Highland Tour May 15th - 19th

[MikeB]

We have finalised the HIGHLAND TOUR if anyone else is interested. PM or email me for costs. We have room for another 3 to 4 cars.


May 15th : We meet up for drinks and dinner in Bowness by Lake Windermere and spend our first night at the nearby AA 5 star Howbeck Hotel.

May 16th: A hearty Cumbrian breakfast in the morning will kickstart the first driving day up to the Highlands. Having received route maps, walkietalkies etc, we depart Windermere and head up the Kirkstone pass, the Lake District’s highest pass, and alongside beautiful Ullswater before joining the M6 at Penrith.The traffic soon disappears as we head north over Shap summit and onto a sweeping drive through Border country. Once past Glasgow, the roads narrow by Loch Lomond and we pause at The Cruin for lunch, for outside lochside dining if the weather is fine. Up the twisting road past Tarbet, the road soons opens out and onto the first taste of Highland driving through Glencoe. Flashing over the long straights at Rannoch Moor we see the Sentinel of Glencoe, the mountain called the Buchaille, which guards its smaller brethren from the east end of the Glen. Through the gorge, mountains rise sharply on either side of the road until we hit Loch Leven. 10 minutes later we sit in the short queue for the Corran ferry and have the craic with the ferrymen on our 5 minute trip over to Ardgour, which heralds the start of the unofficial Ardnamurchan TT. A brief flirtation with the TT, and we head west to the remote Kingairloch Estate where we dine in the 5 star Kingairloch House, a true Highland Estate house.

May 17th : Wake up and do the Ardnamurchan TT! Technically, and totally unofficially!, it is the round-robin route from the Corran ferry west side to the Corran ferry east side through Ardnamurchan. We actually branch off at Fort William and head north for the Skye bridge, passing the beautiful Glengarry at high level, swooping past the Five Sisters of Kintail, (a brief stop at the Eilean Donan Castle ruin) and onto the Michelin-starred Kinloch Lodge for lunch on the Isle of Skye. Heading back to the mainland we start on the single track stuff to Loch Carron, before heading to the famously long straights to Achnasheen. Flirting with the east Highlands, we then head back west to Ullapool on the A835, and north past the iconic monumental mountains of Suilven, Canisp and Ben More, which rise dramatically out of their landscape. Onto the pretty fishing village of Lochinver and our stay at the Inver Lodge with its famous Chez Roux restaurant.

May 18th: Driving up the west coast as far as it goes through the extraordinary landscape of Assynt and Sutherland, up to Durness near Cape Wrath on the north coast, snaking around Loch Eriboli and peeling off the A838, we shoot back down on the dramatic and quiet single track road to the coldest place in Britain at Altnaharra, past stunning loch and mountain scenery. From here we pass Lairg and over for lunch to Glenmorangie House and an optional whisky tour. Heading for Cairngorm National Park, we go over the second highest road on Scotland, past Tomintoul (usually inaccessible in winter) and over to the spectacular Monachyle Mhor Hotel on the banks of the river Tay.

May 19th: From Balquhidder, we head for Knockhill Racing Circuit for some classic go-karting action, or for the brave, a track event in their high-revving and very fast single seater race cars! Either way next stop is Edinburgh for a night out in Scotland’s capital at the Apex Hotel, overlooking the Castle, and farewell drinks and dinner on the town!

May 20th: Home James!!

[alfessex]

Sounds great but 2 months early for me as dont get my v10 delivered until June/July and will be taking it up around the highlands (from Ldn/essex way) to run it in....may be next time

[MikeB]

Nice one. If you come up the west coast nr Fort William I'll keep my ear open for it!

We'll definitely re-run the trip in September. Best time of year up here - May and September anyway.

If you need info on where to go/stay let me know.

[alfessex]

Thanks Mike, i will starting planning a route in early June and will take you up on that as want to run in the car over 3-4 days...and coming from Essex will ramp the miles up just want to void those motorways between south and north :-)

Given i will be running in my new toy and understanding the attention the R8 gets, want to stay in some good + secure hotels for the car when up there.

So will def be in touch!
alan

[MikeB]

Look forward to it. I make the run to Essex fairly frequently from up here and if you time the motorway run its generally ok. Once you hit the Lakes its a breeze!

[Monkey boy UK]

Hi all, we still have 3 places on this months Highland tour if any UK ( or overseas ) members would like to join our run, hope the weather is as good as it is currently in the UK! either way will be a blast, anyone interested please pm me, cheers

[MikeB]

Just back through the door. What a great week!

We seemed to skirt around the weather front meaning we had dry roads almost all the way, and there are some fantastic roads up here.

We wined and dined extremely well and cannot recommend these hotels highly enough.

MonkeyB will post photos later, but you can check online at www.gtcartours.co.uk anyway.

[MikeB]

Dear All,

We have just returned from our first Highlands tour which was great fun and a huge success.

The hotels, food and company (and the roads!) were excellent. The Scottish leg kicked off at Kingairloch Estate with wine and dinner served by our own chef and his wife, who usually work in the Boathouse Retaurant. This was a real treat and we dined on wild salmon caught in the Loch and venison from the hills surrounding us. With the wet weather behind us we embarked on the Ardnamurchan TT with its quick mix of single and two track roads through the Moidart peninsula. Then onto the fast A road from Invergarry to Skye with its great sweeping bends around Loch Cluanie. Another treat with lunch at Claire MacDonalds renowned hotel Kinloch Lodge on Skye.

This was fast becoming a competition for the best road and the best meal. With the road to Achnasheen rivalling some of the best roads in Europe, and the Chez Roux restaurant dinner at the Inver Lodge surprising everyone's palate, everyone's choices kept on changing. Was it the endless straight before Achnasheen, the pike quenelle at Lochinver, the amuse bouche at Kinloch Lodge, the dipping and diving and testing road to Loch Carron? By the end of the third day it was clear that the best leg was the coast road from Lochinver to Tongue and back down the spine of Scotland to Lairg. Totally amazing scenery which quite often flashed by far too fast! We ended up that day at the Monachyle Mor hotel on Loch Voil, probably the best rooms and definitely the best wines. And the food? Delicious. We finished up in the capital city of Edinburgh for a wind down tour of the pubs. It was fantastic fun!

The Euro run starting on June 21st promises to be another epic gastro tour with amazing roads and hotels included, mostly half board, we have Audis, Porsches & Astons so a good mix. If you need any more info please contact me or see www.gtcartours.co.uk.

For the Sept Highlands tour we will be using all the same hotels (apart from Kingairloch which is fully booked).