Hello all.
I am off to Scotland tomorrow...touring I know a lot of you(it seems)live up that way and any advice would be welcome .I have no definite plans other than to head up the East Coast....along the top and down the West via Skye and Fort William etc.
I drove up to Wick man y years ago in a MK1 Golf GTI with 400 bottles of Drambuie in the boot(they all made it I might add!) .I went up the A9 and it was great.....but the XM isn't a Golf and looking at my map most of the roads along the Cape Wrath Coast and around the West Highlands are marked as roads with passing places! As I have said my plans are flexible-but would you advise against taking my XM up there?Thoughts spring to mind of a brand new company car I had and my Cumbrian girlfriend directing me up onto the fell roads in it!
Auxilliary belt has stabilised with the neat 2mm inner bit removed-which is a relief...but I can't have the air con on as that is when the belt wear seems to accelerate.
Regards to all.
Rob

Hi Rob

Follow my car, it knows its own way up there! If you are going along the north coast, turn left at Tongue toward Lairg. This takes you down a single track road which is 40 miles long with only one village on it, namely 'Altnahara' must be one of the very few unspoilt parts of the UK left. The hotel there is for sale, 14 bed and baths plus 3 cottages lots of farm buildings and some land, offers over £700k, you can pay that for a house down here!

The above mentioned road has lochs to the left and mountains and forests to the right, as far as the eye can see. We travelled the length of it on Monday evening about 4 weeks ago and past 2 cars!

The East coast has a charm of its own, some way after Inverness you will go through Golspie, which is near where we stay, Brora then Helmsdale there is a very good resteraunt there called ' La Mirage' get their 'fish tea' its more than you can eat! When you leave Helmsdale you embark on a somewhat undulating journey with some very sharp bends but the road has been very much improved in the last few years, you should have seen it before! They have built a bridge over a whole village namely 'Dunbeath'. You will eventually come to Wick where we have a number of friends.

When you get to the west coast you will find it a bit more crowded but warmer and very pretty. On the way a few miles past Bettyhill there is a turning on the right that says 'Skerray' proceed two or three miles along there and you will find a pull in on the right where you can park, overlooking a river, you can walk down and over the bridge to 'Torrisdale beach' quite a walk but fantastic when you get there, I doubt if you will be joined by anyone else!

They are just a few of the places we have found in the last 25 years or so. We will be up there again in October - cant wait.

Hope you see this before you go. Have a lovely holiday.

Peter.N.