14 days in Great Britain: Cotswolds to Highlands

I love a good road trip. This is one I took in September-October of last year, starting in London and ending in Cambridge. We rarely had any clear days but I truly believe Britain and Ireland are the only places in the world where gloomy weather can accompany the sights quite well and contribute to a nice atmosphere.

We started in London before driving through west to Stonehenge and Bath, winding through Cotswold villages before ending up in Oxford. Blenheim Palace was a real treat, but we opted to skip Warwick Castle as it looked kind of kitschy and commercialized. York was beautiful but much smaller than I expected. Visited Bamburgh Castle and Tantallon Castle on the way to Edinburgh. Didn’t risk going to Lindisfarne because of the tides, do people think it’s worth it? I’ve heard some good things about Alnwick Castle too. Edinburgh was a real delight, but we felt like 2 days was roughly enough to finish all the museums and get a feel of the city. We spent a day going through the highlands, past Glencoe and Fort Augustus where we visited Loch Ness. This was slightly underwhelming, next time I’ll consider an alternative route to Inverness or over to Skye and Iona. Made our way back south with a stop in Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall and the Lake District. Northumberland is delightful to drive through. Spent a night in Manchester before ending in Cambridge.

Still have to visit Wales, the Scottish islands, Cornwall, Kent, and Durham. I’ll get to them someday.

British food is actually excellent. I love haggis and steak & ale pie, and Sunday roast is incredible. The prices are ghastly though, but maybe that’s because we went to cities more frequented by tourists. Still, it was all worth it. The fact that my 80 year old Asian grandmother who usually doesn’t eat anything aside from pork thought almost every restaurant was good says a lot.

1 - Arlington Row, Bibury, Cotswolds
2 - St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London
3 - View of Hadrian’s Wall, Housesteads
4 - Peterhouse, Cambridge
5 - Highland Cows, Pitlochry
6 - Tantallon Castle
7 - Tolbooth Kirk, Edinburgh
8 - View of a highland creek, Glencoe
9 - Holyroodhouse Palace, Edinburgh
10 - Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh
11 - Kirkstone Pass, Lake District
12 - Nelson Monument, Edinburgh
13 - Blenheim Palace
14 - Clifford’s Tower, York
15 - St. Mary’s Abbey, York
16 - Radcliffe Camera, Oxford
17 - St. Michael’s Church, Bath
18 - Stonehenge
19 - View of Bath Abbey, Bath
20 - Bamburgh Castle