Stopover on way to Oban

Firstly, I'd not tow a caravan along the A82 by Loch Lomond. The road is bendy, narrow in places and with boulders protruding from the cliff. Great fun when you meet a coach or HGV hurtling towards you!

It's obviously your choice but we always use the more major route towards Stirling and then head west via Calender where there are 2 woollen mills with cafes and good car parks on your right on the western outskirts at Kilmahog.  

There is dog walking from the car park in Calender - on your left heading west - but I'm not sure about the viability of taking a caravan in there.

Firstly, I'd not tow a caravan along the A82 by Loch Lomond. The road is bendy, narrow in places and with boulders protruding from the cliff. Great fun when you meet a coach or HGV hurtling towards you!

I have towed it several times over the last 15 years. But I do agree that it is not the best of roads despite upgrades on some bends.

As far as a break goes, on the A85, get your map out (or whatever you prefer😁) and take a look at a pull in at Kilchurn Castle. It might just be possible to pull over with a caravan at the little cafe and do a leg stretch and cuppa. The Castle itself is simply stunning and worth a visit if you can get there down causeway (on foot). It is sometimes flooded. I have put link to cafe on as you could ring and see if parking is possible with a van on. Either way, it’s a view you will never forget, breathtaking😁

https://www.kilchurncatering.co.uk/

There is also a forest car park showing on A82 between Crianlarich and Tyndrum, off to left heading up to Oban. Again, not sure how big it is for manoeuvring.

Have a lovely time.👍

It is further, Gill, but I’m not sure by how much. However, the roads are bigger, easier and quicker.👍🏻

Enjoy the trip. You’re heading for a lovely area.

Kilchurn is beautiful. We saw it being used as an advertising location for launching the VW Golf Mk2 Convertible on one trip many years ago. The whole route around Loch Awe is stunning. Can highly recommend a visit to Oban Rare Breeds Park as well if it’s still there.

I am off to check out that CL you are using....🤔, we have no plans made yet for early Summer. It snowed last time we were there in June!😂

agree with all of the other replies. I did the Lomond route to Skye towing a twin axle, took advice from an Eddie Stobbard trucker who had stayed the night alongside me in Hamilton services. I left Hamilton at 0630 on a wet Sunday morning in the belief "from advice" that the roads would be very quiet.  He was correct!! only met a few trucks, BUT,  my average speed was well down in the 25/ 30mph range with some extremely hairy "nose poking" around some very tight bends straddling the white line and worrying about scraping the tail of my outfit on the overhanging rocks, hoping that nothing was coming my way. NEVER AGAIN. Go the Sterling route, any extra miles is more than made up for  with the faster safer more relaxed drive. Found reasonable stopping places also.

The question is to my mind evidence of the dearth of stopovers in the UK in particular for the motorhomes in the club. I got to thinking about this when my son, who is borrowing our motorhome over this coming weekend was wondering where he was going to stay overnight in the Lake District which must rank as the most popular of all the places in the UK for people like ourselves to go to. If you look it up on all the forums for motorhomes you will find three in the whole of that district which considering we in the UK are supposed to number a quarter of a million owners begs the question what are we doing about it?

I have recently joined the ranks of motorhomes since 2018 having been a "tugger" since 1977(?). Much of our experience has been in Europe and we have learnt that tugging and motorhoming are two different animals as it were. Tuggers generally go to a site and pitch for a few days, a week, a fortnight etc whereas a motorhomer will stop one night here, one night there as the whim takes us but in the UK mostly this is not a happy experience. For example, I go to a conference annually in Somerset in the latish autumn and found a place I could stop overnight just inside Wiltshire wh said that yes you can over-night there. However, this year when I enquired, no you cannot stop overnight so I have had to think again. I will not bore you with what happened next as this is not relevant to this reply. What seems to be the issue here is that many councils seem. to be actively against motorhomes and/or caravans going to their places forgetting that we will come again if it is a place that welcomes us and we will spend our money there on food, water, entertainment , etc.

In Germany and especially in France you will find that virtually all the villages and towns you pass through will have a dedicated motorhome stop some being only a few minutes walk into the town centre, no booking, just turn up. We have had some wonderful places to stay overnight alongside canals, river banks, in the centre of villages and they provide you with water, sometimes for a small fee, sometime electricity again for a fee but you have then general feeling of being welcomed.

Isi it not time that we flex a bit of muscle especially as out club name includes the word "motorhome" and really take the fact that foreign visitors who come here from Europe in their motorhome are going to be struggling if not booked onto a CL, club site or commercial site. By the way, the CL concept seems to be a unique concept as far as Europe is concerned as you will find many countries do not allow wild camping. So I would be pleased to know what our club is doing to improve the lot of the motrohomers especially they seem to be a growing number of late.

Correction, there are far too many selfish motorhomers who think it is their given right to park up for the night anywhere they feel like it irrespective of the wishes of local people, or the law, or of the damage done to the environment, or of ruining the very thing they have travelled to enjoy. 

To the poster above you, why on earth would you expect this club to be in favour of promoting one night stops or wildcamping when it is in their interests to encourage us all to use club sites and pay our site fees?

There is nothing special about motorhomers. We do not deserve special treatment and spending mega bucks on a MH does not bestow the right  to do what we please. We who are responsible take what is on offer in an area or go elsewhere. Those who are irresponsible cause problems.