Thinking about a trip to Scotland

[cessna152towser]

Luss (on Loch Lomond) and Stirling usually have their annual one day Highland Games around the first or second weekend in July.
A direct flight to Glasgow or Edinburgh would probably be much cheaper than going via London, that has certainly been my experience going the other way from Scotland to Canada or USA. If you must make a change of flight somewhere, Amsterdam Schiphol offers a much better experience than London Heathrow. At Amsterdam Airport you can walk between all the departure and arrival terminals whereas London Heathrow is a very scattered site where you can have a long wait for a train to take you from one terminal to another. I have also encountered rude staff at London Heathrow on several occasions. The food courts at Amsterdam tend to be much less pricey than London Heathrow. If you are travelling kilted, Amsterdam Schiphol is much more kilt friendly than London Heathrow. Heathrow only has two runways so flights are often delayed by congestion. Schiphol has multiple runways though if you are coming in off the North Sea you often land on a remote runway about five miles from the airport and the aircraft is a long time taxi-ing along its dedicated route which bridges canals and motorways on the way to the airport terminal. Daft as this may seem, flying via Amsterdam can often come in cheaper than via London, even though you fly over Scotland on your way from the USA about an hour before you land in Amsterdam and then you have an hour's flight back again.
Accommodation, well Xmarks member Pour1Malt owns a guest house in Dumfries but maybe that would be a bit off your route. I occasionally overnight in Glasgow and can recommend either the Ramada Hotel at Glasgow Airport or the Travelodge at Dumbarton, which is on the main road between Glasgow and Inverary and if you are lucky you will get a room which looks out over the River Clyde.