Expert: Alun Hill MCIJ - 4/29/2008

Question
My family (2 adults, 2 kids) will be in London for about three days, then we are going to a clan gathering in Tynault (spelling?) near Oban for a few days.  We would love to stop on the way and see Hadrian's Wall (my 10 year old son is a history buff) but my daughter wants to ride the train.  Is this possible?  Or do you recommend getting a car?  Perhaps skipping the wall altogether?  We have a few days to spend back in London after the gathering so it is possible to see the wall up or back.  Thanks for any help on this...

Answer
Melanie, hi - this is really an extraordinarily difficult question to answer - but I relish the challenge!

Let's deal with driving to Oban first.

From London, it's a 500 mile journey, taking in some of the busiest roads in Britain, with a lot of traffic, then onto some of the quietest roads in the nation, as you enter Scotland.

Officially, it's a 9 hour journey, but I would ask you to allow at least 12 hours, so that you can take breaks safely - for the first 400 miles there are service stations around every 40 miles, so that's not a problem.

Do remember that petrol here is now the equivalent of ten US dollars a gallon and increasing several times each week, so you're looking at perhaps $300 in petrol alone, assuming you do no other driving - just London to Oban and back.

You've also then got got drive on the left and most hire cars here have manual gearboxes - automatics tend to be much more expensive ...

The train option is in many ways much easier - there are 4 trains each day, but you will always need to make 2 (easy) changes. I'll be happy to supply more details.

One great way of doing it is the overnight sleeper train - you leave London at 1145 at night and arrive in Oban at 1142 the next morning - a fabulous way to travel, and if you book in advance (online), it can be very cheap.

There are some details here:
http://www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/content/caledoniansleeper/index.php

I assume you're gong to the Taynuilt Highland Games, which I believe are being held on Saturday the 19th of July this year (a wonderful event!), but do check the date, just in case!

Taynuilt is only about 12 miles from Oban, so a local taxi would be easy.

So, that's your travel options sorted, but it's important to me that if you need further information, do come back to me please, but note that I'm away myself for most of mid May this year.

Let's look at Hadrians Wall now.

There's an excellent site at
http://www.hadrians-wall.org/
but I must say that most of the wall is no longer there and you have to drive along some pretty poor roads to get to the bits that are worth seeing - remember that there is really nothing more than a few inches high left.

If you're in the area of the wall (which totals over 60 miles, East to West, Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle), then by all means see some of it - but as England and Scotland have so much history, I would perhaps suggest that there are plenty of other sites to see.

For example, whilst in London, there is plenty of the original Roman Wall around the City of London (much of it 20ft or more high) - near to the Tower of London to see - aswell as, of course, The Tower of London itself. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Wall

Let me know what particular period / occasion in history your son is interested in and I'll almost certainly come up with something.

Do remember that London itself is full of history, from St Pauls Cathedral to Shakespeare's Theatre, from Parliament (and Big Ben) to Trafalgar Square.

One thing that might interest you is that there is a very special "Hadrian" exhibition on at London's British Museum whilst you're here - I've just written about it at:
http://islondonexpensive.com/2008/04/30/british-museum-hadrian-empire-and-confli...

I do hope this helps - and very much looking forward to hearing from you with an update to your plans - happy to help!

Alun Hill MCIJ
Editor: http://www.IsLondonExpensive.com