Hello Coast,
I can remember three trips thinking back now: first was to The Isle of Mull, next time I went Kintyre, Uist, Harris, Lewis; then most recently in 2004 when my daughter was a year old we went up to Skye, then Harris and up to Lewis and saw that fantastic arrangement of standing stones as old as Stone-Henge, but these you can sit among rather than just walk around the outside of an electric fence 200 mtrs from the stones.
Scotland is beautiful, but the towns are dark and dull and don't have real beer (real ale); so I caught the ferry across to Northern Ireland which is dark and ale-free like Scotland, then over the border into Southern Ireland, where the towns are colourful and full of life... but the beer is still crap, unless you just like Guinness all the time.
Down the west coast to Galway for a night, I met up with a guy from Pensilvania, and a man and wife from California; I remember remarking how funny it felt to be out on the town with three friends, and for me to be the only one from the UK.
I caught the ferry from Cork in Southern Ireland to Wales, and rode my motorbike and sidecar at top speed round the Bristol Channel and down to Land's End in Cornwall... because the ale there is the best in the world!
Such great memories,
Mark................
