A8/S8 Annual Meet, 6-8th June 2014

[The_Laird]

The A8/S8 Annual Meet 2014

Well boys & girls, as you may already know, next year’s event will be in Scotland on June 6/7/8.

Following on from the theme of recent meets, this will be a ‘family friendly’ event, so please don’t think it’s an ‘old gits talking cars’ weekend! (OK, there will be some of that , but we’ll include other stuff too!)

But, with over 30,000 square miles of terrain, 6,000 miles of coastline and 790 islands to choose from, we thought we’d ask for your help in choosing an area that you’d be happy to travel to.

We’ve broken it down into 4 key areas:

1. The Central Belt: the area that runs west to east between Glasgow and Edinburgh, running to around Stirling (or even Perth & Dundee) in the north and Ayr in the south.
Pros: it’s where the organisers live; scenery is magnificent; there’s a lot going on.
Cons: the roads can be busy; even Glasgow is 100 miles north of the border.

2. The Borders: the bit north of Northumberland, centred by Jedburgh, Galashiels and Kelso.
Pros: easily accessible from England; scenery is magnificent; lots of small towns, ‘interesting’ roads and places of interest.
Cons: no mountains!

3. Dumfries and Galloway: cross the border north of Carlisle and turn left.
Pros: very easily accessible from England; lots of beautiful coastline.
Cons: the A75 is very busy with ferry traffic.

4. The Highlands: north of a line from Oban, through Perth, to Dundee.
Pros: well, all the good stuff you hear about the Highlands – mountains, lochs, scenery, roads.
Cons: it’s a long, long way for most of you (the Scottish mainland runs for around 260 miles north of the border, as the crow flies!) and there are only 2 roads that go there (both will be busy and slow!); midges!

So, let’s hear from you. There’s a poll attached to this thread with the 4 options above plus an ‘I’m coming where ever it is’ and an ‘I’ll travel anywhere except the Highlands’ option.

Please don’t vote if you don’t think you’ll be coming.

Please vote for one option only to indicate where you’d prefer the meet to be held and to where you’d be prepared to travel. We’ll keep the poll live for a week or two, until we get enough of an indication as to where you want to be and to give you time to check with SWMBO (or HWMBO).

[IT]

It all sounds good, but for me the timing is unlikely to work. No issue with travelling even to the highlands, but would have wanted to make a weeks holiday with the family out of it, but cant do it with those term dates which I'm sure are strategically placed to avoid a number of other conflicts, doh.....

[gninnam]

Thanks for the in depth research (doubt it...).
Not fussed where it is as I will be there (so far anyway)

[PsYcHe]

Highlands for me

There are some awesome roads all over Scotlandshire though, so I should be fine no matter where.

[tintin]

Highlands for me too - best driving roads, and if you're coming to Scotland, you might as well do it properly.

Midges should be fine in June: anyway, there's ways of dealing with them, and it's not like we'll be doing 20 mile hikes! (hopefully...)

[darrenjoe90]

Yeh the highlands for me also.

[Adrian E]

I haven't voted yet as it largely depends on whether I have the financial means to cover the fuel bill from the South East corner of the country. I've driven to North of Edinburgh before for a week long holiday so the distance itself doesn't put me off - if I had to express a preference I'd say Borders at the moment.

If I am working before the end of the year it also depends on having enough holiday to use and no clashes with stuff I'm organising....

[HPsauce]

We are definitely interested as we WILL be going to Scotland in June for a "significant birthday" (of mine) and we WILL be in the S8. Probably for a week, hopefully a bit longer.

Normally we aim to go far NW and to be there around midsummers day, though that date relates to SWMBO's birthday not mine so isn't a major factor in 2014. A week or two earlier is fine as the "significant date" is earlier in the year. And there will be fewer midges!

We have other constraints too, but I'd very much like to tie this in with a trip we're planning to do anyway, probably making it the first major stopover. The rest of the trip will be planned later, but there are certain locations North of Ullapool that again we WILL get to.

Dare I take this S8 along the "Wee Mad Road"?


So at this stage, please count us as very likely.

PS I've voted for "anywhere" as we'll be heading to the Highlands anyway. And finding accommodation that can be flexible enough might be a challenge in the remoter areas, much though I'd like the meet to be there.

[B17NKA]

How do
Sorry I will not be able to attend we are away the first and part of the second week of June same in September
Iam hoping to do some of the events this year so I can put faces to all the posts on this forum
Can't wait for the A8 parts open day if they have one ?
Cheers Andy

[goglawrie]

looks like were are going to book the camp site as no family room availble on the friday only sat. dont want to change from one place to another.so it looks like site .anyway all looking forward to seeing everybody and having great weekend.thanks guys