wild camping off the beaten tracks (1 Viewer)

[gazznsam]

we are going to be in scotland in a few days time, and untill the 19th of august we will be using the C&CC's temporary holiday sites, but it seems they all finish in scotland around that date, and no more till september, except a few near the southern bit of scotland,

we'll be around stirling on the 19th, as sam wants to go to doune castle (monty python fans will know about it, i'll get her a pair of coconut halfs for her birthday so she can do the walk upto the castle properly )

Anyhoo, after that we'd like to head further into soctland, fort william, caingorms and that, but having a flick through the C&CC big sites book, the CS's up there seem very expensive, averaging 15 quid a night, which is more than we can afford (just paid £39 for 6 nights at the York THS, and paid a tenner for 2 nights at the one at hartlepool were on now)

Does the CC do these temporary sites? or any other club? are the CC's CL's any cheaper for the middle of scotland? i like to pay 5 to 7 quid a night, dont want owt fancy, somewhere fairly level to park up, we last a week on our water tanks, and indefinately on the batteries and solar panels,

i'm not aversed to wild camping, do it when abroad all the time, and i know wild camping is allowed in scotland, so normaly i'd not worry, just pull up somewhere nice out of the way for a night or 2,

BUT this time we have the smart car on a trailer, so i think we may be pushing it to stop in a layby on a minor road, offload the smartie to go sight seeing, coming back to the van a few times during the day to check on the ratties etc.

so anyone know if there are out of the way wild camping spots from fort william upto the caingorms? sort of down logging roads that you are allowed to drive down, somewhere we wont cause any problems?

 

[The Wallace]

We have used the public car park next to Neptunes Staircase locks at Banavie there is a handy pub and restuarant there as well. There were 3 other vans there in May- we just overnighted and away in the morning before any jobsworths were awake.
From Fort William take the Mallaig road and just after crossing the canal swing bridge you turn right into a minor road and after 100 yds turn right into car park.
Keep a low profile and it will always be there for a stop off.

 

[blazezak]

Wild camping spots in Scotland

Hi Gazznsam , have used the site your on outside Hartlypool , nice and quiet , as for the Cairngorms , you could try Glenshee , 1.. by the ski centre , 2 .. heading to Braemar from the ski centre , there is a very big layby about 3 miles further on towards Braemar ( on the right ) , 3 .. there are a few more large parking spots the other side of Braemar , all great for wild camping and take any size of ( van ), hope this helps a wee bit , the roads are what you can expect in most of the Highlands ( just take it steady and enjoy ) .

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[gazznsam]

yup is nice and quiet here on the hartlepool THS, there's a train line next to us, but a train last ran over it a few hours ago,

most noise is from a donkey that seems to be on sentry duty, as he heee hawwwws on the hour, as if to say all's well

lovely views over the sea here, even tho it's been overcast all day, had a rainbow at sunset from the beach to the town, wrong coast to watch the sun set over the sea, and no way we'll be up in time to watch it rise.

cheers for the caingorms sites, i've heard people use the ski centre carparks during the summer, i'd like to go back to aviemore as was last there 10 years ago, stayed on a campsite that was a tenner a night back then, so just wont be able to afford it now.
but if we could stay on the ski centres, that'd be ideal.

 

[sinbad1]

If you look in the download section there are poi's for wild camping in scotland, the download includes a google file so you will be able to see the places, even measure them if you want.

hope it helps

regards

 

[gazznsam]

never thought to check the downloads section, mind i would never have found it, as i have a garmin,

so now to find out how to convert tomtom poi's to garmin ones.

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[sinbad1]

never thought to check the downloads section, mind i would never have found it, as i have a garmin,

so now to find out how to convert tomtom poi's to garmin ones.

No worries just look at the google earth file will give you satellite view of locations

Download free PoiConverter to convert the tom tom files to garmin

regards
NB, download latest zip file

 

[sinbad1]

If your struggling with poiconverter have converted + uploaded to the garmin poi section
regards

 

[2bob]

hi try this Schotland: Camperplaatsen Schotland (GPS), Free places to stay for your motorhome, Scotland Camperplaces and translate it to english dave

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[gazznsam]

i'm not being ungratefull or owt, but has anyone actually been to any of the poi's given in the download section?

could the co-ords have gotten screwed up in the conversion from tomtom to garmin files or something,

just i have wasted half a tank of diesel trying to find a wilding site near edinburgh using those poi's,

first one was to the south east of the city, took me to a dead end road with a load of posh flats on it next to a golf course, that could have been the site intended, but i personaly dont wild camp outside someones house, there were no discrete pull offs or anything along the very narrow road, and practicaly the entire complex of people were on their balconies watching me drive down the street,

next we went to one listed to the north of the city, to find it was the location of edinburgh caravan club site,
one listed just up the road was a grass verge between the roads,

tried one just over the forth bridge, and was taken to the middle of a challet park with 'private residents only' signs everywhere.

Gave up and found our own place to stay, a lovely quiet place near the canal at Ratho, about 7 miles out of the city to the west, water tap available at the canal, large carpark with no markings, so plenty of room to park our van and trailer and not be in anyones way.

Were going to the park and ride today to get into the city, found the one park and ride with bays hopefully large enough to accomodate us, we are about 2 foot longer than 2 nose to nose car bays,

don't suppose anyone knows of a wilding area around edinburgh that is deffo ok to use? as i dont want to outstay my welcome at the canal carpark im on now,
tried the ocean terminal for the yot britania, the 'no overnight parking' signs have been breeding there,

i've got a small set of poi's from someone who was in scotland last month, they start at around loch lomond, and head north it seems, i'll list all my wilding sites i use when we get back, wondering if anyone has done a trip from edinburgh, sterling, loch lomond, fort william and so on recently? and has a list of spots that are deffo ok to stay at??

 

[scotjimland]

Hi

Just back from Scotland,

Loch Lomond, large free car/boat car park by a sandy beach with free boat slip, public toilets.
Saw several vans here and I saw no signs banning overnight parking.

Pier Road
Balloch (by the Maid of the Loch Paddle steamer mooring) .

GPS 56.007123,-4.589202

hth

Jim

 

[gazznsam]

most excelent, cheers for that, will head there after stirling and doune castle,

then we'll be going for fort william, but i hear that's gonna be a problem, lots of no camping/overnighting signs,

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[The Wild Ones]

most excelent, cheers for that, will head there after stirling and doune castle,

then we'll be going for fort william, but i hear that's gonna be a problem, lots of no camping/overnighting signs,

Hope this post is not to late for you. Little picnic site 5 mls or so south of Ft William, 2 hard standings for lge mobies. There were six pop up camper vans further down who could negotiate the 6`6" height barriers.

Failing that try the Nevis Centre CP just down from Morrisons and opposite Lidl. Stayed here for two nights - BUT move before nine am otherwise Staff will move you on. I was incredibly suprised at the amount of foreign plated mobees using this CP I counted 20 on the second night we stayed.

 

[TDH]

We bedded down in the lane behind The Clachaig Inn, in Glencoe. There was a 'no camping' sign, as there is in most of the laybys, but we asked the receptionist at the pub, told her we wanted to be able to have a meal and drink in the pub and she assured us that there would be no probs. (We were, however, serenaded by a piper at two in the morning!).

We also stayed a couple of nights in the car park at the end of Glen Nevis (there's a few piccies in one of our albums). Again, most of the the laybys had 'no camping' signs so we just kept going until we found one without. Even so, for an overnight I would have risked it.