Hebrides 2009

I've already commented on the pleasures of wild camping in 'Which Club' thread and mentioned a trip we made to the Outer Hebrides in late May 2009 (about the only three good weeks of that summer.) So, I thought that I'd try and upload some photos and what there was and where we wild camped.

This first picture is at a location called Horgabost in the south end of Harris. It shows the view from where we were. We had to share this field with about a dozen other caravans, most of them sited for the season and empty because it was mid-week. At the bottom right can be seen the amenities block that was provided. White painted Porta Cabin affairs and open to everyone & anyone. A few tents can also be seen camping by the beach. We couldn't get onto this piece of land with the motorhome.
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Our next camp site was after taking the ferry from Harris to Berneray. A small road took us through some farmland, then onto a rough track and finally ended at this location. We were at least a mile and a half from the nearest house and shared the locatin with one other motorhome, several hundred yards away. The dogs could roam free and unsupervised and we could relax in total peace.
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The end of our trip saw us on Barra where we camped on the 'Machair', the scrubby grassland adjoining the beach. This beach is the site of Barra's airport and you regularly got up to two planes a day landing and taking off again, depending on the state of the tide. When a plane is due the beach is cleared of cockle pickers, dog walkers etc and you are only allowed back on when it has made its trip and has taken off again. Nice place and interesting. You can see from the photo that the weather was worsening and it was fortunate that we were catching the ferry the following day to the mainland (Oban).
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Most of the roads on the islands are single track with passing places but this hardly matters as there is so little traffic. Service stations are few and far between so the rule was to fill up whenever you can. Grocery shopping could also be interesting as the various small supermarkets were totally dependant on daily supplies via the ferries. Often this meant hardly any fresh produce on the shelves as we had timed our shopping badly. A couple of hours later everything would be back to how it should be.
All round a cracking trip.
Steve

Steve that's a great write up the place sounds amazing and the pictures are great,now you can post pictures your unstoppable.We want to go to Scotland with the dandy,being where we are we do have a bit of a head start in getting there.I cannot see it being this year now due to other commitments but its high on the to do list.

Nick, The top end of Scotland can be dramatic and can be 'a wild and lonely place' (It can be a very long way as well!) but you're not far from the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway. Maybe not as dramatic but still lovely and interesting for a few days visit. That's why we live here now!
Steve

Owd Lad wrote:Nick, The top end of Scotland can be dramatic and can be 'a wild and lonely place' (It can be a very long way as well!) but you're not far from the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway. Maybe not as dramatic but still lovely and interesting for a few days visit. That's why we live here now!
Steve

steve,
like nick said we really do want to go to scotland at some point and we also really want to stay in the "dark park" as its not too far as you live there is there any good sites you could recommend or is wild camping allowed there too?

Wow, I love the pictures it looks so beautiful and natural. Thanks for showing these pictures Steve, it is now on the list of things to do when John retires. Scotland is a must for us now, John has already worked in fife and has moaned at me to go camping in Scotland but Wales is so much nearer. I will now make sure that next season we get a full 10 days to go.

What a beautiful place Scotland is,we said when we got the small engined car Scotland was one of the places we would have to forget,then we started talking about it again,have decided the answer is to get a small camplet trailer tent off ebay and sell it on again after.
Thanks for those unsettling pictures just to unsettle us even more and show what we are missing,the last time i was there was the year the last sky ferry ran.

mike

Mike, I don't know what your car is but it obviously drags your '6' about. I don't think you should worry too much about towing with it in Scotland. Yes there are plenty of steep little backroads to explore but those could be looked at without the trailer in tow. On the whole we've come across rlatively few 'nasty' hills' and have found that the majority of the major routes are suitable for towing. The one exception is the road along the top half of Loch Lomond which is narrow, twisty and has solid rock on one side, giving nowhere to go if large vehicles are coming the other way. (The worst being coaches which always seem to be in a hurry) Having said that, it is a nice road to travel along but we usually do it in the early hours of the morning, just after sun-up when there's virtually no traffic and you can take in the view. Then it's a pleasure. Other than that the worst that you're likely to encounter is long hills but without the excessive steepness.I've certainly encountered far worse in the Lake District. Plenty of people take caravans along these roads so I'd suggest that you just go for!
Steve.

Steve thanks for that and of course there is a lot of sense in what you say, my car is only a 1.2 and my last visit to Scotland was in a 2 litre coach-built motor home with a tired engine,and as usual the mind remembers what it wants 28 cars behind me on the west coast before i found a pull in i could use ,i would not want to tour so much as base my self on the west coast,i love the clear water,the rock pools,and looking at the coral washed ashore,your comments about the lake district are also correct,struggled up a few of those hills in an 850 mini stuffed with camping gear.
Or of course i could settle for the borders,one of those places most people know is cracking but still pass through on there way to the north and only give it a passing glance.

mike