Tackling Scotland in 7 Days

What concerns me is that you are going to Scotland to climb, canyon and watch birds, all the things Scotland is not famous for. When are you going to visit a distillery, admire Glencoe, walk in the
Torridon hills etc etc

Yes but he's not going there !

I'd venture a guess that you are not very familiar with the whole outdoor climbing, hiking, etc. scene pedro555. Scotland has produced some of the top climbers and outdoors people in the world and continues to do so. The whole outdoor adventure industry is very much alive and well in Scotland. So I disagree totally with your comment that Scotland is not known for that type of activity.

Undertrousers, your preference to drive faster than someone with a trailer is understandable but your lack of tolerance is not. Roads have speed limits. Those limits have maximum (a word many drivers do not seem to understand at all) and also (although not posted) minimum speed limits. If someone drives on a road which has a 60mph maximum, at 30mph, the police can and will ticket them for driving too slow. Just as they should ticket someone for driving at 70mph. But a car and trailer travelling at 50mph on a maximum 60mph road is NOT going too slow. It is moving within the speed limits.

Those who speed or even those who drive at the maximum speed limit, do not have all the rights on the road. The issue really is the conception that the maximum speed limit is the minimum someone should be travelling at.

My problem with people with campervans goes to back to a time when i was driving from the glencoe area up to Inverness at least once a week for a few months.
It is rather boring and frustrating when you are stuck for a long period of time behind someone that has no regard for other road users and can have 6-12 cars behind them and still not even think that those people might not want to drive that slow.
I don't speed, I tend to have my 3 year old daughter on the back seat so I don't tend to take risks but 40 miles an hour and slowing down heavily for corners is excessive.
The odds of meeting a police person on the roads are exceedingly low out here. Maybe its why so many boy-racers are killed on the roads. They just don't have any fear at all all of getting in trouble from a usually-absent police person.
You can get stuck behind the occasional person going 30 miles an hour, and its exceedingly dangerous as the 30-40 mile and hour drivers mean that people are more likely to overtake and on that particular road the safe overtaking areas are few.

Living in a tourist area I sympathise with the expressions of frustration. Those on a pleasure drive really do go very slow and also creep round any sort of bend. When you have to allow an hour for what in winter is a 20 minute journey you get more than a bit bit narked off, and do not get me started on people who think any sort of a wide area on a small road is a layby to park up... They are even labelled passing places quite often!!!

Sorry #13 you guess wrong. I have been walking in Scotland for over 40 years, monroist and qualified Mountain Leader and still stand by what I say. Ask anybody which country they woud go to to canyoneer, see birds of prey (in captivity!) and climb, I don't thnk Scotland would be the answer. Most people come to Scotland for the scenery, romanticism and to see where there ancestors came from (if from across the pond). And by the way I did not say 'known', I said 'famous'.

Fwoggie- for real pain try a tourist towing a boat :) They are the worst!

I agree there is a safe minimum undertrowsers, otherwise it does indeed encourage people to overtake when it is not necessarily safe to do so. That is of course why a ticket can be given for driving too slowly.

However, rather than putting all the blame on the slow driver I would suggest you consider putting some blame on the absent police officers. Or rather on the taxpayer who doesn't want to pay to employ more of them and the politicians who don't tell the taxpayer they should. You can also give some blame to the culture that fosters a 'boy racer' mentality rather than ridiculing them as stupid.

Bottom line for me is better enforcement of the rules of the road. My wife is from Scotland and we recently moved to Canada. She has remarked many times on how many more police she sees on the road than she did back 'home'. It would be rare to drive on a highway (minor or major) for an hour and not see at least one police car. On a regular drive of an hour we make on a major highway here, it is rare for us not to see someone pulled over by the police for speeding.

Having lived in Scotland I can say from personal observation and compared to other places (ie. Canada) that the level of traffic enforcement is far lower in Scotland than I am used to. That is not the slow driver's fault is it.

Time of year is crucial because of a) driving times and b) daylight hours.

As for the driving times, I'm with the frustrated lot. I used to commute up Loch Lomondside. But I fully understand not everyone if driving for work, so I do try to be patient.

You seem to be going to some places just to sleep, which doesn't make sense. Why go to Plockton if you are arriving at 8pm and leaving at 9am? And splash canyoning mostly work way south of where you're going to be. The itinerary is getting better, but still way too hectic, and too planned. Scotland lends itself to winging it.

Plus there's rather marvellous whiskey and beer. Plan for at least one night on the tiles, and allow time for a hangover

Tiny Tiny Tiny point, but I'd hope you're planning on getting more into the Whisky then the Whiskey if you're in Scotland.