Sites which close in October in Scotland
hi, we have never posted before so bear with me please. While in Kinlochewe this year at the height of the midge season we discussed coming back in October when the wee blighters had died off, only to be told by the warden that the site closed on 3rd October.
We contacted the club when we returned home to find out why they would close such a fabulous site. Beautiful scenery, great walks, terrific area,but we didn't really get a reason., only to find a wonderful article in November's mag promoting Kinlochewe and
Bunree, both sites closed by October 3rd. Why so early in the year? This is also before Scottish children have their October break. Could anyone explain ??
Comments
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I wish I could explain - a few years ago I was travelling in Scotland to a family gathering to sprinkle my father's ashes on Ben Lui - I found it very hard to find ANY sites open. I did find a few CLs. As you say October is a wonderful month to travel. The ones I found open came from a Tourist Board map I picked up somewhere. I daresay UKcampsites would help too - but the Caravan Club might want to take note of shortages especially with the growing number of us travelling all year.
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Both of the sites mentioned can have some snow on the surrounding roads from October onwards.
The CC will have taken this into account and IMO quite correctly decided to close those sites when they do.
You only have to read about the absolute chaos a couple of centimeters of snow can bring to the South of England to understand that those southern drivers could not cope with Scottish snow covered roads.
There are alternative sites ( Non CC ) open in both those areas for those who are not scared of a bit of snow and like winter touring.
K
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Thank you Pippah45, the kinlochewe and Bunree sites mentioned in Novembers mag are beautiful and both close on 3rd October. With the North 500 getting so popular and of course the lack of midges at this time of year in the west, it is a great time of year
to experience all that Scotland has to offer.0 -
I am sure your southern members are very capable of dealing with anything that the Scottish weather can throw at them in October. If you have ever tried to have a break in the West of Scotland from June till the middle of September you will have had to deal
with midges and this can be very uncomfortable and off putting for many. I also mentioned that Scottish schools all have an October break and many families go away on their last break before winter sets in. The North 500 is also proving to be a very popular
route and perhaps the club should take this into account.0 -
JCB, many of us are sick of the anti-southern jibes. It's probably best to ignore pests but a shame we can't do the same with the midges. Alternatively, if you consider pests to be trolling, there is a report button to hand.
With regard to Scottish sites closing in early Oct, I wonder if the decision rests with CC or whether it is a licensing issue?
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There are plenty of alternative open all year sites in Scotland, see
ukcampites scroll down the pages to find them. Sites close all over the UK, in the southwest we don't have many CC sites open during the winter, often the ones that are open are under used. I don't think it's just the weather, the CC probably know how many
don't travel all year round. I imagine this is the main factor behind site closures. Not sure I'd want to be stuck at Kinlochewe in deep snow and hazardous roads, experienced a lot of that living in the Cairngorms. You can stay under the looming face of Cairngorm
on the Loch Morlich site all year round and experience plenty of weather changes.
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I cannot remember the last time we had roads up here closed by snow in October.
We often head north for 2-3 weeks in October.
IMO there is certainly a case for all sites to remain open until early November, and for more sites to remain open all year.
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I cannot remember the last time we had roads up here closed by snow in October.
We often head north for 2-3 weeks in October.
IMO there is certainly a case for all sites to remain open until early November, and for more sites to remain open all year.
I think many of us would like that throughout the network but it's obvious, except at half term and New Year that sites aren't well occupied. Vans get put away for the winter and unfortunately they're probably in the majority.
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There are plenty of alternative open all year sites in Scotland, see
ukcampites scroll down the pages to find them. Sites close all over the UK, in the southwest we don't have many CC sites open during the winter, often the ones that are open are under used. I don't think it's just the weather, the CC probably know how many
don't travel all year round. I imagine this is the main factor behind site closures. Not sure I'd want to be stuck at Kinlochewe in deep snow and hazardous roads, experienced a lot of that living in the Cairngorms. You can stay under the looming face of Cairngorm
on the Loch Morlich site all year round and experience plenty of weather changes.Write your comments here...Good Post Brue.
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Both of the sites mentioned can have some snow on the surrounding roads from October onwards.
The CC will have taken this into account and IMO quite correctly decided to close those sites when they do.
You only have to read about the absolute chaos a couple of centimeters of snow can bring to the South of England to understand that those southern drivers could not cope with Scottish snow covered roads.
There are alternative sites ( Non CC ) open in both those areas for those who are not scared of a bit of snow and like winter touring.
K
..Tut Tut another post to best mostly to ignore
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Many people reading this will think all of Scotland has midges but on the East side we do not see many all year. On the subject of sites closing for the Winter, we are quite happy about that as it brings more business to the CL's who like us are open all
year.David www.perthshirecl.co.uk
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I cannot remember the last time we had roads up here closed by snow in October.
We often head north for 2-3 weeks in October.
IMO there is certainly a case for all sites to remain open until early November, and for more sites to remain open all year.
I think many of us would like that throughout the network but it's obvious, except at half term and New Year that sites aren't well occupied. Vans get put away for the winter and unfortunately they're probably in the majority.
End of October is hardly winter, even up here. We have had a very mild October so far with plenty of sun, we have hardly needed any heating, in fact our south-facing rooms have been too hot at times.
There are school holidays here this past week, and the previous week, and I think the English one is this coming week? So having more sites up here open at least till all those are over would seem reasonable. Last year we were in Stonehaven in late October
and the site was busy.In mid November we had a week in Knaresborough for the woodworking show in Harrogate, and thought we would extend our trip to 2-3 weeks by going earlier and stopping off somewhere on the way there, and on the way back. We were disappointed to find that
all the CC sites we were interested in using were closed by that time.0 -
The post was not meant as a competition to see how many sites here or south of the border were open. I wanted to get the club members opinion on why sites would close so early in October and I agree with Kje11NN that snow in October is very rare up here
except on the high tops and the weather this last few years has been beautiful. Surely sites all over the UK could benefit from extended dates as has been stated at least till the end of November.0 -
The post was not meant as a competition to see how many sites here or south of the border were open. I wanted to get the club members opinion on why sites would close so early in October and I agree with Kje11NN that snow in October is very rare up here
except on the high tops and the weather this last few years has been beautiful. Surely sites all over the UK could benefit from extended dates as has been stated at least till the end of November....There is i think only one post from West Lothian that says the cc are right to close sites
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We stayed for three weeks at the CC site, Kinlochewe about four years ago, I'm really not surprised it closes early. At the height of summer when we were there it was virtually empty during our entire stay.
...Midges
Even the hardy Scots don't like giving that much blood apparently
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Just done a quick check, there are 20 sites open until the 7th November, with Culloden open until 3rd January and a few others open all year. Some sites do close a bit early in October but I would think sites like Dunnet head and Brora
wouldn't be worth staying open for.Ukcampsites returns lots of sites open in Scotland all year, I've been checking them myself as we are hoping to get away in November for a couple of weeks and are thinking of staying within Scotland. Lots of sites are closed at the end of October in England
too so its not just up here.0 -
My feeling is that it is financial. The sites are a bit remote and given the dubious weather we suffer then I think the numbers might be too low to justify the expense of keeping them open. We keep the caravan at Strathclyde Park and even then we have noted
winter numbers can be as low as twelve at times but given the huge storage area that probably can cover its costs.0 -
Folk who are working and limited to the amount of holidays they can take are not likely to use sites very much in the depth of winter. I was fortunate when working in that I was still able to get at least 12 weeks holiday. OH is a few years older than me
and I convinced her to retire early so we could make full use over the last 12 years. The last 9 years since I retired we are away about 17 weeks. Before I retired we would not caravan between mid November and late March. Now that I am retired we caravan between
early April until October with a couple of weeks away over Christmas. I suspect that we are not unique0 -
The post was not meant as a competition to see how many sites here or south of the border were open. I wanted to get the club members opinion on why sites would close so early in October and I agree with Kje11NN that snow in October is very rare up here
except on the high tops and the weather this last few years has been beautiful. Surely sites all over the UK could benefit from extended dates as has been stated at least till the end of November....There is i think only one post from West Lothian that says the cc are right to close sites
I think you need to broaden out the weather elements - stayed at Kinlochewe late Sept for a week and several of the roads were flooding and there were a couple of nights when it was gale force winds neither of which are great towing elements - So given many
people reduce winters to long weekends etc the prospect of travelling so far is impractical so I'd suggest whet we have here is a simple cosst / benefit equation. The more outlying sites will close as the number of visitors reduce - seemples. Some however
defy logic for me - Balbirnie is an example, great site well located but closes. Having said all that I'm heading to Melrose in 2 weeks and thats a lovely site.Just thought Id give another view from West Lothian! lol
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I wonder how many wardens would be prepared to "winter" in a caravan in Scotland when so many of them head the other way to Spain and Portugal as soon as the season ends
..The staff who work in the winter on sites, are at time those who have spent all summer in warmer climes,and as stated the accomodation,on most all year sites is in semi permanent buildings
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We are members of the CC . We have to accept that the CC have researched the viability of keeping sites open All Year, or closing them at a certain date. As I said earlier, I accept and support their decision on this subject.---------- After all, there are many alternative sites which do not close during the winter months, both CC and Non CC sites, CL's and CS's
No reason why caravanners cannot use them.
K
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