Tackling Scotland in 7 Days

Please help...looking for some advice planning an itinerary for a 7 day tour around Scotland. Here is the plan so far...

Day 1-
Morning- Arrive in Edinburgh
Afternoon- Tour Edinburgh Castle, Royal Mile, etc.
Day 2- Continue seeing Edinburgh
Day 3- Depart Edinburgh
Morning- Phoenix Falconry "Meet the Birds" (Blackford)
Afternoon- SPLASH Canyoning (Archarn Canyon)
Evening- Inverness
Day 4-
Climbing/Abseiling w/ Scotch on the Rocks
(Location TBD...hopefully Old Man of Stoer)
Evening- Ullapool
Day 5-
Morning- Drive from Ullapool to Eilean Donan Castle
Afternoon- Tour Isle of Skye
Day 6-
Morning- Skye Boat Tour (Skyexplorer or Elgol Boat Trips)
Afternoon- Pony Trekking (Glenshiel Highland Ponies)
Evening- Fort William
Day 7-
Morning- Stirling Castle and Wallace Monument
Afternoon- Depart from Glasgow

I know this schedule is pretty ambitious so any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated. I have not secured lodging for any of the trip yet so any recommendations would be great.

Thanks!

Ambitious isn't the word I'd use, exhausting is. :/

I got tired just reading it !

Day 5, 6 and 7 no way eg FW to Stirling 2 hours. Monument and Castle 4 hours. Stirling to Glasgow 1 hour. Cut out Skye,slow down a bit and enjoy.

Do the Wallace Monument on the way north, the building is interesting, as a sort of Vicrorian theme park with a statue of Mel Gibson in the carpark. I would do Stirling then as well. It is the edge of the industrialised central belt. Stirling may seem a bit flat and the views not as good as the Highlands so it might seem a bit of an anti-climax.
Glasgow airport is a fair way south of the city and I am not sure you will make it in time frankly on the time allocated.
I would leave Edinburgh on Day two and stay somewhere in Stilring/Dunblane or Callander. The last day is then free for the return, which could be via Lock Lomond or the sea loch to Glasgow.

Overall though I agree it looks too packed.

The other question in whether departure from Glasgow International or Glasgow Prestwick airport. Glasgow Prestwick adds another 45-1 hour travel time to get there.
I definitly agree with Stirling on day 2 rather then the last day otherwise you'll be rushing everything on your final day rather then taking your time.

Woah! Have you considered travel time in this at all? You seem to be doing three hour plus drives quite regularly, so part of me feels that you'll be spending most of your trip looking at roads rather than properly getting to see any of the towns or cities.

As much as I love Skye, I'd cut it out of this trip. You just are not giving it the time it deserves to fully appreciate the place.

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Your honesty and candor is especially helpful. My hastily made itinerary did prove to be more than a bit off. I have dropped and reordered some activities and used google maps to get a better idea of drive times (you will see these in parentheses). Hopefully this go around is a bit more feasible, if still a bit "ambitious."

Day 1 & 2- Edinburgh

Day3-
0800-0830 Breakfast-Edinburgh
0830-1000 Drive Edinburgh to Stirling (1)
1000-1230 Stirling Castle
1230-1400 Wallace Monument
1400-1430 Lunch-Stirling
1430-1530 Drive Stirling to Gleneagles (.5)
1530-1730 Phoenix Falconry
1730-2000 Drive Gleneagles to Fort William (2.25)
2000-2015 Check in B&B
2030-2200 Dinner/Pub

Day 4-
0800-0900 Breakfast-Fort William
0900-1100 Drive Fort William to Glenshiel (1.5)
1100-1300 Highland Pony Trekking
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1430 Drive Glenshiel to Eilean Donan (.25)
1430-1630 Eilean Donan Castle
1630-1800 Drive Eilean Donan to Portree (1)
1800-1815 Check in B&B
1830-2100 Dinner/Pub

Day 5-
0830-0930 Breakfast-Portree
0930-1015 Drive Portree to Kilt Rock (.5)
1015-1130 Kilt Rock
1130-1200 Drive Kilt Rock to Uig (.5)
1200-1245 Lunch-Uig
1245-1400 Faerie Glen
1400-1700 SkyeXplorer Boat Tour
1700-1900 Drive Uig to Plockton (1.5)
1900-1915 Check in B&B
1930-2100 Dinner/Pub

Day 6- (waiting for word from guide about location of canyoning/climbing)
0800-0900 Breakfast-Plockton
0900-1100 Drive Plockton to TBD location
1100-1300 Canyoning/Climbing
1300-1330 Lunch
1330-1700 Canyoning/Climbing
1700-1830 Drive TBD location to Inverness
1830-1845 Check in hostel
1845-2000 Dinner/Pub

Day 7- Flight INV to LON

I greatly appreciate you taking the time to help me. I look forward to hearing your suggestions and continuing to refine my schedule.

The schedule still looks tight.Day three especially. Google maps gives travel times which are optimum! You may find even the apparently generous estimates you give may be tight. They seem to assume you can travel at maximum legal speeds without delays.
To get into Stirling town centre, park, get lunch and off after the Wallace momument is going to take much more than half an hour. I think you would be hard pushed to do it even stopping at a cafe in Dunblane in that time frankly.

The time of year can alter stuff as well. I'm guessing its not a long time in the future as you seem to have done quite a good bit of research.
At certain times of the year those distances are much more manageable then others

I got a chuckle with the comment re 'time of year' undertrousers. If the OP gets his wish and Scotch on the Rocks Guiding take him to climb The Old Man of Stoer, it better not be soon. You must swim across to the rock stack and even in the height of summer that is one cold son of a b*tch swim.

Hwkwrstir, it is indeed very ambitious. The idea of a timetable to the half hour is something that I would never contemplate. One accident or construction slow up and your plan is history.

But hey, it's your trip and so you are free to do it your way. Just remember if it all goes to h*ll in a hand basket, that's when the real adventure begins.

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.

Windermere is impossible for a meeting in scool holidays, I would dread Loch Lomond as a commute.

Weg is right, the best bit of Scotland for me in the remote areas is being there, rather than doing stuff in a rush. E g I had a marvellous stroll once along Loch Morar in the rain, one of those romantic afternoons I treasure the memory of.