Scotland – a travel blog

Dunottar Castle, east Coast, near Inverurie.

I have visited Scotland about a half dozen times, but only twice for holidays, until now. The first time was in 1980 when we toured most of the country and camped. Second was in 2003 when I undertook a tour of distilleries with colleagues from the duty-free business. As these are numerous, we visited quite a lot of different locations to sample Scotch Whisky. Last week, I had no such commitments so I toured the entire country, more or less. My overall impression the first two times was that the country was a sort of ‘Ireland Lite,’ as in, the coastline was more gentle, the cliffs weren’t as high, the seas weren’t as rough and the mountains weren’t as challenging. After a week of exploration, I must apologise to my Scots friends for ever thinking this. I obviously hadn’t visited the right places or done enough research. Just to quote one example, Scotland has two hundred and eighty two (282) mountains that are higher than three thousand feet. Ireland has thirteen. It also has 31,460 fresh water lakes or lochs as they call them. If that isn’t enough for you, you can take ferry boats and visit any of the country’s seven hundred and ninety (790) islands. Enough said.

So, in a word, Scotland is magnificent. If you’re a similar type of holiday maker to me, i.e.: someone who loves the open air, the sea, the mountains, the lakes and the rivers, Scotland is a paradise. And there is so much of it, you could be in danger of becoming complacent; after a while, you only photograph the outstanding views; you become more discerning and particular. If it doesn’t have water (either a loch or the sea) and a mountain over 3,000 feet, you move on. Seriously though, you could be taking photos of magnificent scenes almost indefinitely. One journey I took which should take about two hours took me six, because I was continuously stopping to photograph stunning vistas. I have never seen as many roadside parking places designed for tourists.

Of course, this is not to say that it’s better than Ireland but there is certainly a lot more of it. Most of Scotland’s population lives in the lowlands, mainly the strip of land between Edinburgh and Glasgow (where most business is done) and in the North East (oil exploration). I’m not exaggerating when I say the rest of the country is largely a wilderness. I’m not going to select any particular part of it because it’s a continuous trail of magnificent peaks, with countless sea inlets and lochs. What I will say is that the further north and west you go, the more beautiful it becomes. That is not to take in any way from the wonderful scenery on the islands off the west coast and indeed that coastline itself. There are countless walks and trails and I only managed a few of them. I would comfortable say that if you were to walk every trail in Scotland, it would take several lifetimes. So, is it a paradise waiting to be discovered? Yes, for sure, but nothing is ever that simple and unfortunately there are a few caveats. The first is the Scottish weather. I was there for a week in June and people kept telling me how lucky I was with the weather. Granted, it only rained for two out of the seven days and the other five were sunny. Even the wet days brightened up in the evening. But beware, even on the best days, my photos will still show a cloud in the sky, reminding us that the rain is never very far away. That’s the down side of having so much water I guess.

The next caveat is cost. I tend to be a bit of a ‘grab-and-go’ tourist, as in, I travel light, with only a vague idea of where I’m going. I always drive and usually don’t decide to spend the night until I like the look of a place. With the internet and booking sites, this is easy and you can choose accommodation quickly and then find it by sat nav. This is possible in most countries but don’t try it in Scotland. I encountered severe difficulty getting reasonably priced accommodation at short notice. There seems to be two main reasons; firstly, most people book well in advance as they go on walking/cycling/bus tours and have to be certain of a bed for the night after a long days hike. Secondly, there appears to be a shortage of places to stay. I literally found towns and villages where every single room was fully booked. Not all properties could be found on the internet either but they very kindly put out signs saying ‘no vacancies,’ which meant there was no need to stop to enquire.

The result of all this was that I was faced with paying enormous sums for a night’s accommodation in my chosen town or village as the last few rooms sought premium prices. An example would be a hotel with a 6.0 rating charging two hundred pounds for a single room for bed and breakfast. I wouldn’t normally be attracted to a place with less than an 8.0 rating but what can you do? In the event, I didn’t pay these prices but I had to travel to places which were off the tourist trail to find a room available and at a reasonable price. I would then have to travel back next morning and resume my journey. So beware, if you’re going, plan your route and book in advance. You’ll more than likely still have to pay a premium price though. I found places to be very inflexible and unwilling to compromise on price for a solo traveler.

Two hundred pounds was not the worst I encountered either. I could have paid twice that in what was relatively ordinary accommodation. People I spoke to in the business explained it to me. They say there are three main reasons; firstly, the tourist season is relatively short so people try to make money when they can; second, they claim most Scottish people don’t holiday here so the prices are aimed at the English, French and German holiday makers who are perceived as having deeper pockets; finally, they say there’s a lack of competition and for this they blame the Government. Apparently, back in the day, ‘everyone’ did B&B. They said almost every house had a room or two; they provided a good quality bed and breakfast service to everyone at a reasonable price. Then the Government brought in a requirement for every place to be registered and certified (and of course to pay tax ☺). Most of the old ladies who provided the service couldn’t be bothered with both the cost and the hassle and simply stopped doing it. Covid also saw people close and never re-open. The result is a lack of accommodation and higher prices everywhere; even a modest B&B asked me for 140 pounds.

There is a major dichotomy here though as between the prices charged, particularly in hotels and the salaries paid to staff. I was listening to a program on BBC Scotland on my journey and a Scottish Minister was talking about establishing a minimum annual salary of 11,000 pounds per person and 28,000 for a married couple with a child. I felt this was very low and when I asked the manager of one of the hotels I stayed in about it, she told me that was what she and her husband earned – and she was the manager. I was paying eighty pounds per night in her hotel (which was part of a chain) and this was the cheapest I could find. A lace around the corner was charging almost twice as much and not offering breakfast.

I detected the smell of corporate greed. Someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of this, and it sure isn’t the staff. I also encountered many other people who assured me that they, or their children earned considerably less than 11k per annum. They explained that in many cases, this was why they voted for Brexit, because the politicians convinced them that all their money was being swallowed up in Brussels. Now, almost ten years on, they realise that the politicians lied and they are far worse off than before.

But anyway, this is a travel blog so I’ll leave the political comment for now. It is a shame though. With more accommodation and reasonably priced, the tourist industry could boom. Despite all rooms being fully booked, I never encountered any difficulty getting a table in a restaurant. Most were actually half empty. As the man said, go figure. The pity is that the industry, and by extension, the prosperity of the country could be transformed with a few simple steps. The mountains, lochs, seas, rivers and vistas are already there. If they encouraged people to provide more accommodation and offered special deals, they would encourage both local and international tourism. It’s no wonder Scottish people don’t holiday here; they can’t afford to. A night in a B&B amounts to more than a week’s wages for many people. It’s a shame that many Scots never get to see their own country.

And the solution is relatively simple. They just need to look across the sea for a moment. In 2014, the Irish tourism industry was in the doldrums. It was still trying to recover from the downturn caused by the world financial crisis. Some marketing genius decided to repackage the offer, realizing that the western seaboard was pure gold. Thus, the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ was born. The concept was very simple; it didn’t change what was on offer; didn’t change anything; didn’t have to because it was already there. They just needed a way to highlight and promote it.

Nowadays the name is known worldwide and has attracted millions of tourists who want to ‘do’ the wild Atlantic way. It runs for 2,500 kilometres along the entire western seaboard. You don’t need sat nav or a map or a guide because there are signs up everywhere to guide you. It has become so attractive and popular that if you run a tourism business, you have to be on it. Scotland has exactly the same vistas but they don’t promote it. They do have a thing called the North Coast 500, but it is very poorly sign posted and is essentially a driving route for fast sports cars and motor bikes. Local people told me that the idea is to drive the 500 in one day which brings no benefit to the local economy. So, Scottish Tourism, if you are listening, this is free advice; start putting up signs and call it the wild Atlantic way if you want; we don’t mind, or come up with a different name. And then, promote it. As they said in the movies, ‘build it and they will come;’ in this instance, no building is required because the product is already there – it’s called Scotland. In my experience, people are often not attracted to a place if it is seen as too remote, but if there’s a ready-made guide there, this will solve that issue. You cannot get lost on the wild Atlantic way because there is always a sign to guide you. By contrast, I got lost many times on my tour of Scotland.

There are a few other things they could do also to improve the overall tourist package. Scottish people as a general rule are hard-working and diligent. Hence they go to bed early and rise early. This is reflected in the tourist industry. Most places have breakfast from 7.00am to 9.00am. This suited me fine because I was usually long gone by 9.00 but many other people, particularly if they are on holidays, like a lie-in in the morning. It would help if breakfast was served until 10.00 or 10.30. Also, some of the hotel infrastructure is very old and could do with renovation. I think the general rule in hotels is that you must replace everything over a six year period. Some of the places I looked at hadn’t been renewed in a lot longer than that.

But I don’t want to end on a negative note. The country is beautiful. It certainly invites comparison with Ireland or Switzerland. It just needs to capitalize on it.