Scotland New Year
Hi All,I'm heading out to Edinburgh for the New Years, but due to the city already being booked (big surprise!) I have made my headquarters in Stirling from Dec 27th to Dec 31st. Is this location ideal to spend those few days doing day trips beween Edinburgh, Glasgow, and some of the parks and smaller towns to the north?
I will be taking a train to Fort William on the 31st to spend 3 more days up in Fort William, basically doing the same thing. Celebrating, exploring the natural beauty of Scotland.
Then heading to Aviemore for my final 2 days before going back south by train to Edinburgh. I will be getting to Aviemore by bus to Inverness then train to Aviemore.
My questions are: are these good locations to see both the more populated cities of Scotland and also the smaller towns, I realize the country will be in a hype over the celebrations. Are distilleries something to look into?
Thanks,
Mike
1
Yes Stirling is an ideal place to base yourself for easy train trips in to both Edinburgh and Glasgow. Only an hour on the train from Stirling to these cities.There's a whisky distillery in Deanston, called Deanston Distillery. It's only around 20 mins on a bus from Stirling which runs every hour. (no 59)
There's also Glenturret Distillery in Crieff. Crieff is easily accessable by bus from Stirling. The distillery looks to be about 3 miles out of town but you could get a taxi. I don't know whether buses run out to the distillery.
2
Hi - and welcome to Thorn Tree.My hunch is.... NYE might be nicer in Stirling than Fort William.
Again.... Just a hunch. Hope you have a great time.
7
Neither Fort William nor Aviemore is very nice. They certainly are among, and give access to, nice scenery, but as towns they are not very nice. So to the extent you wanted to see smaller towns, then they don't really present small town Scotland in its best light. For small highland towns, almost anywhere else would be better.8
If there's any way you can manage you have to try get to Edinburgh for the NYE party - although Hogmanay is a pretty big deal across Scotland there's nothing compares to the capital, the fireworks from the castle alone are worth the trip.Some of the stuff going on this year here:
http://www.newyearsevelive.net/cities/edinburgh.html
Simple Minds are playing this year too if you're a fan!
