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Garry Black Photography |
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SCOTLAND PHOTO TOUR |
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Itinerary, Accommodation and Travel
Information |
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May 12 |
Arrive Edinburgh, make your
way to the Thistle
Hotel, less than 5 minutes from the train station and about 25 minutes
from the airport. Check in is at 14:00 We will meet together as a group in
the late afternoon, depending upon everyone’s arrival times. |
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May 13 |
Edinburgh, our hotel is
located within a kilometer of all the major historic sites. |
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May 14 |
Edinburgh |
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May 15 |
Edinburgh 9:00 am pick up rental cars
from Hertz. Depart Edinburgh for Stirling. Approximate driving time 1
hour. Overnight at The Golden
Lion, city centre location within walking distance to Historic Sites. |
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May 16 |
Drive from Stirling to Glencoe. Approximate driving time 2
hours. Accommodation at the Onich
Hotel , see map
location |
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May 17 |
Glencoe Area |
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May 18 |
Glencoe Area |
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May 19 |
Glencoe Area |
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May 20 |
Driving to the
village of Dornie. Approximate driving time Glencoe – Dornie 2 hours. Along
the way and weather permitting we will drive up to Urquhart Castle on the
shores of Loch Ness. Accommodation at
the Loch Duich Hotel , in Dornie, see map
location, which is right across the road from Eilean Donan Castle. |
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May 21 |
Dornie Area |
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May 22 |
Driving to the village
of Portree, Isle of Skye. Approximate driving time 1 hour. Accommodation at The Rosedale Hotel,
see map
location. |
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May 23 |
Isle of Skye |
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May 24 |
Isle of Skye |
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May 25 |
Isle of Skye |
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May 26 |
Driving to the village
of Inveraray. Approximate driving time 4.5 hours. Accommodation at The George Hotel, see map
location. |
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May 27 |
Inveraray to
Glasgow Airport hotel. Approximate driving time 1.5 hours. Accommodation at the Express by Holiday Inn which is only a 5 minute walk to the
check-in desks. |
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May 28 |
Depart Glasgow for home |
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Spring in
Scotland Spring is probably the best season in Scotland weather wise. Usually, by May, the weather settles down and you can spend some excellent days outdoors. It has the most sunshine of any month, but it’s far from being sunny most of the time. The temperature in May isn’t too bad, but the best thing is that the midges (a cross between black flies and mosquitoes) haven’t come out yet. Having said that it might be wise to pack some repellent, you never know. The Scottish weather is the most unpredictable thing in Scotland. As someone said you can experience all four seasons in one Scottish day. Predicting the weather is next to impossible. One thing to bear in mind is that no matter when you chose to travel to Scotland, high temperatures are not frequent. For May, the daily average Maximum temperature is 14 degrees Celsius and the average Minimum temperature is 6 degrees Celsius. This is similar to weather that we have in Ottawa at the end of April. |
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Sunrise and
Sunset Times |
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A.M. Twilight
Starts |
Sunrise |
Sunset |
P.M. Twilight
Ends |
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Edinburgh |
4:15 a.m. |
5:10 a.m. |
9:15 p.m. |
10:05 p.m. |
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Glencoe |
4:00 a.m. |
5:00 a.m. |
9:35 p.m. |
10:35 p.m. |
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Isle of Skye |
3:51 a.m. |
4:50 a.m. |
9:50 p.m. |
10:49 p.m. |
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CLOTHES It’s an understatement to say bring warm clothes and a waterproof jacket.
When we were there in May 2002, the mornings and evenings were very chilly (cold).
There were even a couple of mornings that I had to scrape frost off the car’s
windshield. There were a couple of warm days in which we were comfortable in
shirts and jeans. Most of the time we wore sweatshirts or sweaters and a
jacket. On the very cold mornings I wore lined blue jeans. Bottom line, leave
the bathing suit and shorts at home. Pack warm with layers and remember to
bring an umbrella. Regarding footwear, you should bring comfortable walking shoes and hiking shoes or boots (waterproof is preferable). Edinburgh is definitely a walking city; even though our hotel is centrally located there will still be quite a bit of walking involved. If walking is a problem, you can take cabs to the main historic locations and have shorter walks from there. There won’t be any “real” hiking on the trip (unless you want to go off on your own) but there are some locations where we will walk into the fields and heather moors. Laundry facilities/services will be available at many of the hotels where we
will be staying. |
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TRANSPORTATION
I have reserved 3 Ford Mondeo estate (station wagon) cars. These are not huge cars; they have advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that they are easier to park and to drive, particularly on single track (lane) roads. The disadvantage is that they will be crowded with all of our luggage and camera equipment when we are travelling between hotels. Since we don’t have many long drives I don’t think this should be much of a problem, however, I strongly suggest you bring only one piece of luggage apart from your camera equipment. |
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RESOURCES |
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Edinburgh
Weather – Weather Underground |
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