Outer Hebrides

maison

maison

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We are considering a trip as above.

Does anyone have any tips or advice? Best route from mainland Scotland, camp sites, wild camping spots etc.

Thanks in advance. (y)
 
We’re going in June. Will get the Uig to Tarbet ferry. Looking to over night before the ferry in Portree. There are motorhome places in the car park. Uig and Portree are on Skye. Ferry takes around one hour and forty minutes. There doesn’t seem to be any pub stops on Harris and Lewis but there are plenty of places on searchforsites for places to park up. I’ll keep a watch on this thread.
 
It’s been 10 years since we did it so no doubt things will have changed, if you search on here you’ll see a few folk have done threads on their trip
 
Hi , we are going early May..just doing the ground work for it now. Doing the hopscotch 8 and doing it from top to bottom. I am thinking of giving ourselves about 12 days to do it - Don't know if that's enough time or not, but will use that as our guide for now. Just researching places to see and do, and places to stop - wilding and campsites.
 
TheAleMan said:
Hi , we are going early May..just doing the ground work for it now. Doing the hopscotch 8 and doing it from top to bottom. I am thinking of giving ourselves about 12 days to do it - Don't know if that's enough time or not, but will use that as our guide for now. Just researching places to see and do, and places to stop - wilding and campsites.
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Hopscotch 8?

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There's a few on here are seasoned travellers to the western isles and I'm sure could give you loads of advice..
Ralph-n-Bev DavidG58 ..
If its your first trip and you have the time I'd start with a ferry to castlebay on barra and work your way up to the butt of lewis?that way you get an overall impression and know better which parts you may want to return to..
Andy
 
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Hopscotch 8
 
We went over a couple of years ago and loved it. It’s a remote, wild and beautiful place.
There was a similar thread in January last year where we mentioned some of our stopping places and highlights. The threads worth a read as several travellers shared good advice. I don’t think much will have changed a great deal. Enjoy!
 
glenn2926 said:
We’re going in June. Will get the Uig to Tarbet ferry. Looking to over night before the ferry in Portree. There are motorhome places in the car park. Uig and Portree are on Skye. Ferry takes around one hour and forty minutes. There doesn’t seem to be any pub stops on Harris and Lewis but there are plenty of places on searchforsites for places to park up. I’ll keep a watch on this thread.
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For the attention of maison also
Please dont rely on getting a MH parking place in the Portree car park in June, Skye if like last couple of years is Rammed with MH's especially Hired ones with little experience on how to drive them, or how to use single track roads...I could say more about them but wont.
Use the small campsite at/near the port at UIG on skye, before departing on ferry.
June will be busy on The Hebrides also, might be best to have a look for campsites as Black waste drops are few & far between.
Personally I wouldn't go near Skye or the Hebrides in June/July/August as thats when it gets busy up there, best months are April/May or Sept/Oct.
Hundreds more of us are visiting The Hebrides, thanks mainly to this guy, Andrew Ditton., who has just sold up from living in the south, to live on North Uist Permanently but he is a serious full time journalist, video editor, interviewer on all things Motor Homing /Caravaning and CMC sites and You Tube Vlogger.
Everyone knows him and his wee dog Dougal, you will realise why when you view all 6 videos of visiting the Hebrides.....but dont tell anyone else please.:giggle: Warning you will spend hours watching, making notes and then as he doesn't give wilding positions away (as he expects you to find them for yourself) on Google Earth.
Make sure your gas tanks are full, fill them at UIG Garage, just in case the one garage that stocks it over there is empty.
LES(y)
Part 1 of 6

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glenn2926 said:
We’re going in June. Will get the Uig to Tarbet ferry. Looking to over night before the ferry in Portree. There are motorhome places in the car park. Uig and Portree are on Skye. Ferry takes around one hour and forty minutes. There doesn’t seem to be any pub stops on Harris and Lewis but there are plenty of places on searchforsites for places to park up. I’ll keep a watch on this thread.
Click to expand...
Call me old fashioned...but I dont think there is a ferry either in or out of Portree.
Me thinks you meant somewhere else.
 
Does using a hopscotch 8 save money on the normal tickets or give anything extra.
 
The Hopscotch tickets are no cheaper than booking each ferry individually.
ALEMAN 12 Days you will not see much if you are serious about travelling North to South. We were there last year for 4 weeks, and will still have to go back to visit places we did not get to. It is a stunningly beautiful part of the country. Enjoy every minute.
Charlie.
 
Kelsae2 said:
The Hopscotch tickets are no cheaper than booking each ferry individually.
ALEMAN 12 Days you will not see much if you are serious about travelling North to South. We were there last year for 4 weeks, and will still have to go back to visit places we did not get to. It is a stunningly beautiful part of the country. Enjoy every minute.
Charlie.
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Thanks Charlie. I can allow for up to 14 days on this trip if need be...we also want to spend a little time on the mainland in a few of our fav spots if we can. Like you say, what we don't do this time round we will have to do on a return trip. We go to Scotland annually, so not a problem for us to do that. (y)

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If allowed to travel we will be heading up there in Late April. If the Corona scare gets bad will try and find an island and stay
 
Personally I would travel out from Skye, the crossing to Barra is a long one from Oban

then either return back to Skye or Ullapool

nice easy driving these days out there, hardly any single track road left compared to our first time 15 years ago

my personal favourite is Harris by a mile , then the Uists, Lewis is good if you like history but scenery isn’t a patch on Harris, but we got to Barra for the first time two years ago that is nice but less free parking options due to size

we look for some wind options, sone private sites with the crofters, then a main site every 3rd night to dump and refill

Love the Harris parking spots £5 by PayPal for stunning locations, all on trust , we always over pay on the sad expectation that some ‘forget’ to Pay ?

I don’t know many people who haven’t been back at least once more after going, it is addictive, as is most of Scotland ?
 
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We only managed isle of mull, calgary beach has overnight parking and is beautifull, got to see the shed which is a huge sea eagle ? Will be heading that way another time perhaps after easter ??
 
Does using a hopscotch 8 save money on the normal tickets or give anything extra.
[/QUOTE]
The last time I checked there was no saving using Hopscotch. Only the longer trips need booking, eg Oban to Barra, Uig to Lochmaddy or Tarbert, Ullapool to Stornaway. Would certainly avoid Skye in the summer, far too busy and the midges will be ferocious! The
 
TheAleMan said:
Ok. Just priced up the routes with and without 'Hopscotch 8' and there is absolutely no difference at all. :rolleyes:
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Importantly, buying individual tickets gives you complete flexibility. For example, if the weather happened to cut up particularly badly, you might wish to adjust your itinerary.

I'm not sure why anybody buys Hopscotch tickets?
 
mikebeaches said:
Importantly, buying individual tickets gives you complete flexibility. For example, if the weather happened to cut up particularly badly, you might wish to adjust your itinerary.

I'm not sure why anybody buys Hopscotch tickets?
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This is what happened to us a couple of years ago. Intended to go from North Uist to Harris and Lewis but the weather was so bad and forecast to stay that way, so we headed east via Skye. At one time there was a price advantage with the Hopscotch tickets but not now.

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The first time we tried to do the Hebrides we got as far as Uig, the campsite had a five day forecast and it was seriously bad. The owner assured us we wouldn't even see the islands the next day and he was absolutely correct. We returned to the mainland and ended up on The Black Isle in sunshine.

Did make the trip the following year, three weeks of unbroken sunshine, no wind and 20°+ temperatures. Brilliant.
 
obanvanman said:
Call me old fashioned...but I dont think there is a ferry either in or out of Portree.
Me thinks you meant somewhere else.
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The ferry, as I said is from Uig to Tarbet. However there are overnight places in Portree. Which is only 17 miles from Uig. Our ferry leaves at around 14.00. So I think it’s going to be quite easy to get to Uig for this ferry.
 
We went out again last May, got a bit unlucky with the weather at times.

See here

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

The Western Isles Trip

I've made a 20 min video of our recent trip. For anyone wanting to see the nice beaches, scenery and planes on the beach scroll to 10 min.
www.motorhomefun.co.uk www.motorhomefun.co.uk
 
WillH said:
The first time we tried to do the Hebrides we got as far as Uig, the campsite had a five day forecast and it was seriously bad.
Click to expand...
We went in April, travelling up to Scotland from the West Country. And the plan was to watch the weather as far as the Outer Hebrides was concerned - so didn't make an advance ferry booking.

As it happened, although we travelled through blizzards in the Highlands, by the time we got to Uig the weather and the forecast were OK. So we bought a single ticket and off we sailed to the islands.

However, I'd telephoned Cal Mac a couple of weeks beforehand to ask about likely availability. And to be fair, they were very good and advised yes the boat was less than half full at that stage and I could call back nearer the time to check again - which I did. I was impressed by their helpfulness. I was also surprised by the level of availability because it was in the run up to Easter.

Once we'd made that first outbound booking we were 'in their system', so it was really easy buying all the subsequent tickets - just required our name and vehicle registration number.

On the inter-island ferries we normally rang from the ramp to check if the ferry was on schedule and to reserve a place, then pay on board. All worked like clockwork for us. (y)
 
Still places available at the Edinburgh Rally from 4th to 9th June if you want to call in on your way up

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

Rally - Edinburgh Drum Estate 4 - 9 June 2020

I have booked the rally field at Drum Estate, Danderhall - just outside Edinburgh for a second year. It will be the same cost, (£40 for advance bookings and payment, £50 for people who sign up / pay late) as last year - assuming we have 30 paid attendees - for the 5 nights. Maximum number of...
www.motorhomefun.co.uk www.motorhomefun.co.uk

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