A Driving Tour of Scotland's Northeast

So many castles exist in the northeast that local tourist authorities have created a castle trail. However, not only castles dot the region. This ancient Pictish kingdom also boasts numerous carved stones, recumbent stone circles, Roman forts, cathedrals and ruins. It is a land of wild mountains, deep glens, and rushing rivers, treacherous sea cliffs.

This driving tour of Scotland's northeast is approximately 195 miles and will take you from Aberdeen to Inverness.

Begin your journey in Aberdeen where you'll leave the city heading south on A90 to Stonehaven and Dunnottar Castle. Leave Stonehaven by the A957 heading northwest until you reach the A93, from here you can take a short drive to visit both Drum Castle and Crathes Castle. After your visits head west along A93 to B993 continue west. Continue your journey west on B976 until you meet A93 at Crathie. Take A93 west-southwest to Braemar where you'll visit Braemar Castle and if you are there the first weekend in September, visit the Highland Games. Leave Braemar the same way as you came, on A93, heading back to Crathie stopping by Balmoral Castle along the way. Leave Crathie by the B976 until you meet the A939 heading north. At Colnabaichin it's just a short drive west to Corgarff Castle. Leave Colnabaichin on A944 which meets up with A97 where you can visit Glenbuchat Castle, Kildrummy Castle, and continue on north A97 to Huntly. Stay in Huntly a couple of nights so that you can visit Huntly Castle, Loanhead Circle, Tolquhon Castle, Fyvie Castle, and Delgatie Castle. Leave Huntly by way of the A920 heading west to Dufftown. Here you'll want to visit Balvenie Castle and Glenfiddich Distillery. Leave Dufftown on the A941 continuing on to Elgin where you'll want to visit Elgin Cathedral, Spynie Palace, and Duffas Castle. Leave Elgin heading west on A96. Along the way you may wish to visit Sueno's Stone at Forres and Brodie Castle just west of Forres before you reach Nairn. Continue your journey along A96 until you reach Inverness. You'll want to spend a couple of nights here to visit Culloden Battlefield, Clava Cairns, and Cawdor Castle.

The following are other sites, which I may or may not have already mentioned, you may wish to add to your visit while on this driving tour of Scotland's Northeast.

1. Elgin Cathedral
2. Sueno's Stone - My husband and I have seen this stone in many photos, but none of them prepared us for its immensity or for the complexity of the carvings. Sueno's stone stands at the edge of a housing area next to the A96.
3. Duffus Castle - Pronounced "duffus" not "doofus".
4. Spynie Palace
5. Balvenie Castle
6. Huntly Castle
7. Picardy Symbol Stone - Class I Pictish stone may be one of the oldest in Scotland, possibly dating from the 7th century. Take the B992 to Insch. In Insch, follow the minor road toward Largie. The stone stands about two miles beyond Insch on the south side of the road.
8. Maiden Stone - This is a finely carved Class III Pictish stone and may be one of the last of the Pictish carving tradition. The site is located off the A96 4.5 miles northwest of Inverurie.
9. Loanhead Stone Circle
10. Crathes Castle
11. Arbroath Abbey

Since there are so many places to visit within a short distance, we chose self catering as our main accommodation along with Bed and Breakfast/Guest House for the in-between drives for this journey. We chose to stay at Delgatie Castle's Symbister Suite, which is located in Turriff, for one week while we toured part of the northeast region of Scotland. Each morning we would map out our journey for the day, stop off in the town of Turriff for supplies for a picnic lunch, and take off. Although, we were well planned in our journeys we always allowed time for those sites which seem to show up along the way that weren't planned but seemed very interesting. While we enjoy the planning we also love to be spontaneous while on vacation. This allows us to relax, which is what vacations are really all about. Some of our best memories are the ones where we just drove the country roads of Scotland and would come upon a ruined castle. There are so many ruins throughout the countryside of Scotland that most tourists don't even know about or even seem to care to stop by to see. But to us these are some of the best places we visited. There were no people around to disturb the peacefulness of simple, quiet nature. We would park our car as close to the area as possible and hike back to the ruin with our picnic lunch in tow, lay out our blanket and relax amidst the ruins.