Visits to SCOTLAND

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Something of a comparator to the same question about Northern Ireland last week.   I think I know roughly how this will turn out - but let's see!

[MVR S&T]

Pehaps the question should have been how often have you visited SOUTHERN Ireland, as Scotland is for many of us an 'easy' trin journey away, ehre as Ireland in volves at last a train ferry, aircraft journey.
I also was born in Scotland, and have family there, so used to visit often. But have no relatives in either Irlelands.

[ellendune]

Pehaps the question should have been how often have you visited SOUTHERN Ireland, as Scotland is for many of us an 'easy' trin journey away, ehre as Ireland in volves at last a train ferry, aircraft journey.

The most northerly point in the island of Ireland is not in Northern Ireland.  Southern Ireland to me means Rosslare or Cork, Dublin is in the Irish Midlands.  I would call the larger part of that island that is not part of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), the Republic of Ireland. 

[RichardB]

I was in Scotland last for the Community Rail Awards in 2018 and haven't been to the Highlands since 2010.  Hoping to do a big trip this Summer taking in all the classic routes. High Speed Trains (HST^▸ (High Speed Train))s and a trip on an adapted 153 to feature, all being well!

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying abbreviation

[MVR S&T]

Yes, I know what we think of as 'not northern island', is the repbulic of island, see, even here we have a misunderstanding...

[grahame]

Pehaps the question should have been how often have you visited SOUTHERN Ireland, as Scotland is for many of us an 'easy' trin journey away, ehre as Ireland in volves at last a train ferry, aircraft journey.
I also was born in Scotland, and have family there, so used to visit often. But have no relatives in either Irlelands.

I considered that ... but the thread / poll to which this is providing a comparator is talking about a country comprising the United Kingdom.  Wales is on the forum's home patch so Scotland was the natural choice. 

I would have preferred an initial one-question survey with a matrix of columns, so that members could have answered for each country of the British Isles, but  the software doesn't offer that and though I have a download of LimeSurvey, I haven't spend all the time that I would need to learn and provide that - guided by the member survey I did on polls a few weeks ago, I am the only one hankering after such facilities.

[GBM]

4 trips to the Port of Ness (Isle of Lewis) in the mid 1970's and 3 trips to Wick in the late 70's.
Day coach trip from Blackpool to Carlisle in the early 80's.
None since!

[bradshaw]

I lived near Glasgow for a year in the mid 60s, when the A4s were still running the Aberdeen service. Then visited annually for some years in the 80s&90s. However not been for some time since then.

[paul7575]

Visited countless times for work, (including many day trips by air), and being brought up in Northumberland visited places in the borders many times as a teenager. 

As an aside, my brother worked in Melrose for a few years before retirement, but commuted from Morpeth.  (Not sure how the recent travel restrictions would have dealt with his situation...)

Paul

[eXPassenger]

Frequent visits for work in the past.  Very few this millennium.

[Bmblbzzz]

Any guidance as to what counts as a visit?

I'm told I was taken to Scotland when I was a few months old. I know I went to Glasgow in connection with work on one occasion circa 1995, but I only spent a couple of hours there and left as soon as done what I needed to do. The first occasion was before my memory and beyond my control, more like being visited by Scotland than visiting Scotland. The second was so brief and unrelated to it being Scotland that it feels like counting a stop off at Heathrow as visiting London.

On a positive note, I can say that on both occasions I went by train. Even though I only had a ticket for the second time. 

[grahame]

Any guidance as to what counts as a visit?

Not really but I had a look at a couple of dictionaries.

Going there for the purpose of doing something there?    Meeting someone, repairing a left handed widget or watching wild haggis?  Probably does not include transit on public transport - for example flying Exeter to Bergen with a change in Aberdeen would not (to my mind) constitute a visit. With an overnight stop at the Dyce Travelodge (quite the worst I have even stayed at at the time) it would constitute a visit - and certainly a visit you could remember.

[PrestburyRoad]

I have happy memories of touring all the Highland branches in a week in the 1980s using a rover ticket.  This was back in the days of loco-hauled mark 1s.  We had a day trip from Inverness to Wick and Thurso (grateful for the steam heating even though it was summer); we also had a brief bus excursion to John O'Groats that day - it was raining so we stepped off the bus, looked quickly at the hotel and got straight back on.  Whereas Skye and Fingal's Cave were sunny - and the sea was calm.  Changed at Crianlarich on the journey from Oban to Mallaig.  Many memories.  A good holiday.

[GBM]

Drank the buffet car miniatures dry on the up trip between Inverness and Wick on a few occasions; they then obtained a lot more from the down train that passed half way.
Couldn't do that these days - even if there was a buffet car 

[paul7575]

Any guidance as to what counts as a visit?

I think you possibly have to come within touching distance of a deep fried Mars bar... 

Paul