Scotland West Coast
Hi everyone
We are thinking of touring Scotland in June, especially the West Coast, visiting some of the islands. Please can anyone who has done this give us some advice on good sites to stay etc.
Mary and Bill
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I might be able to but it will help if you say which part of the long west coast and which islands as there are many of them.
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TinWheeler's advice will be excellent. If you're going in June, Midgie repellant and other measures
On visiting the islands, I'd add that when we went to the Western Isles we found it really helped to have the ferry booked first. At least one site owner, before taking our booking, asked if we had that, to make sure we'd arrive.
As well as TW's advice, I recommend looking at the reviews on a site I couldn't name here last time I tried, as the machinery automatically changed the address, but it's the (abbreviation for) United Kingdom Camp sites (all one word) one! This helped no end.1 -
If you're interested in visiting islands you'll need to check out the CalMac website this is Caledonian MacBrayne ferries. There have been a few service problems recently but booking ahead is the best way to organise a trip. CalMac have tour ideas on their web site. Also individual island tourist info will put you in the direction of camp sites etc.
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I think that you can no longer just turn up at one of the ferry terminals and expect to get onto a ferry, as one could once upon a time, your ferry crossing now needs to be booked in advance, be it only the day before.
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If it's the Outer Hebrides you are thinking of I would suggest you have a look at the Andrew Ditton videos on YouTube. He has done several covering a range of topics. This is the first in the series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnCY6cizghg&t=12s
David
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Hi, we can recommend North Ledaig North of Oban. Bunree, South of Fort William. There are lots smaller sites and CLs over in Arisaig. We have stayed at Small Isles CL and can recommend it. Further North, Ardmair Point and Clachtoll are two of our favourites. All highly recommended and right on the water / beach. One day we might get to the Islands 🤞🙂
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We are also touring the western isles but my daughter has rented a house on Harris for a family get together end of August for a week. Our plan is to store the van for 9 nights on a site at Loch Lomond or thereabouts to avoid towing through Glen Coe. Then pick up the van and travel onward to Oban with a view to crossing to Northern Island and home to West Wales via Fishguard/Pembroke. Does anyone know if this is feasible?
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Can you clarify "Northern Island", please? Ferries from Oban sail to the Inner and Outer Hebrides. If you mean Northern Ireland, Oban isn’t the place to be.
There's no problem with towing a caravan along the A82 from Crianlarich through Glencoe and beyond. The stretch of that road most of us avoid is the section running alongside Loch Lomond.
I don’t know how long you plan to take for this trip but I reckon you’re packing an awful lot into one holiday.
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I presume you mean Northern Ireland and the quick route is via Cairn Ryan from Dumfries and Galloway. Then drive south to Eire to pick up the Fishguard ferry. A lot of driving but do-able.
Edit ferries to Ireland are quite expensive.
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Some good points have been made in posts already.
Tinwheeler's first post is worth responding to as you may be able to receive further helpful ideas.
Other points to consider are:
What do you mean by "good sites"? ie what do you require to consider a site to be good?
Have you done any initial research to identify exactly where you want to go?
What do you want to do and see?
If not, I suggest that a visit to a library to borrow a guide book will help. Also, it will be worth looking at a road atlas to see where places and individual islands are.
It is also worth remembering that what one individual/couple likes may not suit someone else.
If you get back with further details then you may receive some suggestions that will help you.
Unfortunately, some initial requests for holiday ideas are so vague with the persons never replying, even after suggestions are made, that one sometimes wonders if they are genuine. Some enquirers do not have the courtesy to acknowledge with a general thank you post that there have been responses to their request. I'm not suggesting that you are like that but the more specific you can be will mean that responses can be more useful to you. Many people on this forum are glad to help. Hopefully, this will be the case here.
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Scotland is a big place and journey times and mileages between towns can be quite considerable due to road conditions and twisting routes. If you haven’t been to Scotland before you need to understand it’s not like going to Yorkshire or Cornwall. The west coast isn’t very specific and could mean Galloway and Stranraer all the way to Sutherland via Kintyre, Torridon and that is before you even think about the islands. For what it’s worth I would highly recommend taking in Gairloch (Wester Ross) at The Sands site.
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….hence my earlier post. The info given isn’t specific enough.
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I don't know why you'd want to avoid towing through Glencoe. It's an area you shouldn't miss if you're doing the West of Scotland. We frequently "do" the north west and usually stay the CAMC sites at Bunree, Morvich and Kinlochewe. From Morvich we use the road bridge for trips onto Skye and from Kinlochewe, you can get further north to Ullapool (good private site) and the Calmac ferry across to the northern part of the Outer Hebrides.
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A proper tour of Scotland, or even just a part of it, needs some good research and planning to get the most out of it. The travel times between places can be deceptively longer than most folks think, as you are going to go around a lot of mountains and lochs, often on not particularly fast roads. As someone has mentioned, it’s a bit different to driving in other parts of the UK in some places. All depends what you want to see and how long you have got to be away.
We used to go to Mull of Kintyre. Towing a van from South Yorks, not using ferries you could be around 12-13 hours if done in one drive, and that’s years ago before traffic was as heavy. Quicker if you could get the right ferry connections, but we had to drive like the clappers from Dunoon to Portavardie, all on small roads. Easier if you go via Arran, but that’s Summer sailing only I think. Needs some good research as I say…….
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Via Michelin will give you a time for any given route. Knock a bit off if you are towing and it will give you pretty accurate idea of travel duration.
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The Visit Scotland website is currently articles on the TOP TIPS for ISLAND HOPPING which could be of some assistance to you..
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Point taken.
Sorry we haven't replied sooner. The word midges is enough to completely put us off, We are going to re-think a trip to Scotland, look at the map and stay on the mainland perhaps visiting an island or two. We will plan this for next April/May when the midges are not so prevalent!!.
THANKYOU EVERYONE WHO ANSWERED OUR QUERY.
Bill and Mary
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If you still fancy Scotland, the East Coast isn’t too bad for midges. East Lothian coast and St Andrews coast is very interesting. The other thing to be aware of is just how popular the West Coast is. We sat chatting to a couple who did the NC 500 last year, and they said it wasn’t what they expected, absolutely nose to tail with MHs and campers. We had a nice little tour of Dumfries and Galloway area last June, no midges, and not too busy. You could hop to Arran, and then across to Mull of Galloway if you want to do more. We took our van to Carradale and explored all over Kintyre Peninsula. Easy to do a trip to Northern Ireland as well, from Campbeltown.
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We are currently on Mull, the island is fairly quiet at the moment and haven't had any problems with Midges so far.🤞
We have only seen one other caravan but plenty of camper vans and motor homes. A trip in the autumn or next spring is a good idea, don't let the thought of the midges put you off.
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We are currently on Mull, the island is fairly quiet at the moment and haven't had any problems with Midges so far.
Helen, if you don't mind me asking, which of the sites on Mull are you stopping on, and would you recommend it should we want to visit the island later in the year?
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Don't be put off by the idea of midges. This time of year into June will show Scotland at it's best with all the early gardens in full bloom, bluebells out and hopefully pleasant mild weather. If you go too early it might be cold, May and June are good times to visit. The scenery is beautiful and the visitors will be a bit thinner on the ground.
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We're touring West Scotland at the moment and can recommend Morvich (CAMO site) on the Kyle of Lochailsh. On Skye we had a good week at Staffin Camp site (privately owned) in the North of the Island, including a complementary tot of whisky to toast the new King on May 6th! Just a word of warning about potholes on Skye - horrendous! Have a safe and happy trip.
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