Scotland 2025: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Highlands Drive

Continuing our goal to visit new countries in Western Europe that we haven’t been to before, this summer/fall, my husband Rich and I will be spending 23 days in Scotland.  We will fly into Edinburgh where we will stay for 7 days, take a train to Glasgow for a 4-day visit, then pick up a rental car to drive along the east coast of Scotland to tour the Highlands for 11 days. We considered driving further west to get to more popular scenic locations recommended by all of our friends including Isle of Skye, Loch Lomond and Loch Ness.  But this would involve much longer driving times and while we like outdoors and scenery, our preference is to spend more time exploring cities.  We will still get our fill of hikes, cliff walks and ocean views on Scotland’s east coast and it would hopefully be less crowded and a bit more off the beaten path, relatively speaking.

 Usually, we would not travel during the summer months because of heat and crowds, but being a lover of live theatre, I have always wanted to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which runs through most of August.  We decided to arrive in Edinburgh during the last week of the theatre festival and will watch 8 shows mostly in the evenings after touring museums, art galleries and other tourist attractions during the day.  Most of the national museums are free in Edinburgh including the Scottish National Museum, Scottish National (Art) Gallery, Modern (Art) Museum and Portrait Gallery.  We also have tickets to visit Edinburgh Castle and Mary King’s Close and will check out the Greyfriar’s Cemetery (Kirkyard) and walk the ”Royal Mile” ending up in an area around Holyrood Palace.

Our stay in Glasgow will mostly involve looking at the designs and architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh including having high tea in the Mackintosh Willows tearooms.  We will also visit the Hunterian Art Gallery and Kelvingrove Museum.  Hopefully, this will be a more relaxing four days since we will have gone full tilt during our time in Edinburgh.

Finally, we will pick up a rental car near the Glasgow train station and drive out into the Highlands.  Our first stops will be to inspect the Falkirk Wheel and Kelpie Horses before ending up in Stirling where we will spend our first night after exploring the town.  The next morning, we will tour Stirling Castle before heading out to wander the gardens of Glamis Castle where there is a sculpture path called the “Macbeth Loop” featuring seven intricate wood carvings representing scenes from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth.  We will spend that night in Arbroath and hike the Arbroath Cliffs the next morning before continuing along the coast to Gourdon/Inverberbie, passing the Scurdie Ness Trail and Lighthouse along the way.

We will stay 2 nights in Inverberbie at Hallgreen Castle, a historic 3-storey mansion dating back to 14th Century that is set on 4 acres of land and still has gun loops or firing holes imbedded in the walls. We are hoping that our hosts will give us a tour of the castle during our stay.  From this town, we will take some more cliff walks in the area before heading to Stonehaven for 3 nights.  Using Stonehaven as a base, we will visit Dunnottar Castle, Cliffs and Woods as well as taking a day trip to Aberdeen.  That is as far north as we will traverse along the east coast of Scotland.  After that, we will head inland towards Balmoral, Braemar and Ballater, UK.  We had hoped to visit Balmoral Castle which has been the Scottish vacation property of the British monarchy since Queen Victoria's days, but unfortunately, it is closed for the season by September.  Instead, we will tour Crathes Castle and Braemar Castle as well as ride on the vintage Royal Deeside Railway train.  Our last two days will be spent around Blairgowie where we will go on a couple more hikes and admire more scenic views, Scone for one last castle, and finally Perth where we will do a sculpture walk along the River Tay.  From there, we will head back to Edinburgh, staying near the airport before our flight home the next morning.

This is not the typical itinerary for travelers to Scotland, but we are not the typical travelers.  This trip will give us plenty of the experiences that interest us including theatre, art, architecture, history, castles and natural beauty.