Scotland here we come.

At our recent meeting at the Brunswick attended by Maldwyn, Shawn, Clyde, Martin and Peter we discussed 2 possible routes in Scotland and one in Cornwall. Of these, the route on NCN78 from Oban to Inverness gained most favour but we did consider giving some thought to NCN7 from Dumbarton to Inverness.
The NCN78 route would involve travel to Oban (possible in 1 day from our location) and then the next day heading north. There seems to be a couple of options;
Oban to Fort William, FW to Fort Augustus and then the third day to Inverness. Distances are 80, 55 and 55 kms (approx)
An alternative which avoids the first long day is to stop at Glencoe YH the first night, then Invergarry and finally Inverness. This does mean a slight diversion away from NCN78 at the end of day 1 and then back at the start of day 2 but does balance the distances. Seeing Shawn's plan makes this even more of an advantage as we could meet up at Glencoe.
A quick check of possible train fares revealed (surprisingly) that if booked well in advance Monday travel is no more expensive than Tuesday so I would suggest that we get to Oban in the evening of Monday 13th May which implies Glencoe on 14th, Invergarry the 15th and overnight in Inverness on Thursday 16th. For those, like me, who fancy a fourth day doing a tour of the Black Isle (neither black nor an Isle) there would be a second night at Inverness SYH and travel home on Saturday (or the Friday night sleeper).
It is not long to go until we are less than 90 days from our trip at which point trains can be booked. I suggest that consideration is given to breaking the journey down to 3 legs; the first to Crewe, then CRE to Glasgow Central and finally Glasgow Queen Street to Oban. GLC and GLQ are less than a mile apart. Doing it this way takes advantage of Virgin trains cheap fares and then of Scotrail's generally more reasonable charges.