Hello!

This may be a stupid question but...... I am staying in Tomintoul over New Year and am trying to figure out the best time of the day to do the 6 hour drive from Yorkshire. I have two options:

Option 1 - Leave work early 3/4pm and arrive @ 9/10pm

Option 2 - Get up early the following morning 5/6am and arrive noon/1pm

I am keen to maximise my time in away so fancy option 1 as it gives an extra night/full day.

Is it a ridiculous idea to try and drive through the cairngorms at that time of year at that time of night or does it just highly depend on local conditions?

Thanks,
Christian

I've never had any issues coming up from Yorkshire at that time, for skiing I often set off at 01:00 to get to the CML car park for 08:00

Obviously if there has been a lot of snow keep an eye on Travel Scotland for snowgate/road closures.

have done it from nottingham start 11.00pm arrive cairngorm 7.00am just make sure your fuel tank is full on a9 section at that time of night as not many filling stations.

Excellent, it's a goer then!. Thanks for the rapid responses.

Christian

One thing to watch for is that all of the roads into Tomintoul feature some pretty steep gradients so rapidly become difficult with even a light covering of snow/ice. Worth bearing in mind if you're not fully 4x4/chained/winter tyred up.

The Bridge of Brown in particular is quite an easy place to get trapped with steep twisty sections leading off in both directions.