I’ve started making reservations for our trip to Scotland, and I found a castle hostel that has private rooms for $85/night (for both of us!). We’ll be staying in Carbisdale Hostel May 27. There was only one night available, but there’s not super much to do there other than hiking, so not a big deal. Getting out there will be interesting - we have to take a train from Inverness to Culrain, then walk about 10 minutes. The other problem is that it’s the 27th - we arrive on the 25th. Brian can kill me later We’ll just see most of Edinburgh on the end of the trip rather than beginning. We’ll be leaving Edinburgh on the 26th to get to Inverness, then spend part of a day in Inverness and take a late afternoon (6pm) train to Culrain. Spend the night there, then get an afternoon train back - the times are iffy on the train since the schedules for scotrail aren’t out for that time of year yet.

I’m not sure we’ll have time to get to Orkney, but I’m hoping I can talk Brian into it. We have to decide if we want to spend a lot of time at Skye or Inverness. I’m also not sure we’ll want to stop at Fort William - it’s all hiking and outdoor pursuits, which we won’t be exactly prepared for. It might be nice to stay there one night in the shadow of Ben Nevis.

We also have to see how much time we want to spend in Glasgow. It’s apparently a nice big city, but not much in the way of “touristy” things. Even so, it’s a 45 min train ride between Edinburgh and Glasgow, so there should be no problems - maybe make it a day thing rather than moving our luggage.