The Rough Guide to the Scottish Highlands & Islands (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Rob Humphreys (Author), Donald Reid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002 | Series: Rough Guide Travel Guides

Covering the north and west of Scotland, this guide includes all the country's highest mountains and remote wilderness with detailed information on the Western Isles from Arran to Shetland and Orkney. The guide also provides details on all the major towns in the region from Inverness to Oban and practical information on getting around, accommodation and attractions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donald Reid has also authored the Rough Guides to South Africa and Edinburgh and, along with Rob Humphreys, is a co-author of the Rough Guide to Scotland. Rob has also written the Rough Guides to London, England and Austria and regularly holds forth on national television and radio.

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WHERE TO GO

There’s little to be gained in trying to rush round the Highlands and Islands. Travelling in these parts is time-consuming: distances on land are greater than elsewhere in Britain (and there are no motorways), while getting to the islands means co-ordinating with ferry or plane timetables and hoping the weather doesn’t intervene and spoil your plans. Having said that, the journeys themselves – by spectacular train lines, small aircraft scudding over tiny islands, inter-island ferries or winding, scenic roads – are often memorable.

The most accessible parts of the region are not far at all from Glasgow and Edinburgh: you can be by the banks of Loch Lomond in less than thirty minutes from the former, or use the fast roads and train lines north from the latter to be in Highland Perthshire in a little over an hour. As a result, Loch Lomond and the neighbouring hills and wooded glens of the Trossachs tend to be busier than other parts of the Highlands, and to escape the day-trippers you need to head further north into Perthshire and the Grampian hills of Angus and Deeside where the Scottish Highland scenery is at its richest, with colourful woodlands and long glens rising up to distinctive mountain peaks. South of Inverness the mighty Cairngorm massif hints at the raw wilderness Scotland can still provide, most memorably in the lonely north and western Highlands. To get to the far north you’ll have to cross the Great Glen, an ancient geological fissure which cuts right across the country from Ben Nevis to !

Loch Ness, a moody stretch of water rather choked with tourists hoping for a glimpse of its monster. Meanwhile, the area with arguably the most memorable scenery of all is the jagged west coast, stretching from Argyll all the way north to Wester Ross and the looming hills of Assynt.

For all the grand splendour of the Highlands, the islands scattered like jigsaw pieces off the west and north coasts are an essential complement. Assorted in size, flavour and accessibility, the long chain of rocky Hebrides which necklace Scotland’s Atlantic shoreline include Mull and the nearby pilgrimage centre of Iona; Islay and Jura, famous for their wildlife and whisky; Skye, the most-visited of the Hebrides, where the snow-tipped Cuillin ridge rises up from the sea; and the Western Isles, an elongated archipelago that is the last bastion of Gaelic language and culture. Off the north coast, Orkney and Shetland, both with a rich Norse heritage, differ not only from each other, but also quite distinctly from mainland Scotland in dialect and culture – far-flung islands buffeted by wind and sea that offer some of the country’s wildest scenery, finest bird-watching and best archeological sites.

WHEN TO GO

The weather is probably the single biggest factor to put you off visiting the Highlands and Islands. It’s not so much that the weather’s always bad, it’s just that it is unpredictable and changeable: in the islands they say you can experience four seasons in one day. Even if the weather’s not necessarily good, it’s generally interesting, exhilarating, dramatic and certainly photogenic – well suited, in fact, to the landscapes over which it plays such an important role.

The summer months of June, July and August are regarded as high season, with local school holidays making July and early August the busiest period. However, the weather at this time is, at best, variable, but the days are generally mild or warm and, most importantly, long, with daylight lingering until 9pm or later. In the far north of the mainland and on the Orkney and Shetland islands darkness hardly falls during midsummer. In August, events such as Highland Games, folk festivals or sporting events – most of which take place in the summer months – can tie up accommodation, though normally only in a fairly concentrated local area. The warmer weather does have its drawbacks, however – most significantly, the clouds of midges, tiny biting insects which frequently appear around dusk, dawn and in dank conditions, and can drive even the most committed outdoors type scurrying indoors.

Commonly, May and September throw up weather every bit as good as, if not better than, the months of high summer. You’re less likely to encounter crowds or struggle to find somewhere to stay, and the mild temperatures combined with the changing colours of nature mean both are great for outdoor activities, particularly hiking. May is also a good month for watching nesting seabirds; September, however, is stalking season for deer, which can disrupt access to the countryside.

The months of April and October bracket the season for many parts of rural Scotland. A large number of attractions, tourist offices and guesthouses often open for business on Easter weekend in April and shut up shop after the school half-term in mid-October. If places do stay open through the winter it’s normally with reduced opening hours; the October–March period is also the best time to pick up special offers at hotels and guesthouses. Note too that in more remote spots public transport will often operate on a reduced winter timetable.

Winter days, from November through to March, occasionally crisp and bright, are more often cold, gloomy and all too brief, although Hogmanay and New Year has traditionally been a time to visit Scotland for partying and warm hospitality – something which improves as the weather worsens. On a clear night in winter visitors in the far north of the mainland and the Orkney and Shetland islands might be treated to a celestial display from the aurora borealis, while a fall of snow in the Highlands will prompt plenty of activity around the ski resorts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 2nd edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858288800
• ISBN-13: 978-1858288802
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,770,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Proved its usefulness in the field, summer 2002, August 31, 2002

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Frank Lynch "frank_lynch" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands & Islands (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

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If we had relied solely on our standby Scotland Blue Guide this August, we would have had a very difficult time. IN retrospect, we could have dispensed with the Blue Guide, and soloed with the Rough Guide. Rough Guide's Highland volume provided us with a basic reality check early on: we would not be able to see as much as we wanted, and would have to make trade offs. Rough Guide made those trade offs far easier. In each geographically based section, they provided a list of the area's key points to hit. (Blue Guide has a hierarchy also, but it's not nearly so easy to tap into.) And while some of Rough Guide's advice on accommodations and restaurants may go out of date, it was nice to have that information (Blue Guide chooses not to cover these aspects).

We knew little or nothing about the Highlands a few weeks ago... Rough Guide helped us have a very good time.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Updated Guide for the Thinking Traveler, August 1, 2006

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D. S. Thurlow (Alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rough Guide to The Scottish Highlands & Islands 4 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

Most travel guides to Scotland consist of lots of photographs taken on the best weather days, bumper sticker location descriptions, a few travel hints, and listings for high-end accomodations. The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands aims at a somewhat more demanding audience, those readers who have already decided to visit Scotland and want honest and substantive travel narrative, along with practical details about a range of accomodations and travel possibilities.

This rough guide is densely packed with the kind of information one gets from the locals. It favors maps, graphics, and written description over photographs, although a nice selection is included. The guide provides a narrative oriented along the major travel routes, with enough description to allow travelers to make their own choices about what might be worth visiting and what should be avoided for overcrowding. A useful amount of historical detail is provided about many points of interest without overwhelming the reader. The information about hiking, biking, and other outdoor fun is enough to permit advance planning, while pointing the enthusiast toward additional details once on the ground in Scotland. Discussions about accomodation and dining center on mid-range facilities, and includes some inexpensive hostels and bunkhouses. The information on trains, planes, and automobiles will allow the traveler to figure out his or her own itinerary in Scotland, where the travel infrastructure can be fairly limited.

This book is highly recommended to those planning a vacation in the Scottish Highlands or Islands.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How to get there?, March 12, 2001

By 

Adam C. Finnefrock - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands & Islands (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

This book was thorough, but strangely unhelpful. Many regions/towns are listed, but with no depth. Each entry tells geography, and interesting things to see, but no idea of how to get there, where to stay. The main advice for each town: call the travel office. There are no recommendations for the "must see" vs. not that interesting. If I had a teleporter and knew I wanted to see Loch Ness, this would be useful book. Otherwise, it is not helpful for planning a trip to the Highlands. And I can't imagine taking it with me when I go.