Scotland by train

A travel journal to Scotland by Languedoc

Scotland coastline Photo - Scotland, United Kingdom

Quote: An account of a train trip from Glasgow up the west coast of Scotland and on to the very northern tip, then straight back to London.

3 Photos

Scotland by train

Overview

Quote:

Discovering that while England is over-populated, the beautiful Scottish coast is largely unpopulated and beautiful in a wild way. Trying to understand what people are saying. Quick Tips: Originally I was going to stay in Edinburgh but the film festival was just beginning and all hotels were filled, so I went on to Glasgow. I don't recommend Glasgow because it has the reputation of being Scotland's heroin capital, and you'll find a lot of unkept, blank-eyed people loitering on the street and in doorways. I wanted a haircut and started into a barbershop, then stopped to look at a photo exhibit in the window. It consisted of Japanese soldiers holding heads of cowards they had just severed, insa...Read More

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Premier Inn Glasgow

Hotel | "Glasgow Lodge Inn, City Centre"

Quote:

Tall hotel on a hill overlooking Glasgow. Nothing special to recommend it: clean, reasonably quiet, overheated rooms (this was August)and so-so food. I ate breakfast only. I wanted to stay in the hotel right in the train station but dallied on making a reservation and missed the chance to stay in the heart of town.

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on August 5, 2000

Premier Inn Glasgow
10 Elmbank Gardens (Charing Cross)

0870 990 6312

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West Highland Hotel

Hotel

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Pleasant, no-nonsense hotel used mostly by tourists and local fishermen. Rooms small by US standards, but adequate for one person. TV perched so high on the wall that I got a sore neck after a few minutes of watching. Food is very good in the restaurant, and the view from the lobby across to Skye is excellent.

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on August 5, 2000

West Highland Hotel
Mallaig
Mallaig PH414QZ
01687 462210

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Cuchullian Lodge

Hotel

Quote:

This is an interesting place. It is very old and very tall, apparently a former dwelling. Taxi drivers hate it because the driveway exits onto a very busy intersection and about the only way to get out is to close your eyes and hope. The owners are pleasant but odd: They served guests before dinner drinks, then before we could take more than a sip or two, told us to come to dinner and leave our drinks in the study. When we returned after dinner they were gone! The rooms were standard 100-years-plus rooms with short and overly soft beds and, as throughout Scotland, overheated.

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on August 5, 2000

Cuchullian Lodge
43 Culduthel Road
Inverness
01463 231945

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Royal Hotel

Best Of IgoUgo

Hotel

Quote:

Orkney is a very windswept place with long and dark winters and long and dimly lit summers, and the Royal is just the kind of place I like for those conditions. It is old and comfortable and unpretentious, inexpensive and with a muscular breakfast as part of the deal. The staff is friendly, unhurried and ready for a conversation. The rooms are just so-so but if the door has a lock on it and, the place is clean and the bed sleepable, what else really matters?

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 5, 2000

Royal Hotel
55-57 Victoria Street
Stromness, Orkney KW16 3BS
44 (1856) 850342

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The Creel

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Restaurant

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This is the best known restaurant in the Orkneys, and rightfully so. The food is superb. I went with two other people and each of us enjoyed the meal. I didn't bother taking notes of what we ate because I assumed when we left and I showed them my press credentials that they would give me a copy of their menu, but the waitress said 'We don't do that.' Oh. I have no idea why. I asked if I could talk to one of the owners, and she said both were gone for the day. I called back the next morning and no answer. I called in the afternoon and asked for the manager, and the phone went click! Still game, when I returned home I wrote and asked for a copy and my letter is still unanswered. I guess when you have th...Read More

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on August 5, 2000

The Creel
Margaret's Hope
Orkney

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Scottish coast and Orkneys

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Story/Tip

Cutting Peat Photo - Orkney Islands, Scotland

Quote:

By traveling with a BritRail pass and having no set schedule you can see miles and miles of the Scottish coast, stop for the night in coastal villages on the spur of the moment, and in the middle of a summer that is hot elsewhere, enjoy having to wear a sweater or jacket. I took three days to get from Glasgow to the tip of Scotland so I could go across to Orkney, and wish I had taken another two or three days. Scotland is one of the most beautiful places I have seen; similar to the Inside Passage to Alaska and the Chilean Fjords, but not nearly as remote as either. When I got to the top of Scotland, I took a foot passenger ferry across from John O'Groats to Orkney, and spent several days just walking ...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 5, 2000

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Scapa Flow

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Attraction

Quote:

The highlight of my trips to Orkney was seeing the vast harbor called Scapa Flow. I had read about it in novels about naval activities and knew a little of its history, but when you are there it is better. This is where the entire German fleet, captured during WWI, was scuttled by the German commander. It happened one Sunday morning while a group of school children were on an outing in a boat among the warships. Suddenly, glug-glug-glug, the entire fleet began sinking around them. Many of the ships are still there, although some were refloated and scrapped. This is also where the British battleship Royal Oak was sunk by a German submarine during WWII with a loss of lives greater than the sinking of th...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 5, 2000

Scapa Flow
Orkney
Orkney
+44 (01856) 791300