Road Tripping to Northern Scotland

I love road trips, so the hubby and I have it in our minds to drive from Brighton to as far north as we can go in Scotland... see a few things on the way, and take lots of pictures.  

As far as sights are concerned, we are stopping at Fountains Abbey along the way, and possibly the Lake District.

This will be a three day Bank hol weekend type trip, and I was wondering if there are any must see things in Northern Scotland (as I am a newb).

Any suggestions would be fantastic!

The scenery.  People will want to know you've been to Loch Ness, and John O'Groats, and you might find the scenery there and on the way there inspiring too, so you won't have wasted your time looking for a monster in Loch Ness or expecting to find a town and tourist attraction in John O'Groats.  Visit the West Coast and/or Skye on a sunny day, but be prepared for the midges.  On the east side, Glen Affric is a hidden spot that you might like. 

Inverness is a large town with a scenic riverside that has lots of old and old-ish churches and a castle along it, plus plenty of friendly accommodation and lots of shops.  Fort George is a huge military fort built after the 1745 rebellion.  Spynie Palace  (near Elgin) is an old ruined tower that you can climb.  My favourite museums are at Fochabers (free) and Gairloch.

Best wishes

Peter

We just got back from a road trip to Scotland.  We went up to Edinburgh, over to the Glen Coe/Ben Nevis area, out to the Isle of Skye, up to Loch Ness, and then down to Stirling before heading back down to England.  Although not as far north as you're planning to go, there was no part of our trip that didn't have unbelievable views of mountains and lochs.

The only really touristy things we did were to go up the William Wallace memorial in Stirling, which was pretty entertaining, and took the gondola to the top of Aonach Mor, which gave us a nice view of Ben Nevis and had a really bad-a$$-looking mountain bike downhill course underneath it, which made me wish I'd brought a bike.  Otherwise we just drove and stopped when we saw amazing scenery, which was a lot.

We camped in Fort Augustus at the southern end of Loch Ness, and also in the Glen Coe area, both of which were very pretty.  (Midges were a minor annoyance but not too bad.  Make sure you've got some insect repellent and you should be ok.)  On Skye we stayed in a bed & breakfast in Kyleakin.  (There's a bed & breakfast about every 100 feet in Scotland, or so it seemed.)

Hope some of that helped, and have fun!

wow thanks for the suggestions guys!  Loch Ness will have to be a stop, but I dont plan on spending the day looking for the monster hehe.   Once I am home I will have to google some of these places!

thanks again, Im too excited! 

You're going to really be pushing it to get from Brighton to Inverness in a three day weekend.  Don't underestimate how far it is.

You're going to really be pushing it to get from Brighton to Inverness in a three day weekend.  Don't underestimate how far it is.

So true! We did the Lake District in a 3 day weekend from Inverness and it took us 7+ hours to get there... and we pushed hard for a 3 day weekend, lots of driving.  Brighton is a bit further 
John O' Groats is definitely 2.5+ hours from Inverness. 

If you do make it this far, Ullapool and Wester Ross are gorgeous to see and incredible drive up there.   Applecross.  Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland has some gorgeous gardens.  Dornoch has quite the beach.   Certainly enjoy Loch Ness. The Black Isle, worthy of a good drive around.  Not much in Inverness itself, but there's a nice cathedral, and a walk around the river. 

Yeah... so having looked at the distance, the time available etc it doesnt seem very feasable.  This would be better left to a week long excursion, with camping tents involved.

So we may fly easy jet somewhere close by in mainland europe for a small holiday instead. (we'd spend more in petrol hauling our cookies up to Scotland than on easy jet tickets.)