Even though I’ve visited Glasgow on four separate occasions, I hesitate to write this post. Edinburgh gets all the love, even from me. I spent three weeks in the city to the east last year. Glasgow got just three days. I flew into and out of Glasgow on my trip last April/May, but effectively spent no time in the city (apart from a night at an airport hotel Sarah and I spent on our way home). I capped my last trip to Scotland with a three-day stint in town and used it as a good excuse to get together with Yorkie and travel jester Mike Sowden of Fevered Mutterings.
Three days and an airport hotel night? It’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s downright ignorant.
I agree on all accounts… Read more...
The Isle of Mull, the second largest of the Inner Hebrides, hunkers down in the sea just 45 minutes west of Oban. The Morvern and Ardnamurchan peninsulas of the mainland cup mountainous Mull against the coast of Argyll, all of a similar kind yet separated by waterways. Mull’s history is splashed with sunken Spanish galleons, the Lordship of the Isles, and the backdrop of Robert Louis Stevenson stories. Perhaps more than anything, however, Mull is known as a wilderness burgeoning with wildlife like eagles, deer, seals, otters, and dolphins.
My previous travels around Scotland had taken me through Oban and around Scotland’s west coast, but I had never made the journey to Mull until my previous trip … Read more...
Scotland’s Isle of Islay (pronounced EYE-la) has been a dream destination for me every since I fell under the spell of Scotch malt whisky. Islay is renown for their characteristically smokey whiskies, and it sees a lot of whisky aficionados as a result. But the fact is that visiting Islay requires dedication; it sits in the sea to the southwest of the mainland reachable only by ferry or flight.
Islay finally made the list on my seventh trip to Scotland, my most recent spin through the Inner Hebrides, and I decided to spend a week there. From Lochranza on Arran, I ferried over to Claonaig on the Kintyre peninsula, drove for about 15 minutes to Kennacraig, and ferried over to Port Askaig on Islay. Read more...
by Keith Savage on September 26, 2011 · 3 comments
Of all Scotland’s islands, the Isle of Arran must be one of the easiest to visit. From Glasgow airport it’s just a 45-minute drive west to the ferry terminal at Ardrossan and then less than an hour by ferry before you can be in the heart of Brodick, Arran’s primary town. Trust me, that’s about as easy as it gets from Scotland’s main cities.
It’s a worthwhile trip. Sarah and I briefly visited Arran in 2006, and based on our favorable impressions I decided to spend three nights there on my most recent trip to Scotland. U.S. Airways obviously thought this was a bad idea as their inability to fly on time wound up shaving an entire day off my trip. Nevertheless I persevered through the incompetence and enjoyed two solid nights on Arran in early September. Read more...
A hunter, oft-stubbled and bleary-eyed, driven by an insatiable hunger for exploration and experience - and perhaps a chance to thin the herd of caffeinated and alcoholic beverages. From the highlands and islands to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Borders, I explore Scotland with a pen in hand and a fire in the belly (which could be partly from the whisky). 
