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I've just booked the boat for 3days there. Cant wait
Looked at lewis and the boats where booked up still.
Just trying to decide where to stay before n after!
The NC500 has knocked the charm of the nw coast off for me. Still might do torridon on the way up but...
I'm in the t4 so want campsites and the Odd bnb as I'm with the missus. Any suggestions....
I know the area reasonably well but haven't been in 4yrs and a lots seemed to have changed. It all seems much more fancy and shiny and pretentious than it did especially compared to 10yrs ago..
Still might do torridon on the way up but…
Torridon was pretty quiet last week weather was decent too. Applecross on the other hand was a cluster **** of bellendery. Some ****ty driving in general as per a recent post but kinlochewe-torridon-diabaig were nicely free off hordes.
How many days before and after and where are you coming from? Not sure from your post if you live in Inverness and are mooching 60 miles up the coast or in Brighton and are stopping off the length of the UK.
I'm in the SW area of Scotland.
Was thinking of sheldaig or gairloch if I'm doing torridon. Though I always seem to do gairloch... i love the cheesy scones and gingerbread latte at the mountain cafe!
Boats booked 930 am Tuesday and last Boat Thursday back so 630 on the mainland
Though I wondered about going up though the cairngornms so tomintoul grantown glenlivet ish... and coming back down the east coast as I've done the west a fair few times.
Can't help with the route, but when you get there, the Italian chapel is good, Highland Park distillery 🙂 and I never went to Skara Brae but it's supposed to be really good too.
And there's always the signpost for ****t
I've been before but was a rush job.
I want to spend a bit more time there. Skara is amazing
For nice quiet areas on the way up, have a look at the Flow Country and Strathnaver
If you go the Cairngorm way on the way up or down and want a night there, consider camping at Loch an Eilein. A bit of a honey pot in the day but when the day trippers go it's lovely spot for the evening. Paddle, swim, walk or ride from there.
For the Orkney bit
Stornoway or St Gills ferry may dictate order of things but Orkney mainland is not big. Three days is not long as there is load to do and see.
Stornoway and Kirkwall are both very nice in different ways and well worth at least a couple of hours each. St Magnus cathedral is amazing.
There is a council run site in each of those places but quite pricey. The Stornoway one is on the sea front with nice views but it gets windy and is often spoiled a bit by flat tents and miserable looking people :-). There is a nice flat site at Birsay. Worth a walk over to the lighthouse there on the Brough.
If you are happy to use your own facilities then the CL's will pretty much pay for themselves in three days even if you are not currently a CAMC member. The CL at Evie has amazing sunsets.
****t signpost is visible when travelling from Birsay to Evie but it is a bad spot to stop so you need to park by a bungalow and walk back.
Other things to do off top of my head
Ring of Brodgar, Broch of Gurness, Maes Howe (need to book), Ness of Brodgar will be shut but Stones of Stenness are just by it. These are all pretty close for a trip out.
Skara Brae and the beach is nice with good waves when the weather is right, if you surf.
Italian chapel, the Churchill Barriers can be fun in wild weather.
Highland park. Get some Orkney Gin from Bruce's stores in Kirkwall.
Rousay can be worth a trip but you only have three days, the same can be said of the other islands too.
Loads of great cliff walks.
Shortest scheduled plane flight and sightseeing trip in a plane is not a huge cost.
Sighs and bookmarks this thread for next year.
Tip - if harbour full of lots of massive cruise boats get to touristy places early, not that atmospheric with 6 coaches worth of visitors.
It’s a lovely, lovely mellow place, find a quiet spot and just sit and listen (I liked the Covenanters memorial as a place to sit(it was blue sky blazing sun no wind), but not nice a story)
We got the ferry from Stromness to Hoy, walked to the Old Man and back to ferry but that’s a full day.
Enjoyed the cliffs at Yesanby.
Try the Cullen skink in Kirkwall.
If you go past the island of Stroma (Gills ferry), celebrate the greatness of island economics, - we need to improve things for the islanders, it’s hard living there, if we build a better harbour that will help, we can even employ the locals to build it, ? Why is nobody using the harbour, well the locals made so much money building the harbour they all moved to the mainland and the islands deserted.
As I can’t edit …….
Yep Flow country really nice, (*well empty and scenic) , for short interesting walk, try whaligoe Steps (east side)
I've been 3 times for the Rock Festival and would like to add that the locals are some of the nicest, friendliest people I've ever met.
Can't wait to get back next year 😎
Cheers all.
Like I say I did a day trip years ago for skara brae and just flew round it...
Looking forward to it.
Fancy shetland as well so that might be next with more orcadian time too.