This morning I booked tickets for 7th May:

Manchester to Glasgow (7.16am): £10.75
Glasgow to Fort Bill (12.21pm): £8.80

These prices include my Old Fart's Discount of 30%

JJ

I've saved about £120 by splitting my journey into 3 legs (Penrith to Glasgow, Glasgow to Inverness and Inverness to Strathcarron).

But one word of caution. If you do miss a connection at one of the breaks in journey an advanced ticket becomes invalid, whilst a through anytime ticket can still be used on later journeys if the missed connection is down to a train being late.

Finally, on the nonsense of ticket prices, whilst playing with the options I noted that anytime tickets were often cheaper than off peak only tickets. What's that all about then? Goodness knows what Challengers from overseas must make of our rail pricing!

Sorry, my message above. It should read that a through 'advanced ticket' can be used on a later train if you miss your connection because of a later train.