2 Day Road Trip To Scotland - All The Motorway Service Stations Special Episode 

The shed at Kinross used to rent go karts which used the track you saw the dog groomers was originally a tourist information centre .

Great to see you venturing north of the border! You really should come back here and do a video on the M8 through Glasgow - surely the UK's weirdest motorway. Bridges to nowhere, ghost junctions and slip roads leaving and joining the right-hand lane! It was originally intended to be part of a central ring, but having demolished part of the city to build the northern half, they changed their minds and never completed it. Now, if that isn't the stuff of Auto Shenanigans, I don't know what is...

Deep fat fried battered haggis is utterly delectable too. Food fit for Gods. A tour of service stations, however, is a quest fit only for the most well heeled masochists. I salute your stoicism. 👍

Some of the drone shots are breathtaking. You guys definitely earned your deep-fried pizzas.

How about Broxden Services at the very top of the M90. It's definitely signposted from the motorway.

Those drone shots of the Forth Bridge are stunning! well done!

Something else to mention about Heart of Scotland, to add to the comments below; the village of Harthill is next to the services, on the westbound side. Harthill is served by local buses, but there is no rail line through the village. So, to provide a commuter service to either Edinburgh or Glasgow, the Scottish Citylink route 900 (Edinburgh - Glasgow), which runs every 15 minutes, calls in at Harthill in both directions. That footbridge is to allow passengers to get to and from the coaches stopping on the eastbound side! In effect, the motorway service station footbridge is more for coach passengers, than motorists!

Bothwell is pronounced with the first syllable as in “ball”, so like “Bawthwell”. The services is dismal but the village is chock full of premier league footballers and very expensive houses. The A74(M) was supposed to be renamed M6 when the Cumberland Gap was filled between Carlisle and the border, but it’s never happened. A lot of the original road signs in South Lanarkshire pointing to Carlisle have M6 hidden under the A74(M) patch. Heart of Scotland is pitiful, but luckily a brand new Eurogarages development has opened at the next junction eastbound. Not technically a motorway services, it is right on the junction and has multiple food, coffee and shopping outlets along with a cheaper Shell than the BP at HoS. I think the only thing keeping HoS alive is it’s Park and Ride facility to Glasgow and Edinburgh for Harthill residents via Citylink coach. Abington is always horrendously busy and has a tiny car park. Sitting right at the junction of the M74 to Glasgow and the A702 to Edinburgh, as well as the A73 to the Clyde Valley. It gets a stack of passing trade, could definitely do with being much bigger. I watched a man selling tropical fish from his boot in Hamilton services once. So, you can pick up anything from a service station.

Fond of Annanadale Services - this is the first place we'd stop on the way to Ullapool from North Yorkshire since it marks the 2 hour point when you want to swap drivers and have a nice walk around the lake. Sometimes the lake gets a bit slimy and you know its bad when the ducks are depressed.

Before Westmorland took over Cairn Lodge, it was a very peculiar place. It was a sort of early 90s parallel universe, and I kind of liked it

Harthill used to actually have a proper sit down cafe rather than just a couple of shops. There was a proper service station concrete covered bridge to take you across the motorway and into the cafe.

Interesting that this video starts with 7 minutes of non motorway views - but nice to see the countryside around the England/Scotland border from the air as well - my inlaws lived in Carlisle so I am familiar with the start of this video.

I was 21 before I realised that not all pizzas were deep fried.

Harthill services used to have a Wimpy before Wild Bean Café was in every BP across the country. The access road you saw was used by locals (me included) all the time to get to the neighbouring villages of Harthill and Blackridge via the B718. They stopped access through most likely because it got busy and they didn't want to maintain the road as the surface was awful. There is a new service station just one junction up if you go eastbound at Heartlands which was a new development for houses.

Heart of Scotland is basically a park and ride for the 900 bus

Not sure if anyone has mentioned, but Kinross services is on the edge of what was Balado airfield, the shed and tarmac are probably remnants of that. The old airfield used to host T in the Park for years, a very big music festival. Now there's just some chicken sheds and a big radar thing that looks like a golf ball. The Old Inns services used to have direct (short) slip roads when it was on the A80, so was ironically more like a motorway services before it was on the motorway.

Best looking bridge in the world I think.

On street view from july 2008 the old bridge at harthill (heart of Scotland) is still there. It looks well outdated and there are 2 towers at either end which look derelict. The old bridge (as mentioned in the vid) was demod in sept 2008 and the new one opened in Nov 2008. Old inns services also opened in 1984 as a littlechef

Heart of Scotland used to have a much larger building (2 stories) with internal bridge over the motorway. This closed in the early / mid 80s to be replaced with a smaller building. The original internal bridge was replaced by the current structure in 2008.

Thanks!

Kinross that old building looks like early service station / garage ,sort of thing you’d see on Heartbeat but that’s just a guess .

Good video as always John, the footage of the Firth Bridge at the end was brilliant!

9:38 & 11:03 Penny Crayon - an obscure theme tune from the late 80s (it took me a while to remember the name of it)

I took a Subaru Outback up to Alston last year. The road was crazy, and atrocious in winter. AWD is a good idea. Many years ago had a delivery to Castle Douglas, got some great photos of the Solway estuary as the sun was starting to disappear. Peaceful area.

Honestly so gutted you didn't get to meet the flock of resident swans/geese at the Annandale Water services - They're like a group of very irritable pensioners! We've been stuck on the road out by the BP garage on more than one occasion as they've decided that moment to cross the road 🤦‍♂️ Heart of Scotland services is an utter tip (I live just around the corner) - They're moving them slightly further along towards Livingston. It's still a glorified petrol station, but has a Greggs, KFC & Starbucks. I believe it's still used as a park & ride for buses between Edinburgh & Glasgow. Sorry, distracted fan boying over basically a celebrity visiting near where I live 😂

Harthill Services was originally operated by Blue Star, infact the locals still call it The Blue Star. It used to be a normal motorway service station before being redeveloped into what you see now. That abandoned road was the service access road.

Loved the drone footage of the Forth Bridge at the end 😍

The road at the beginning with the hairpin turns reminds me of US-40 in Colorado ↩️↪️

Scotland is a nice country and there is an awful lot of it too of course to see! Well done though too.

I love hartside, shame the cafe burnt down a few years ago! It’s was very very popular whatever the weather!

I remember Gretna Green services in the 1980s before the A74,(M) when there was just a Little Chef, A Granary self service restaurant, a hotel and a shop selling tartan tourist tatt

Just coming along with you guys for the virtual drive around all the service stations, the Northern and Scotland ones I know very well as I cover these areas as a field technician. One suggestion inspired by your brilliant Hartside Pass footage: how about a series dedicated to mountain roads? Loads of stunning and fascinating historic routes across the Pennines and Southern Uplands: Cat & Fiddle, Snake Pass, Woodhead, Holme Moss, Isle of Skye Road (Saddleworth), obviously the M62 Pennine stretch, then up into the Dales, Northern Pennines and Southern Uplands of Scotland. Just an idea from a fellow road geek. Keep up the great work!

I cannot believe that with the 80s kids theme music you didn't choose the family Ness when you were up to visit us. Hopefully on your next visit 👍 great video as always

Brilliant photography and such a wonderful part of the world

Harthill (Heart of Scotland) of Scotland has a fascinating history. You can see the scars of the old railways all over the place from the old industry. The next time you're up, you need to do something on the M823. It has to be one of the shortest in the UK, complete with a roller-coaster exit slip and an old battlefield underneath... all within about half a mile!

"Both..." in Bothwell is pronounced the same as in bother, and "...well" is pronounced "wull". An interesting feature of Bothwell services is the access gate to the Fallside Road that locals in the know use as an unofficial motorway junction. Very handy!

Harthill there used to be a farm track thingy that you could access the service from. Actually there was a route that would take from Linlithgow to Harthill all on single track roads thru the countryside, that I discovered when I worked at Sun Microsystems in Linlithgow. As I worked permanent nights I would use it to get home to Glasgow that way in the morning for no other reason than it was a cool thing to do, joining the M8 at Harthill. I say used to be able, cuz the big meanies put boulders across the road so you couldn't access the services anymore. BTW It was the side where the BP garage is not the services proper.

The bridge at Heart of Scotland services looks so similar to the one that used to cross Leith Street in Edinburgh to join the St James Centre and the car park before the St James Centre was rebuilt that I'm wondering if it is actually the same bridge. The bridge was removed from Edinburgh around 2017-2018. If it's not the same physical bridge then it's too similar not to have been designed by the same people.

the old inns service station used to be more of a proper service station albeit split between the petrol station and what is now a restaurant. the restaurant building used to be home to a little chef and burger king but they shut down about 16/17 years ago

Hello chaps. In the 1960s work started on the a74 to turn it into a dual carriageway from draffan to the start of the m6. Because it was badly designed it had a poor safety record. Then in the 1980s the entire route became a motorway to the Scotland England border the Cumberland gap was completed in 2008 as the m6.

I've been to Annandale water countless times, never been round the back. I feel I'm missing out now 😮

I believe that barn at Kinross was once used as a small unmanned fire station for the close by (up forsale RAF base) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Balado_Bridge

Hartside Pass Cafe sadly had a Fire, then was For Sale in 2018 ...

The sunset is definately better from the west coast of Cumbria, looking towards Scotland

Kinross used to do a geat full English breakfast which would keep you going all day on a visit to the RAF Leuchars air show. Sadly, Leuchars isn't RAF any more. And the stuff pretending to be food in the services is a very long way from full.

This channel is a rare gem

By a lovely little café, are you talking about the one named Gregg’s? 😅

Just seen the trip into Scotland the gretna services is just as I remember it from 2005 I passed through stopping there on a trip with friends travelling to ravenglass from kirkinner in wigtownshire when I was holidaying in Scotland there day out to narrow gauge railway which was a days drive there and back though we returned via Whitehaven

6:27 - 7:27 VERY, nicely done, imo. Scenery, music. And the drone landing and turning off was a brilliant touch. ☮

Things have changed a lot since I last used to drive Birmingham-Inverness in the early 90s......

When Heart of Scotland was Harthill it was a full service station with a shop, restaurant and a garage like those down south. I stopped there many a time for a brew and a toilet stop at all hours, when in the army heading to barracks in Edinburgh.

Astonished to see you have hair. Well done 👍🏼

Love the video! As a matter of interest back when it first opened Harthill had a fairly substantial building on the north side with meeting rooms. I remember going there for meetings. It also used to have some of the cheapest petrol available as a way of attracting callers. I don't know if it got concrete cancer and had to be demolished or the later adoption of the usual soak the motorist attitude meant it ceased to be viable. Either way the original building was demolished in the early 2000s if I remember correctly.

Nice trip mate 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 I live in Ayrshire and travel up the A70 to hit the M74 (the junction at Cairn Lodge services). Quite often if I feel like a blast down the motorway a wee round trip down to Annandale Water services is undertaken as it handily sits on its own junction so good for doubling back up the road 😉 Harthill is also on our repeat list as it serves as a good ‘comfort’ stop if we are driving back home from Edinburgh 😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

The Harthill road are a throwback to when the police and fire service were separate this was the boundary between L&B and strathclyde so they needed a change over point for escorts and fire access due to the distance to the next junction

i subbed quite some time after this so thought i would give this a go, that scenery

On the slip road back onto the southbound A74(M) from the weighing station between Junctions 14 and 13, there's a blue motorway sign that says "M6 South". I believe it's a remnant of a proposal to rename the motorway "M6" all the way north to Glasgow.

You really had me along with you eating your first slice of deep-fried pizza, nodding away like a proud father with misty eyes 🤣 nice trip 🍻

Great series. I’ve always loved a service station. Birchanger and Beaconsfield were my usual haunts when I used to drive between Kent, Birmingham and kings Lynn every day. The Thurrock services also features a wrap around Travelodge hotel. That whole service station is (or was, haven’t been there for this reason) one of the grottiest feeling services ever, as well as having a bottle neck exit that can cause queues of up to 30 minutes at times!

Love the Fourth Bridge

Great Video Guys! Know Hartside pass well, many a good drive down there. Abington Services is my service station for heading north of south through I come off the Motorway Network and head up the A702 to Edinburgh. Great videography of the Forth Rail Bridge, quite a well known icon for photos of cars and the bridge providing the backdrop at North Queensferry.

Had the sheer 'delights' of working in the Welcome Break Services in Abington in 1997 for a whole £3.14 per hour (or about £6.35 per hour in 2022 prices). Decent coworkers and atmosphere but dreadful wages, wonder if this is why Welcome Break don't like you filming in their establishments?! They had the 'Red Hen Restaurant' in those days instead of Starbucks, always pretty empty but decent milkshakes for the staff! Keep doing what you're doing chaps, always a relaxing way to spend 20 minutes on RU-vid!

Oh you wait until you get to be an old dude. You'll need to stop at each of these service stations just to use the loo! Nice episode, thanks.

Running thru all your vids, takes time but they are really good, I enjoy them, love Scotland, tho I was born in Nottingham 😁, the forth bridge is awesome. Keep up the good work. Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪

Its pronounced (Ol)ston not (Al)ston. Lived here my entire life. Know hartside VERY well. Shame the cafe on the top is no more 😞

Annandale Water was the third Blue Boar service area. I enjoyed my visit in 2005. I think it was at Gretna services on the same trip that one of my Livingston based work colleagues spotted us wearing my company regalia of the time.

Egon Ronay once surveyed all the service stations and Harthill (now Heart of Scotland) was the only one graded 'Good'. Many were 'appalling'!

This is actually really brilliant. Okay, this is just about motorway service stations which for most people, I suspect, is about as humdrum as it gets. But actually, given a few years, and the changes that time brings, this will be an important source for social history. Who else would bother to document the companies that operate these places, what they look like inside, and all of the interesting little historical tit-bits and facts around them? And yet lots of people pass through these places, and in years to come, this will be an important record of things that nobody else bothers to record, because they're so "ordinary". But it's the "ordinary" things that people love to look back on. Damn good job guys.

aye you missed broxden services and possibly the best greasy spoon (sadly not on the motorway network) Ballinluig on the A9, but overall well done guys you earned your deep fried pizzas

You miss one service station at Perth on the m90

Yep I’m trawling through old episodes and . . . Wait a minute who’s that with the hair out 😯 quick get the hat back on , ohh I see you have,arghhhh he’s at it again ! I really enjoy watching these keep up the good work 👍

Cairn Lodge (Happendon) was the first place I slept out in my truck in 2007. Been doing it 4 nights a week ever since but not stayed there again weirdly.

Well, this was a bit epic! Some wonderful drone footage and some gloriously mundane services!

6:55 Get on with it ! 😄😄😄😄😄

Scotland where haggises roam wild.

There used to be a Wimpy on the westbound Harthill services

You are an excellent film maker and story teller ✔️✔️✔️💥

I'm enjoying your series and good to see you visit Scotland's service stations, even though they are quite modest compared to the ones down south of the border. It would have been extra special if you'd have stayed at overnight at one of the service station hotels, but understandable that you opted for something nicer. I drive the M876 semi-regularly, but have never clocked the existence of Bowtrees Sercices, so you have surprised me by finding a 'service station' that I wasn't aware of. Old Inns is my local 'service station', but I would hardly count it as such, as it's just a petrol station in Cumbernauld that happens to be quite convenient to access via the motorway and is signposted from the motorway.

Didn`t realise the deep fried pizza was a Scottish thing til my son moved to London! Another great video! Only found your channel this week but have already wasted a lot of time watching videos when I should have been working!

when you see the size of the bridge, against those caravansm its Mcfecking massive!

Just dropped in on this excellent video. Good work, only ventured up to Scotland once to take the Father in Law home to Buckie. Its a long way from Birmingham! Travelled up over night most of the services were closed.

Missed a grate services Peggy whites in between both well and hartlands

Harthill (I do not know anyone who calls it Heart of Scotland) used to be nice. It was a bigger, brick built structure, with a restaurant, bathrooms & showers, rest area etc. It was demolished a replaced with a generic BP service station. Added to add, there are other service stations and stops around Scotland.

There is a CL caravan/motorhome site just beside the B7076 junction to the Gretna services which is handy to for overnight stops when heading north or south as the access is great.

Thanks

Modern classic 👍

AH, Jock McTavish's auld barn. still standing behind the new service station thing.

There a sign on the A68, a short way past the Scotland/England border, which says 'Drive on the left'.

Great 2 day special! Ive never been to Scotland now being an expat i doubt i ever will. Closest i got was Northumberland. I can imagine doing this is an expensive affair and just cant be done without proper planning. So hats off to you both. Stunning aerial shots too.

The B7078 that you found out the back of Gretna, is the remnants of the original A74, and you can still follow it all the way up to Glasgow. Handy road to know if the M74 gets closed again! Did you get out of Gretna Services okay though? I've known a few folk end up going the wrong way because of the mind-bending layout.

The little circle of tarmac at kinross used to be used for r/c car racing for a short period.

The Hamilton service station used to be accessible via the backroad from the town. Probably closed off now, as for some reason a lot of these service areas don't like that and padlock those access roads off to the public.

Every time I hear Kinross I always think what has 'kin Ross done this time?

I'm in East Kilbride just south of Glasgow and have been following your channel for a while. If you get the chance to come up again check out the M8 in Glasgow. Slip roads to no where, a motorway to Maryhill which was abandoned. They bulit offices on the solitary bridge which was to be part of it. There's also a bridge to nowhere which was supposed to be a ring road. My dad worked in this section and said the contractors had made some mistakes with this section. There are positives. Head East on the M8 and you can see the upgrades and the old section still being used.

Brilliant video, guys; thanks.

You showed the 'Old Inns' Services on the M80, stating it was only a Petrol Station but as it was on a Motorway it counted. Yet why is Heartlands (2 miles east of Heart of Scotland, postcode EH47 0SF) not also considered a Service Station? Compred to some, such as Blackburn with Darwen, it's closed to the exit; the junction it serves was built for this purpose (circa 2015); and although connects with the A8, others including Kendal also allow access to an exit not requiring rejoining the motorway junction. I feel you need a one-off visit and additional episode for Service Station 96!! If its not, then what are the qualifying criteria for official status as a Service Station?

18:55 best USP evva!

19:54 A motorway you have never heard of? If only there was some sort of RU-vid playlist giving the Secrets of the Motorways, that could help with that sort of thing. That would be wicked, sweet, awesome!

I feel like you'd be a great guest on Smith & Sniff, if ever they did such an offshoot. Equally, Rozelle ought to be doing voiceover work. Thanks for listening!

Nice video. Pity you didn't go further north as the scenery gets even better. If you ever come up again, check out the A82 especially Crainlarich to Glencoe, and the A9 Perth to Inverness. They have some history you can research. I've got other road recommendations but they'll get you started 😃