of Tescos if you fancy a picnic. 

We did lots of driving along the coast and countryside, a few castles and whisky distilleries. Lakes, wildlife, local people with a wide variety of accents. 

And if you stop by Inverness at all, I know a great second hand bookshop to check out! (well at least it was there in 2005, hopefully it still is!)

Leakey's by chance?  Sorry, should have kept reading. 

I love the place.