Freedom of Scotland, Day 0

Good news, everyone: I'm going to Scotland tomorrow!

Scotland is a place I've always loved, particularly thanks two family holidays in the Highlands in 2004 and 2007, and one of my biggest regrets about the All-Line Rover was not doing more lines in Scotland. To put that error right, over the next ten days, Friday 8th-Sunday 17th July, I'm going to be travelling round Scotland by train with Ian and Matt, two friends of mine who are nearly as mad about trains as I am.

We're using a Freedom of Scotland 8 in 15 Day Travelpass, which permits travel on all lines in Scotland (as far south as Carlisle and Berwick), after 0915 on weekdays and any time at weekends (though the time restrictions do not apply between Glasgow and Oban/Fort William/Mallaig and between Inverness and Wick/Thurso/Kyle of Lochalsh).

Unlike with the All-Line Rover, we have a fairly careful plan laid out. On Friday 8th, we meet up in London and head north on the East Coast Main Line to Edinburgh. We're spending three nights in Edinburgh, with a day on trains around Edinburgh on Saturday 9th, and a day looking around Edinburgh as a city on Sunday 10th (since none of us have been since we were quite young).

After that, we undertake a great circuit of the Highlands: on Monday 11th, we'll head north from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, and then across to Inverness. We'll spend two nights in Inverness, with a day trip to Wick and back on Tuesday 12th.

Then on Wednesday 13th, we'll head across to Kyle of Lochalsh, then get a bus across the Isle of Skye to the port of Armadale, where we get a Calmac ferry to Mallaig, and find ourselves at the end of the West Highland line from Glasgow, which we'll take as far as Fort William, before spending one night there.

On Thursday 14th, we plan to head south from Fort William to Glasgow, probably via Oban, to spend three nights in Glasgow. Friday 15th and Saturday 16th will be spent exploring the suburban network around Glasgow - while we have ideas we have no firm plans for these two days - and then on Sunday 17th we head home via the West Coast Main Line from Glasgow to London, and go our separate ways home from there.

We've planned this trip relatively carefully because most of the long, scenic lines in the Highlands, which are ultimately the point of doing this trip, are served only three or four times a day, and trying to do it ad hoc would inevitably result in an unexpected four-hour wait. We really want to have covered all of them by the end of the rover. Also, we wanted to arrange accommodation well in advance, since we're doing this in high summer and the Scottish Highlands do get booked up.

As I said, though, we don't have firm plans for everything: while the days in the Highlands are tied to the infrequent trains, and while we've planned what we'll do on suburban trains in the Edinburgh area, there's enough lines in the Glasgow area that we're just going to plan those on the day.

Inevitably, the weather forecast is rather changeable, but it could be a lot worse and to be honest is to be expected for this time of year; hopefully we'll get some sunshine in the Highlands.

It's been a busy year at university (I've been doing an MSc in 2010/11 as a prelude to a PhD), and I'll be very glad to get a good break from work for a while; I can't think of a better way to spend ten days than travelling round Scotland on trains with two good friends.

As usual, I'll be blogging about every day, hopefully no more than 24 hours behind real time, but that will be dependent on how much internet access we have and so on. So stay tuned!