Oban, on the west coast, is a great town and a cracking good base for doing some island hopping - I love watching the CalMac (Caledonian MacBrayne?) ferries coming in and out.

Noone seems to have warned you about the midges on the west (and north) (and probably in the middle too!) - they are tiny biting insects but can ruin a trip and are said to be responsible, in part, for Scotland being so thinly populated in those areas! You can buy repellants and nets to wear but they will drive you mad!

Oh - and a word on driving - we have just come back from a week in Bettyhill (between Durness and Thurso), which is on the north coast. It took us 7 hours to get these from Dundee!! Granted we were stopping for comfort breaks and to walk the dog, but not overmuch! Single track roads, mostly, from Inverness up.