Nottingham - I'm convinced it's a day trip only

[tikitang]

one good alternative to Skye is Arran.

Well, this I do agree with... but I'd still choose Lindisfarne every time, if I wanted to visit an island!

As well as being beautiful, it also happens to be site of the famous 793 AD Viking arrival on these shores!

EDIT:

It is the first Viking attack on a monastery in the British Isles, although it is not the first known Viking attack in the British Isles. The first attack came in 789, when Vikings raided the settlement of Portland in Dorset.

I stand corrected. Still a great place, though!

[Mr. White]

How likely can this trip be done without renting a car?

[jon_1066]

It will be harder and travel will mostly take longer, the exception would be major inter city train travel and getting around central London.

It would be possible but eg touring the Cotswolds would be difficult being reliant on busses or some kind of organised tour. 

Getting around the highlands will also be tough without a car.

It might be best to hire a car for short parts, eg hire a car from Heathrow then spend a fee days driving around (eg Stonehenge, Cotswolds) etc.  then train back into London and then up to York by train.  No need for car in London, York or Edinburgh.  Train to Glasgow then hire a car from there and tour the Highlands

[Hobgoblin]

How likely can this trip be done without renting a car?

From Edinburgh or Glasgow, you can do various Highland/island/Northumberland (castles, Lindisfarne) trips as minibus trips.

You can get to Skye easily enough on public transport (there's a train from Glasgow to Kyle of Lochalsh, and then a bus across the bridge), but it takes a while. Glasgow to Portree (the main town on Skye) would take about 7 hours - add on another hour if you're coming from Edinburgh. It's maybe an hour and a half quicker if you're driving.

That's one reason I'd recommend Arran if you want a taste of the Scottish islands. It's two and a half hours from Glasgow/three and a half from Edinburgh, including the ferry. So you wouldn't have a whole day of travel; you could get to Brodick and climb Goat Fell/visit a distillery/visit the castle/whatever in a single day. It's a really interesting island with some great pubs and restaurants and places of historical interest - from stone circles to Robert the Bruce's cave!

[Mr. White]

What if we headed up to Inverness from Edinburgh? Arran seems a bit far from there. Are there sites worth seeing around a "home base" of Inverness if we don't make it to the Isle of Skye?

One of our concerns is that the Isle of Skye may be packed with tourists in early June. We'd rather not be out there hiking amongst the crowds.

Maybe it's only ~2hours to Isle of Skye from Inverness and we drive out there and back for one of the days? Are there certain things to see/hike in Skye if there for a day?

Hmmmm...too many choices. ha!

[Hobgoblin]

What if we headed up to Inverness from Edinburgh? Arran seems a bit far from there. Are there sites worth seeing around a "home base" of Inverness if we don't make it to the Isle of Skye?

It takes about the same time to get to Arran from Edinburgh on public transport as it does from Inverness - and the journey to Arran is easier and more pleasant (trains and boat rather than two buses). If you're staying in Arran for a day or two, you could also break the journey there and back into very manageable chunks with a morning or afternoon in Glasgow en route.

There's plenty to do around Inverness, though I think the best outings are probably minibus trips: you can visit Skye from there as a day trip on a minibus (with Eileen Donan castle, which you'll know from the movies, thrown in), and there are tours of Loch Ness, etc. And there are certainly some nice things to do in the town itself.

But I'd recommend Arran, especially if you like the outdoors. It's a beautiful place, has loads of great walks, great food and is very easy to explore on your own (using public transport - there are regular buses, and you can walk between some villages - e.g. Brodick to Lamlash, which is a great little outing).

I've been to Inverness many times, but it's always more of a hub or a staging post rather than a destination in its own right. Arran's very much a destination, I reckon. The 'Scotland in miniature' tag that attaches to Arran is well justified - if you get to the top of Goat Fell on a clear day, you'll see exactly what they mean!

This site offers up Arran as a good alternative to Skye; I love Skye, but if you're pressed for time, I think Arran offers more. And it's definitely easier to get to and travel around.

[Hobgoblin]

One of our concerns is that the Isle of Skye may be packed with tourists in early June. We'd rather not be out there hiking amongst the crowds.

Maybe it's only ~2hours to Isle of Skye from Inverness and we drive out there and back for one of the days? Are there certain things to see/hike in Skye if there for a day?

Some of the best-known hikes on Skye are pretty serious ones (the Black Cuilins, for example, are amazing but not to be taken lightly). Blaven (Bla Beinn) is a great hill, but it's still probably a six-hour climb (up and down) for a family, over and above getting there (an hour each way from the other side of the bridge, and then two hours each way by car from Inverness). So that's a bit much for a day trip unless you're very dedicated. There are lots of shorter, lower-level walks, of course. But if you're doing a more serious hike on Skye, you've really got to be staying there - or treating it like a military operation!

There could be plenty of tourists on Arran's Goat Fell too, but one consideration is that early June isn't school holidays for either Scotland or England. So it could be quite quiet mid-week. (There were very few hikers on the hill when I was there on a Friday this July, but it was misty and raining ...). The reason I'm acting as the Arran Tourist Board here is just the ease of exploration; you can get off the ferry in Brodick and be on the slopes of Goat Fell within the hour - the hill rises from the grounds of Brodick Castle.

[Mr. White]

Thanks for all of your diligent, detailed responses, Hobgoblin. I might need to get some models in the mail for ya!

Our current plan is June 1st-16th 2024. Bath -> London -> York -> Edinburgh -> ? (somewhere in the highlands of Scotland - inverness, skye, arran, not sure yet).

Nottingham is actually getting the axe this trip. There's too much to do around these isles to get 'em all in over a few weeks. The original impetus for this whole trip is that I've always wanted to go to the Highlands of Scotland and play in Nottingham, not just shop. The only GW game I play is BB, and I don't really wanna just shop at WHW but be there for a BB event. On a later trip, I'm planning to go around the NAF (international governing body of BB) Championship held annually in April/May in Nottingham. On that second trip, we'll do Dublin, Cotswolds, and Nottingham.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks for all of your diligent, detailed responses, Hobgoblin.

My pleasure!

Nottingham is actually getting the axe this trip. There's too much to do around these isles to get 'em all in over a few weeks.

Very sensible, I think. And you've always got the option to add things to your itinerary on the fly if you feel things are too slow-paced (day trip to Hadrian's Wall and/or Lindisfarne and Northumbrian castles from Edinburgh, for example).

The original impetus for this whole trip is that I've always wanted to go to the Highlands of Scotland and play in Nottingham.

One further (final!) plug for Arran and part of its "Scotland in miniature" status is that it straddles the Highland Boundary Fault - so if you're on Goat Fell or anywhere else in the north of the island, you are literally in the Highlands of Scotland!