Scotand in a camper - part 1

Sunrise at Sango Sands

We’re off to New Zealand for a little under three months in January 2027 and have booked a campervan for two of the weeks we’re on the South Island. Neither of us have stayed in campervans or motorhomes before so we thought we ought to make sure we could cope with life in such a small space.  To be fair we didn’t really expect an issue as we used to live permanently on our narrowboat and even now spend many months afloat.  As we wanted to make sure all would be okay, we booked a campervan for a couple of weeks with the plan of exploring the north and west coasts of Scotland.  Much of our route would cover the famous NC500, a circular route of just over 500 miles around Scotland’s northern coasts starting and finishing at Inverness.

We’ve often thought that we’d enjoy life in a camper which is not surprising as we've moored alongside many campsites on the sides of the rivers and canals and can see it must be a similar way of life.  I'd never fancied a motorhome as they seem too large for the places we like exploring which is why we’ve hired a campervan from a local hirer in Staverton, the next village to ours. As we’re going late in the holiday season, our van wasn’t booked out the day before we were due to pick it up, so we were offered the chance to take it a day early. This was great as it gave us a chance to load up the evening before and work out what we needed to pack thus saving time on departure day.

Thursday 16 October

We left soon after 9am and as we had a long way to travel on each of the first couple of days we headed for the M6 on the first leg of our journey which would take us to the Lake District.  As it would be our first night on the van I’d booked a campsite, so we had time to get used to the facilities on the van before attempting to camp out in the wild which is what we thought we would prefer. As we were travelling in a mobile home we were able to brew up on board when we stopped for comfort breaks and Karen, being a boater at heart, emptied her teapot in the grass:

I must add that she uses tea bags in her pot and made sure they were discarded in the appropriate way before pouring any liquid away.  We were heading for Gill Head farm near Keswick and were really pleased with the site.  With many years experience of camping in tents we weren’t new to using campsites so knew what sort of place we were looking for.  It wasn’t far off the main road between the M6 and Keswick but far enough away that we couldn’t hear it.

Gill Head farm

Peacock sharing the dishwashing area

After settling in and hooking up to an electric point we went for walk towards Ullswater.  On the return journey we skirted the campsite and headed for Troutbeck to try the local pub, the Troutbeck Inn. We got talking with the landlady who turned out to be a keen runner so she was able to describe some good local runs for Karen.  She also gave us the link to a good mapping app that we hadn’t come across before.  We’ve tried several apps where Karen tells me how far she wants to run and I plan a route for her.  When she sets off she tells the apps she is following the route and, depending on how good they are, she is alerted if she deviates from the planned route.  The app the landlady gave us turned out to be the most reliable we’ve used.

Friday 17 October

One thing we’d been concerned about was how easy we would find it to sleep in the van.  As it turned out we had a good night’s sleep and awoke fresh and ready for the next leg of the journey which was to be another long drive up to Stirling.  It was a grey day again with low clouds but fortunately it remained dry; however, it did mean we didn’t get to see much of the spectacular scenery of the Lake District.  Karen went for a run first thing using the plan I’d made using the new app and I was pleased she didn’t get lost while she was pleased that it worked well and she also found a different sort of distance marker in that it was thin like a gravestone rather than the square cross section traditional milestones have. 

She also managed to get a glimpse of Ullswater in the mist:

Before heading for Stirling we drove down to Ullswater to visit the Aira waterfalls.  As it was looked after by the National Trust we were able make use of our membership and parked for free.  It was a pleasant walk up the hillside to see several waterfalls and cascades but it was very busy which rather took the shine off for us.

Autumnal colours

When we decided to turn around and make our way back down Karen realised she’d lost her National Trust membership card. We were going to make a circular walk out of our visit but decided to retrace our steps to see if we could find her mislaid card.  We didn’t find it so called in at the National Trust office who took her contact details in case the card was handed in.

Our plan was to call in to Falkirk on the way north to see the Kelpies close up.  For those who don’t know of them they are a pair of sculptures of horse heads about 100 feet high overlooking the Forth & Clyde canal.  They represent Clydesdale horses which were the breed that were used to tow barges back in the horse-drawn days.  Although Karen had visited them before I’d only ever seen them from the motorway.  It was getting dark when we arrived so they were lit up which made them look even more impressive.

We had a good walk around and were surprised now many tourists were arriving in the car parks to visit the Kelpies.  We continued on our way north and as we approached Stirling Karen had a call from the National Trust: they had found her card.  They weren’t happy about posting it to her but as we planned on staying in the Lake District on our return journey we said we’d call in and pick it up.

We’d planned to try out wild camping but couldn’t find the spot that had been recommended by a ‘park for free’ app.  We knew it was near the castle and ended up driving right to the top looking for it. We found it on the way back down and didn’t understand how we’d missed it.  We ended up having to use ramps as Karen insisted the van wasn’t level. I have to confess that I knew it wasn’t level either but didn’t want the hassle so wouldn’t admit it!

Saturday18 October

After another good night’s sleep and a quick breakfast we went for a walk around Stirling.  There were four graveyards encircling the castle, one of which was next to our overnight spot.

Our overnight spot, nestling between the castle and a graveyard

In one of the graveyards was a white statue encased in glass.  Reading an information board we discovered that it represented a girl called Margaret who died in 1685 aged 18.  She was drowned because she refused to convert to Presbyterianism during the Scottish reformation.

Margaret’s statue in white

Saturday’s target was to get to Inverness to join the NC500 and continue a little further north to a town called Dingwall.  Arriving in Dingwall we found a Caravan & Camping Club site.  I’d picked this because I’d heard they are good sites with lots of amenities. As part of our hire agreement we had temporary membership of the club that entitled us to a discount.  It was still very expensive and as far as we were concerned definitely not worth the money: we were really unimpressed.  Other than being alongside the Ross County football ground there were no views whatsoever.  The only saving grace was that it was also next to the abandoned Dingwall canal that was designed by Thomas Telford in the early 1800s.  It was a tidal canal that served the town until the advent of the railways in the 1860s when it became disused.

The tidal Dingwall canal

We went for a good walk starting by following the canal down to where it met the Cromarty Firth.  The tide was out as we could also tell from the level of the canal.

We followed the estuary for a while and then made our way back into town where we found a pub where we could ‘people watch’ the locals who were well into it at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. As is often the case after a few pints we felt the need for an Indian and luckily there was a restaurant in town.  It was amazingly busy with diners and take outs but they fitted us in with the proviso we weren’t too long as they were fully booked.  We had a brilliant meal and would thoroughly recommend it to other visitors.

Sunday 19 October

Although we weren’t impressed by the overnight stop we were treated to quite a pleasant sunrise.

While Karen used the new mapping app for her morning run I did all the blue jobs such as taking on water and emptying the black tank.  When we got underway we followed the NC500 along the east coast and spotted a couple of Victorian post boxes (us and our family collect pictures of them) in a small town called Golspie. Karen’s spot was particularly nice as it was one of the earliest wall boxes made.  It was cast in the early 1860s by a company called Smith & Hawkes whose foundry was in Birmingham.

At a place called Helmsdale we turned off the NC500 and cut inland to head direct to the north coast having decided to miss out John o’Groats at the extreme northeastern tip of Scotland.  We were now on a single-track road with lots of passing places so didn’t have to reverse back to let other vehicles through, not that there were many, mainly farmers in SUVs or Land Rovers on the 40 mile road that had just one village on its length.  This was at Kinbrace which, with a population of 50, could hardly be called a village.  The only other sign of life was an RSPB centre with a couple of bunk houses for bird watchers.  The road followed a river up to its source and then followed another down to the north coast at Milvech.  A single-track railway line ran alongside us indicating that the journey was relatively gentle with no steep hills to climb or descend.

Having hit the coast we headed westwards and continued to a place called Strathy where we found a wild camping spot above a cove.  It had turned very windy by the time we parked up but we went for a walk down to and along the deserted beach.  To get to the beach we followed a small river and found the path was shared by cows.  Arriving at the beach itself we could see the cow hoof prints were running out and the last set had completed a loop to return to the field from whence they came.

Our first holiday selfie at Strathy

On the walk back we passed a bus stop that made us smile as it had been strapped and weighted down to avoid it being blown away:

Talking later in the evening we realised we were getting used to the lack of space on the van and that it’s just like our way of boating: getting away from people and mooring in the middle of nowhere.

Monday 20 October

Even though we were aware of strong winds all night and could feel the van rocking we had another good sleep.

Waking up on Monday morning in Strathy

We had a shorter drive than the last few days, just 54 miles along the coast with the road making a few short cuts across headlands.  Although it was another dry day, the clouds were low so the views weren’t the best as we made our way to Sango Sands.

Arriving at the campsite we were given a spot above the cliffs with wonderful views across the sandy bay.

Our van at the top

The picture above was a bit misleading as by the time evening fell the site was nearly full with over 100 vans and motorhomes parked up and it was apparently fully booked for the Monday night too.  It’s not as bad as it sounds as it was a very large site stretching around the bay with plenty of facilities so there was no need to wait to have a shower or do the washing up.

We read up about doing a cave tour but were disappointed to find it was closed due to recent heavy rain.  We did walk down to see the cave entrance and were able to see one of the waterfalls inside the cave.

We then walked further along the coast following a field path and had another great view of a sandy bay.

We returned to the campsite along the road and crossed the mountain stream that formed the top of the waterfall we'd seen below.

Tuesday 21 October

We were treated to a stunning sunrise when we awoke on our clifftop on Tuesday morning.

Once again I used our new app to map out Karen’s morning run which took in a couple of lochs.  Here’s a couple of pictures she took whilst on her run.

We had an even shorter drive than the previous day’s journey as it was just 25 miles to our next campsite at Scourie.  When I’d planned out our route and overnight stops I’d allowed for a campsite stop every other day and wild camping on the remaining days.  I don’t know what went wrong but I seemed to have booked campsites on three consecutive days.  When we arrived at the campsite we found that yet again we had a lovely spot overlooking a bay. 

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk around the headland to the west of the bay and once again the rain held off although it did start getting windy.

Looking back to the harbour at Scourie

On our way back to the van we passed chalkboards advertising the menu at the Crofter’s Kitchen.

We were sorely tempted by the lobster and scallops but had to forego them as Karen had already prepared dinner back at the van before we’d left for our walk.  Looking at the kitchen and outside tables it looked more like a burger bar but we did stop and have some chips which went down really well after our walk. 

Several people were served with their food whilst we were there the dishes certainly looked delicious.