Central - Eastern Scotland trip
Thinking of doing a two - centre fortnight anywhere east of an imaginary line from Stirling to Inverness (whenever we're allowed) and looking for recommendations from learned members please. Which 2 sites (prefer CL's or smaller sites) would you recommend, or are there 'must-do' sites/areas I should look at? I can't do Munro's but do enjoy forest/easy trails. Thank you.
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The Fife coast has some nice old fishing villages plus St Andrews to visit. Over the Tay to Dundee and the Discovery Point exhibition and new V And A. Then up to Glamis Castle and Kirriemuir, the NTS have an interesting site, the old home of J M Barrie. Lots of other ideas no doubt, plus places to stay. The E coast area is worth seeing.
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Lochlane cl near Crieff or the new one Islabank a bit further East?
Fernlea cl.
Forth House commercial site (check them out on UK Campsite website).
We were going to book Bogroy Croft cl up on edge of Cairngorms but I think it may have left the club network or even closed. There aren't that many cls near Inverness but I'm sure Nellie will come up with one for you😊
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We stayed at Fortrose Bay Caravan Site, which isn't a club one, but was right on the loch side and two minutes along the road was Chanonry point where we watched dolphins playing and feeding. It was wonderful There are pictures of the site and dolphins in my blog about the holiday.
https://jennyandjohngocaravanning.wordpress.com/2019/05/24/scottish-highlands/
We also loved Fife and the little fishing villages a few years ago and stayed at the club site at Balbirnie Park. It was rather a site of two halves; one was as near perfect as could be and the other wasn't as it was overlooked by a housing estate. Again pictures of the site and attractions are in my blog
https://jennyandjohngocaravanning.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/2014-south-east-scotland/
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We use Geddes House CL, nr Nairn which is a basic CL in walled garden, easy for Cawdor Castle, Cullodon, Fort George, Brodie Castle and Culbin Forest, and is about 15 mils from Inverness. I can also recommend the Fife Coast, where there is lots to see, too much to list here, but certainly does need I investigating. We us the CL at Upper Largo, Monturpie, which has great views across the Fifth of Forth. Another CL I'd recommend is Greenpark at Banchory should you want to visit Royal Deeside.
There is a fuller list of Scottish CLs that we use in the CL section where someone was asking about them for a full Scottish tour.
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We like the East Coast, it generally dryer and warmer. We actually love Yellowcraig Club Site near North Berwick, but make sure it’s not the school holidays. It’s a stunningly beautiful area, and Yellowcraig Site is only a short easy flat walk to a lovely beach. You can easily walk or cycle into NB from the Site. It’s quite an old site, and still has a quirky layout with some areas very CL like, rather than the rows of vans. Lots of easy driving to get to some great places to visit, and there are hourly trains into Edinburgh and beyond, so it’s well connected. We used to drive up to Stirling from there, down to Berwick upon Tweed, over Forth Bridge up to places like Castle Campbell, Dunfermline Etc..... There is a nice CL called East Fortune Farm if you really want a CL, set back a little inland, we have stayed here as well. Castles galore, great walks, lots to see and do. 😁
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LTC
Just read your report "Scottish-Highlands". We are planning now for next year after having to cancel everything this year. Interestingly you mention two sites we are looking at. Firstly, Fortrose Bay. We quite like the sound of the area here and have looked at this site and the C&CC site at Rosemarkie just a little way further along the shore. Both site appear identical and the thing that concerns us is that we have never stayed anywhere as exposed. The sites both look open to the public to walk across with no security and this is somewhat off putting. The other problem is that in the blurb on Fortrose it mentions and gives warnings of it being exposed to very high westerly winds, also a bit off putting. However both look quiet and have fantastic uninterrupted views which is very much a plus point.
The other site is the cl at Port Appin. This really does appeal to us in every sense. We tend not to book so hopefully we will be lucky. There is also another small site further along the road at Creagan Station which gets good reviews.
We will choose nearer the time
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Really?
I emailed and rang them in January to try to book for June but they never replied to me at all!
I ended up booking a commercial site instead: although that's irrelevant now we're in lockdown 😊
We were also booked in to Creagan Station for the final part of our trip😢
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You are right that there is no security at Fortrose Bay but the tiny road that runs through the site is the back way to Chanonry Point so anyone visiting would go the signposted way and we didn't see any 'public' around the site during our stay. We pitched quite close to the site office so the owner was frequently around and when you book on line you chose which pitch you want. Yes it is exposed but anywhere with lochside pitches is going to be. The C and CC site has a 'main road' if you can describe a small road as such, going by it and is a little bit nearer the mouth of the loch than Fortrose Bay so may be a tiny bit more exposed to the wind.
The site at Port Appin is extremely popular and we jiggled our holiday dates to get a pitch. Either side of the three or four days we got was solidly booked for weeks. You may have noticed that they have their own website where you can check for vacancies. We drove past the other one you mention and it looked just as good but again seemed to be fully booked.
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The C&CC Rosemarkie site is very popular so you'd need to book well in advance. When we were there in 2017, visitors from all over the EU were there too. We had a lovely pitch looking over the Moray Firth and out to sea, we saw the dolphins too, a wonderful sight and an easy walk to see them at Chanonry Point. Lots of nice walks from the site, along the shore and even a "fairy" glen to explore. It's a good spot on the E coast and the Black Isle is very interesting, Cromarty has always been a place we liked to visit. The actual village of Rosemarkie is very pleasant, it has a micro climate, so not too chilly, places to eat and buy food.
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I remember you saying that you were getting no reply from Bogroy, and I think that checked on the club's web site and it wasn't there. Perhaps they'd closed and have reopened. We were there a couple of years ago but couldn't get on, but they told us of alternative site in the village that we used.
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The Aberdeenshire coast has some nice old villages and there are a few CLs dotted along there. Friends have stayed in a CL in this area but I can't remember the name, it's just at the top of one of the villages and there is a small camp site along the shore too. Here's one I did find at Gamrie Bay.
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Kjell was booked into there during his next trip, but the lockdown has put pay to that for the time being. I was waiting for a review from him on it. We've used Sunnybrae at Findochty a couple of time and would use it again.
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Have heard mixed reports of The Steadings, with some folks saying that it's not good value for the price charged.
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