Portsmouth to Fort William trip
Comments
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We’ve taken a liking to the River Breamish site. Leaving there about 8:30 means hitting the by pass around 10 which so far has avoided any hold ups. I agree the road through Killin is narrow in places, particularly on the Dochart falls bridge, but we visited a couple of times towing our Bailey Unicorn Cadiz (not a small caravan) with no problems.
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We went to the Killin site once, on our way home from somewhere, the roads in the area are not the best, and the local buses take no prisoners. I do not expect the forestry lorries do either.
One bus, travelling in the opposite direction, swiped our extended mirror with, presumably, its mirror and smashed the head. At least it did not damage the caravan. Fortunately we carry a spare mirror.
We would not return to the Killin site again, having spent some time there and seen the local area, nice though it is. It is close enough to home for a day trip.
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The route into Killin from the east from Aberfeldy along Loch Tay, is certainly one I would now avoid. We once did it towing our a smaller Abbey, that we had when we started towing. In our case it was the number of tourist coaches, which just didn’t slow down. Even revisiting a couple of times with the MH we have always come in from the A85 which is only about 3 miles.
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...."doing the trip and using club sites".....
Steve, that would mean the sites dictate the route....for many it's the other way round🤷🏻♂️...pick the route that serves you best and then check for sites/CLs etc that look ok and don't take you miles away from your route.
as mentioned above, it's already a mightily long way from Portsmouth....
Also, I certainly wouldn't be looking to pay top dollar for 'an overnighter'....
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I don’t think we have any idea of what type of sites the OP wants to use, they are merely suggestions nothing more and are ones, minus Clumber Park, that we would use if traveling the same route. We would use them because we happen to like them and are OK with the price. There is certainly a CL a couple of miles from River Breamish that looked nice when we passed it on a walk. However, I will leave it to others more familiar with those sort of stops to make suggestions, as I can’t do it from personal experience.
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We went along that road in 2019 from the Killin site on the way to the Forfar site and it is a difficult road. We were lucky in a way because for part of the route we were following a coach, albeit slowly! It's classified as a Red Road by the OS but unfortunately that gives no accurate indication of how wide a road is and even two motorhome sized vehicles passing in the opposite direction it is tight. I am inclined to slow down in such circumstances but many don't seem to want to? There probably is a case for splitting the designation of Red A roads into another category and creating new aide memoire standards so you have a pretty good idea what you can expect. This thread got me thinking that only as far back as 20 years we probably wouldn't have the advantage of being asked about routes and would have probably gone our own merry way regardless in perfect ignorance and nine out of ten times things would have been OK!
BTW, Kj, the road to the Killin site from the A85 is perfectly OK and quite short. The bridge over the falls is one way at a time but you have a pretty good view from either side.
David
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There are long term roadworks on the A1 around the Wentbridge/ Pontefract area, which is not motorway, so slower anyway. Not sure how long they are expected to last, but think it’s into next year, so best to check. We got caught up in the Spring, added a significant load of time to our journey, so we have been using M1 to go North since then, as you join A1 just before A64.
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Yes David, we have driven it frequently solo and that was the way we went when we continued home from the Killin site. When we came to the site I think we were coming from the north or the east and took the shortest route, which involved towing along Loch Tay.
The buses are the worst, I had a similar incident with a bus in Norway which was well over the centre line, coming fast downhill, and actually hit my mirror with the corner of his cab bodywork. The noise was like an explosion and when the glass shattered it went everywhere, including in through the passenger window, which was open a little, and over OH. We had to stop to clean her up.
It must have been very close to actually hitting the caravan, very frightening!
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The roads around Killin are familiar to us as its not far from where we live and Loch Tay is an area we like to visit, we have stayed at the Killin site twice once with the caravan and once with the previous MH but its an easy day out for us so its normally the car solo. Lots of roads in Scotland are narrow and windy, we are used to them but for those who have not ventured up here, they can be very off putting, the further north you go the worse they can get.
It sounds as if the OP could be a first timer to Scotland, if that is the case then sticking to the West side on the way up could be better. Once he has some experience of the roads then maybe coming down the East side could give variety.
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I don't think the roads around Killin are a problem for anyone with a some towing experience. We have visited the Clachan site on a few occasions towing a mid-sized caravan, and continued northwards along by Loch Tay from there without any problems. The road on the west side of Loch Lomond is far worse, or it was the couple of times we have used it.
If the OP fancies a CL north of Carlisle, for an overnight stop close to the A74, there Whins, at Ecclefechan, No.1863 in the Site Directory, or Collierhall Fm, Douglas Water, No.1920 in the SD.
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I once frequently visited Scotland from Andover (about an hour north of Portsmouth); I used the A419 and then M5 to the M6 (from Portsmouth probably the A34 then M4 to A419 at Swindon). I used to stop at the CCC site at Moffat first night. I found this perfectly doable, but I was in a motorhome so towing, especially from Portsmouth, it is more of an ask, especially on a weekday. Probably, nowadays, the A34 and M40/M42 to the M6 is the route to take rather than the M5.
I must agree with those who suggest avoiding the A82 alongside Loch Lomond. North of Tarbet, this road is narrow, winding and with lots of rocky outcrops on the nearside. I don't like it in a motorhome so I presume towing would be worse. The M73/M80/M9/A85 is the route to take picking up the A82 at Crianlarich.
I would not rule out the eastern route in England - A34/M40/A43/M1/M18/A1 (or alternatively M40/A46/M69/M1/M18/A1) - as far as Scotch Corner, and then the A66 to the M6. From Leicester, where I now live, this is my favoured route - generally quicker (less busy, less prone to queues) than the M6 although the A66 can be trying in parts. I would not consider continuing up the A1 to Edinburgh unless I wanted to visit Edinburgh. Nor would I countenance places like River Breamish (lovely site though) which take you a long way off the fastest route - unless of course there was a particular desire to stay at that site.
From Portsmouth I would use the eastern route to Scotch Corner then the A66/M6/M74. I would take a relatively leisurely three days and stop at Poolsbrook and Strathclyde (but I prefer main CMC sites rather than CLs).
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With reference to avoiding some of the road beside Loch Lomond, this was our route travelling south from Dingwall to Glasgow............
The last time we were in the Fort William area, 2+ years back now, we came south from CCC Dingwall, past Inverness and down Loch Ness on the west side. We followed the A82 through Fort William then stopped at the CCC site at Glencoe.
After a few days there we took a short hop south to the CCC site at Barcaldine in the walled garden, to visit Oban and the beaches at Ganavan.
After a few days there we went home to outside Glasgow via the A85 as far as Lochawe , then the A819 to Inverary and the A83 to Arrochar to join the A82 at Tarbet on Loch Lomond. A scenic route with decent roads, which avoids the "undesirable for towing a larger outfit on" bits further up Loch Lomond.0 -
If it is 6.45m overall, as shown on the Swift website (?), then it is considerably shorter than our current van, which is 7.95m overall, which we would never consider towing along the upper west side of Loch Lomond. And slightly shorter than the van we did tow there, which was 6.77m overall. We made it safely, but it was a very stressful experience, and I have been towing since 1970.
After that, we decided we would avoid that route when towing, which is a pity as we live only 30 minutes from LL. Part of the upper road has been improved since then, and is now good, but once you pass Tarbet there is no way back, and you are committed to carrying on regardless.
The bit up to Tarbet, that we do use, is very good. However there has been no sign of the last dodgy bit further north being improved, which is a great pity. I think the money has probably been spent on something else. It is not an easy road to improve, as said it is twisty and narrow, it follows the lochside and is hemmed in by steep rock faces to the west, and in several places a stone wall on the loch side. Some of the new bits have been built out over the water as there is just nowhere else to put the road
The added hazards are the multiple tour buses at holiday times, and the large log lorries which also use it. A caravan is fragile compared to those!
With the size of your van, I would say that the LL road is probably the only A road up here that you might wish to consider avoiding.
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I tend to agree with most, about the A82. Fine until you get to Tarbet (Arrochar), but then the road isn't too brilliant after you 'turn the corner' at Tarbet. We've not taken the caravan up here, but we do use the road on the way to the Uig ferry terminal on Skye. I've not travelled the eastern route and across the middle (A86) to get to Fort William, but this may well be a better option with the caravan. (When we've used the A9 we've headed straight on, up to Inverness.)
David
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I think it would be a great pity to avoid a western route just because of the infamous Loch Lomond road!
I have posted our route from LL via Inveraray and Oban then to Fort William and beyond, I can recommend it, we tow a 7.95m twin axle and it was absolutely no problem on that route.
Why not go up the western route and return across country, or vice versa, best of both worlds.
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Don't underestimate the time taken for any journey. I've just got back from a 150 mile round trip. Over 100 miles of this was on dual carriageways and the M6, travelling usually at 55 - 58mph on these roads. I was a bit amazed, at the average speed, according to my car's computer. It was only 32.6mph and there weren't any roadworks, accidents or other holdups to contend with. On long journeys of, for example Derby to Dover, 220 miles of almost total motorway and dual carriageways, the average that I used to get was still only 44mph.
When I was at work many years ago I had the discussion with one of my co-directors about distances and times our reps could do in a day. He was saying they could do 70mph on motorways and dual carriageways and 30mph in built up areas so they should be getting in far more calls than they were. In reality, because a lot of our business was done with inner city companies across the UK it turned out that the average speed was just 33mph - again according to the computers of both mine and his car.
In 2022 going down to Cornwall along the M5 there was an accident. As a consequence, for part of the journey we did 15 miles in 1¾ hours, time that couldn't be made up. So, as I said earlier, don't underestimate times. It will only make for more stressful driving and possibly accidents, if you start to think you are not going to arrive at your destination at the time you imagined you would do.
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There’s simply so much more traffic around nowadays on all kinds of roads in the UK. Gone are the days of a quick weekend in Cornwall from up here in Yorkshire, something we used to do regularly back in the 80’s and 90’s. At times you barely saw another vehicle on some parts of M5 and A30.
Hopefully, OP will have a good journey, some decent stops and few hold ups, something we all dream of I’m sure🙂1 -
the average speed was just 33mph - again according to the computers of both mine and his car.
That is exactly what the trip on our MH says, I’ve not reset it since we bought it and we’ve completed 18,500 miles. Doing all sorts of driving, including Motorway / Autoroute and also several trips to the north of Scotland. It of course doesn’t include stops and on any long journey over 2 hours it is sensible to make at least one.
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