Driving in Scotland is one of many adventures in a beautiful country known for its sporting challenges like golf, hiking, fishing, and biking.
Scots have given the world many wonderful inventions, but the shoulder on a road is not one of them. In all fairness, the roads are often sandwiched between scenic lochs and steep mountainsides.
I left a lot of rubber on the curbs before I finally blew a tire on my rental car. The new experience of driving on the left and the rental car’s sloping hood contributed to my failure to judge the location of the left wheels.
I wasn’t the only tourist ricocheting off the curbs. On TripAdvisor, three out of five reviewers of a hotel on the Isle of Skye were relieved to have arrived after destroying a total of four tires.
Another adrenaline rush is the “single track” road. These narrow Highland roads have wide spots where the closest car to the turnout is supposed to stop and let oncoming traffic pass.
When a dozen tourists take the same single track to a remote lighthouse on the same afternoon there are bound to be complications. I saw an American pull into the turnout on the right side instead of staying left, and a big Mercedes who thought the turnouts were for other people. And then there was me, bouncing along with my left two tires hanging off the pavement.
1,156th in a series. Collect them all. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of “Day Trips,” is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
This article appears in September 27 • 2013.