Tour of Scotland -- Sept 2011

[M. A. C. Newsome]

How would you like to take a nice 15 day Scottish vacation, and support the Scottish Tartans Museum at the same time?

If you are interested, mark your calendars for Sept 10-22, 2011, and click here for more information.....

[cessna152towser]

That sounds like a magnificent tour.

I will have to arrange to say hello to your group when you visit Abbotsford House which is only a few miles from where I live. If you need a guide who knows the Scottish Borders I would be glad to assist you on the Carlisle to Edinburgh leg of your journey.

[Sir William]

YAWN! Been there, done that.



Actually, I'd be very interested, even though I've seen most of the places listed, if I didn't already have other plans for that two week period.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Just to be clear, this is for 2011, not this coming September 2010.

[caig]

What a wonderful trip, Matt. As the Vice President of Clan Farquharson I would be interested in meeting your group in Braemar, where the Clan Chief's seat (Invercauld House is situated), and perhaps arranging a tour round our ancestral castle, Braemar Castle. Unfortunately Invercauld House is leased out to a private owner and a visit would not be possible. Might I also suggest a stop at the village of Ballater, just 16 miles towards Aberdeen, as this has the various shops that hold the Royal Warrant and who supply the Queen at Balmoral Castle.

I would also be pleased to help in any other way I can.

Alan Caig

[Mael Coluim]

What an outstanding trip. Having been to a few of the places, I’ll still like to go back to them and there are some I haven't. What clinches this trip for me is that it is sponsored by the STM. Besides giving the museum support, this trip with the STM affiliation will draw a type crowd that will be great to travel with. I’m in. The 2014 Gathering is just too long to wait to get back to Alba. And with the chance to see some fellow XMarkers as we travel, it just gets better!

[Woot22]

I would love to go, but 2011 might be too distant for me to commit just yet. I will have to wait and see for now.

[Standard]

Sounds like a busy schedule with lots of sights to see. Wish we were able to join you all, should be a fun trip.

[Jock Scot]

Gosh, you will need another holiday after all that!I am glad to see that the tour is taking you further north than Inverness, the large chunk of land above it, in my humble opinion, is the best part of Scotland and is so often ignored. After that trip you will have a very good idea of what all of Scotland has to offer--------a very good "broad brush" view in fact.

If I can assist in some way then please ask and just think----------I am already here!

[OC Richard]

Gosh, you will need another holiday after all that!

Yes indeed we have a saying "I'll need a vacation to recover from my vacation."

Many Americans take frantic, overly-busy vacations because they're trying to pack as much stuff as possible into less than two weeks.

This tour reminds me somewhat of the trip my wife and I took back in 1986:
We flew into Manchester, hired a car, drove up to York (the museum, the Shambles, etc) then to Jedburgh, the Culloden site, Edinburgh (visiting a pipemaker), Perth, Blairgowrie, Pitlochry (vising The House of Edgar and having lunch with Blair McNaughton and his charming wife), Inverness (where we visited the sporran maker Alexander Robertson near Kiltarlity), Loch Ness/Urquhart Caslte, Eileen Donan Castle, Isle of Skye (back when you had to take the ferry), Boreraig, Dunvegan Castle, Oban, Fort William, Kintyre, Arran, Kilmarnock, Glasgow, then down to the Roman Wall, Chester, driving about northern Wales, Llanfair etc etc, down to Stonehenge before returning to Manchester to fly out.

In ten days.

We did a similarly crazy trip in 2004 where we took in stuff we had missed like Cornwall, Portsmouth's Naval Museum, the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, etc.

Doing that much driving probably sounds crazy to a Brit, but the whole of Britain is probably the size of California, and we Californians don't mind driving.

We were having breakfast at the B&B near Chester back then in 1986 and the charming landlady asked us what we were going to see that day. She was astonished when we said Stonehenge. It was completely inconceivable to her that someone would drive that far as a day trip. To us it was nothing.

I am glad to see that the tour is taking you further north than Inverness, the large chunk of land above it, in my humble opinion, is the best part of Scotland and is so often ignored.

Yes we too didn't go above Inverness. We had intended to go up to John O Groats but we didn't have time for everything.