Read Scotland 2016 discussion

My tickets are booked! Going to Scotland in August. Counting the days.

Lucky you! I'm a little jealous but happy for you!

Beth wrote: "Lucky you! I'm a little jealous but happy for you!"
Thanks, Beth! This is my second trip. Went last year too. I met Katrina, she's a member here in the group, through book-blogging and we became fast friends and I go visit her.

That is so cool!

Peggy - which kart fomScotland are you visiting ?

Fiona wrote: "Peggy - which kart fomScotland are you visiting ?"
I think we only have one in the group, Fiona. She has the blog Pining for the West. I'm going to Fife.

i just got back and we had an incredibly wonderful time! I brought back many scottish books! i have 3 by jane duncan (recommended by friends), a bunch of D. E. Stevenson - books i already had but buy for family who love her books too. my favorite find was, 'hamish's groats end walk' by hamish brown. loved it from the first page. found it in a tiny off the beaten path bookstore/craft shop on the dunvegan side of the isle of skye. found the DES books in a shop in edinburgh, and the jane duncans in Leakey's Bookshop in Inverness, which is so cool inside! found a little book store in Callander with the most fun eccentric owner. several books there too. where will you be going, peggy?

also bought fun kids' paperback picture books - a lot easier to transport those home! a Katie Morag book I didn't already have, 'The Shepherd Boy' by Kim Lewis, another book by Mairi Hedderwick, 'The Utterly Otterlys', a really cute one about a grandma, which I am, 'Wee Granny's Magic Bag', and 'There was a Wee Lassie who swallowed a Midgie' - really fun one, and 'The Secret of the Kelpie' - a really beautiful one I'm looking forward to reading to my grandchildren. Beautiful illustrations in that one.

Staying with friends in Markinch, Fife, near Glenrothes. We are traveling to Dumfries and Galloway for 4 days and up to Dornie to Eilean Donan castle and over to Skye for a day. Also be spending a night in Girvan at another friends home.

Glad you had such a wonderful time! And found so many books! Last year I had to buy another suitcase and pay extra to bring home the 54 books I bought! Have to be more careful this time! But there's so many used bookstores there I can't resist!

oh, that makes me feel REALLY good about the books i brought home! but i totally understand! i kept picking up books, carrying them around, and then reluctantly putting them back : (

we began in edinburgh, drove across to skye, stopping overnight in glencoe. went via eilean donan to our rented self-catering cottage on skye for a week. then took ferry to isle of lewis and stayed in a blackhouse for 4 nights. then ferry to stornoway, and a drive across to inverness. took the boat cruise of loch ness, stopping at urquhart castle. then the beach at nairn. then culloden and clava cairn. and leakey's bookshop. then drove to glencoe and stayed in a guest house there for 3 nights - rained every day but was very beautiful. then drove to oban for ferry to mull and 4 nights in tobermory. then ferry back to oban and drive to callander - where we found another book shop. then turned in rental car and spent 3 more nights in edinburgh. went to 3 bookstores there. bookstores in mull and skye too : ) the queen was having her garden party at holyrood while we were there, with 8,000 guests invited, but for some reason, we weren't among the invited guests! : ) planned the trip over 9 years and it was every bit as wonderful as we could have hoped!

WOW that really was a trip of a lifetime! Saw quite a bit of that last year. I stayed with friends though and they took me everywhere. We did stay 2 nights away, in Fort Williams and Inverness. I went to Leakey's too! Glen one was rainy when I was there too but it added atmosphere. We stayed over near Glasgow last year too and toured Glasgow and Dumbarton. Spent one day in Peebles. There's just never enough time!

yes! people almost seemed to think that was an awfully long time - but sometimes it just seems like you just see how many many other things there are to go to and see, that you will never have enough time to do! i could make a 6 page list of all the places we weren't able to get to. on lewis, it seemed like every place we wanted to go was over an hour away from where we were staying, and the roads, make us go MUCH more slowly than the time the locals tell us it will take. so, often, we just didn't attempt it - too tiring to go out like that every day! so we had to just enjoy the things that were near - and we did. we went to the callanish standing stones and the Carloway Broch and then enjoyed the blackhouse village itself. there were wonderful views right outside our door. what a privilege and opportunity! i don't think i will ever get to go back, but i can live off this past month for a very very long time to come! : )

I'd love to see the callanish stones! The logistics of getting to everything in Scotland makes it hard. You really have to have a lot of time and a lot of money with the exchange rate! I'm very lucky to have dear friends over there! I'd love to take the trip to St. Kilda someday too! And the black house would be wonderful! You'll have to share some of your photos with us here in the group on the photo section!

We met a family on the ferry from Uig to tarbert, who were fulfilling the father's bucket list wish for his 75th birthday - to go to st. Kilda! The following days' weather wasn't great, but I SO hope they were able to make it!

Julie wrote: "my favorite find was, 'hamish's groats end walk' by hamish brown. loved it from the first page. ..."

Hamish's Mountain Walk deals with the author's first continuous ascent of the Munros. Climbing the Corbetts is the sequel, in which Brown describes ascents of the Scottish peaks between 2500 and 3000 feet.' Actually there's a LOT of books by him!

Thanks for telling us about this author!

Julie wrote: "we went to the callanish standing stones and the Carloway Broch..."

Callanish stands out so vividly in my memory! It was on my list of have-to-see when I was in Scotland & well worth the logistics to get there! So beautiful! Because it's on the west coast of Lewis & so isolated ... didn't you feel as though any minute you could walk round a stone and the people who built it & used it would be there?

My stay in Scotlmd is coming to an end. I fly home on the 5th. I've been posting pics on my blog and have many more still to do. You can check them out if your so inclined here... http://peggyannspost.blogspot.co.uk/s...

Spent a couple hours with James Oswald and his partner, Barbara today. Wonderful people!

Check out my travels with Alan Jones on my blog. He took 2 days away from his busy life to show me the southwest corner of Scotland. Loved every minute of it!

I'm so glad that you've had a great time - and the weather behaved itself - mostly!

Katrina wrote: "I'm so glad that you've had a great time - and the weather behaved itself - mostly!"

You and Jack always see to it that I have a good time! The weather was lovely!

I visited the Isle of Lewis this summer for perhaps the fifth time. It was beautiful as always, and we were there for the HebCelt music festival in Stornoway which is always a treat. Also on this trip I finally made it to St. Kilda. I'm travel a lot but that experience is among my top five anywhere. If anyone is interested in my blog post about the St. Kilda trip, here's a link https://lornaofarabia.com/2016/07/15/...

Lorna wrote: "I visited the Isle of Lewis this summer for perhaps the fifth time. It was beautiful as always, and we were there for the HebCelt music festival in Stornoway which is always a treat. Also on this t..."

Thanks for the link to your trip Lorna! Would love to do that trip too someday!

Lorna wrote: "I visited the Isle of Lewis this summer for perhaps the fifth time. It was beautiful as always, and we were there for the HebCelt music festival in Stornoway which is always a treat. Also on this t..."

That music festival sounds exciting! I'll put it on my bucket list & then I can get back to Callanish while I'm there on Lewis.