Scottish Tour
Thinking about touring Scotland with Caravan this year starting at Inverness and wanting to drive the High Road 500 route. Has anyone driven around this area before and any advice regarding direction clockwise or anti-clockwise. Are the roads in this area of Highlands ok to take a 7.4M caravan, understand most roads are single track with passing places? Any advice or recommendations would be much appreciated.
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Should be fine, these roads are well used by HGVs and buses. The A roads may be single track in places, but generally the visibility ahead is good giving you plenty of time to pull over.
We have done it 3 times, 1972, 1998 and 2006, always anti-clockwise, for no particular reason, will go clockwise next time.
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Do it nearly every year, albeit in a smaller M/H. Tips. Make sure you fill with fuel at supermarkets. Drive slowly as the roads may seem narrow, single track in many places but with good visibility and adequate passing places. Pull in also to allow following vehicles to overtake you. Sites may be far afield and scenery will make you drive slowly and stop often. The CC sites are generally good but few Cls. Make sure you have midge repelant.
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Where to start we will be travelling up to Scotland from North Somerset need to stop off and stay to break up journey with two small dogs. Any advise would be appreciated
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Englethwaite Hall is one convenient place that I use on the way north - some use the TeaBay Services area the original one not Gloucester. Englethwaite is excellent for dogs in my opinion - if you park on the right pitches its just out of the door onto the dog walk that passes lots of pitches. No toilet block though if that worries you. It's only a few miles off the M6.
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WE have used Englethwaite Hall a number of times as a stop off. We did stay there for 5 nights a few years ago as it is a lovely site IMO and I had stayed there some 20 years ago for longer and it seemed a shame to only use it as a stop off. We had it booked last year as a 5 night stopearly April on a 7 week tour of Scotland but swapped for a commercial site at Penpont near Dumfries where we spent 5 nights to meet up with friends, one lived lived a few miles away and one stayed with them.
Englethwaite Hall is a nice site but as Traffic is easier by the time we travel that far North from Chester it seems daft for us to stop for one night. As we don't know where the OP is starting from or how long they want for the first leg it is difficult to make a suggestion.
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Ghyll House CL, Wreay near Carlisle is a fabulous site and only a few miles off the M6 with toilets (too posh to call a block) and lovely owner.
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Many thanks for the responses regarding my forthcoming North Road 500 Tour during Aug/Sept 2017. Hope the midges are sleeping!!
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how long do they want for the first leg?
Difficult to suggest without that info Pippah. Some idea of nearest town to departure and how long they wish to travel is really needed. Probably handy to know if they wish to travel clockwise or anti clockwise and how long they are away for. No doubt they might want a stop over on the way back.
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If we were towing from North Somerset to the Inverness area I would not want to do more than about 200 miles in a day. I much prefer the east to west coast route, so would stop off at Clumber Park, Berwick upon Tweed and Culloden, all CAMC sites and all very close to the route.
When we were younger we would have probably done it in 300 mile hops. So for that you could use the same route with Durham Grange CAMC site as the stop over. That is close to the route. Some would say too close. Although for a night or two, if you wanted to visit Durham, you can put up with the noise of the A1.
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I think I might opt for the east coast route going north. I like the east coast but it doesn't have the potential draw of the west coast with islands and mountains to view en route. The east has nice coastal villages and one or two places like Dunrobin Castle to view. On the west coast the road is much more meandering and you will have got into the swing of travel in the north.
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