Let’s face it – journeys can be deathly dull. Ask anyone who has to endure a mind-numbing daily commute. But handily Scotland is also home to a flurry of world-class journeys, unique experiences that – sometimes literally – elevate you from the everyday into the sublime. We’re talking everything from driving into the clouds to enjoying the world’s shortest flight. People come from all over the world to try these experiences and they’re right on your doorstep. What are you waiting for?
Bash on to the beach on Barra
I once flew next to a 80-year-old virgin flyer on this unique route. What a first flight! Swoop off from Glasgow on the Loganair Twin Otter and you’re bound for the world’s only scheduled beach landing out in the Outer Hebrides on Barra. The pilot makes the final call and you go for it – bashing down on to the sands of Cockle Strand Beach. It really is quite something with much of the ‘airport’ disappearing at high tide and further signs warning of planes on the beach and also not to pick shellfish from the runway. The low-flying route is like flying through a glossy TV documentary about the Hebrides.
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Voyage to the islands at end of the world
There is nowhere like St Kilda, a wild archipelago 40 miles west of North Uist, all alone in the cobalt emptiness of the baleful Atlantic. Man gave up the ghost here in 1930, the intoxicating traces left in the beautifully preserved (by the NTS) Main Street and its croft houses on the main isle of Hirta. The MOD are increasingly busy here thanks to shifting geopolitics, but man plays second fiddle to nature in all its glory. Come here on a small cruise ship and they’ll sail you around the isles of Boreray (which vies with Bass Rock for the title of the world’s largest gannetry) and Tolkien-esque Stac an Armin. As a writer I lose any sense of words being able to match my senses here. All I’m left with is an inelegant “wow” as the archipelago looms out of the horizon on a journey that always feels like a proper adventure. Small cruise ships are a great way to get here and spend proper time. I once enjoyed two whole days here with Hebrides Cruises.
(www.hebridescruises.com)
Brave the Bealach na Ba
The signs just north of Kishorn say it all with HGVs, camper vans or learner drivers advised to turn back and not even attempt the notorious Bealach na Ba (Pass of the Cattle). It also says forget it in wintry conditions. Don’t treat it lightly – we once blew one of our car's gaskets trying. The effort of snaking up from sea level to 626m is rewarded with views out to the Hebrides and back to the mainland massifs. Journey’s end comes in the trim, whitewashed coastal village of Applecross. The eponymous inn is legendary – hardy travellers are rewarded with ‘prawns’; in Applecross plump, delicious langoustines.
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Drive Scotland’s Route 66
Scotland’s very own Kintyre 66 may not have the motels and Beat Generation culture, but it packs a far more scenic punch. And it’s a winner already for not being the tourist-clogged North Coast 500. It soars south of Tarbert down a western littoral alive with beaches and isles, with the ferry hop to Gigha an essential spur. Pushing south it makes Campbeltown with its resurgent distilleries, before the east coast brings empty single track roads, Gormley sculptures, Jurassic Park-esque greenery and epic views across the Kilbrannan Sound to Arran. Celebrate in Tarbert with seafood.
The Iron Road to the Isles
I once refused to contribute to a world’s great railway journeys book if the West Highland Line was not included. The editor caved in; it made the front cover. It really is that dramatic, sweeping from the Clyde in search of the Highland massifs, floating across Rannoch Moor and descending into Fort William. The West Highland Extension section then curls around Caledonian pine-kissed lochs sniffing out the salty Hebrides, whose hulking shadows loom over the water from the brilliant white beaches of Morar. In summer the recently reprieved Jacobite steam train runs between Fort William and the terminus at Mallaig, with Skye within touching distance.
The world’s shortest scheduled flight
The runway at Edinburgh is shorter than the flight between the Orcadian isles of Westray and even smaller Papa Westray. It’s been done in less than a minute and you’d be wondering if the pilot is lost if it takes more than two. The isles, beaches and emerald land sparkle below and then thump, you’re down the on wee landing strip. You could scoot off again for Kirkwall, but don’t as the Papay Ranger will show you around this remarkable isle with its epic birdlife, empty beaches, dynamic community and the small matter of the oldest dwelling in northwestern Europe, the Knap of Howar, which makes Stonehenge seem like IKEA.
Travel writer Robin McKelvie has been travelling and writing his way around Scotland for three decades
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