Camping tour of Scotland 2023 - Intro & Part One

As described in my introduction post, I have loved camping and outdoor activities since I was young, and living in the UK, the absolute pinnacle for such activities is without a doubt Scotland! It is a place that I have wanted to visit for a long time, and this year with my better half Catherine, I finally planned a trip that would allow us to visit some of the places that we wanted to see the most. 

Over the course of many evenings after work we sat at the laptop, and over a large 'Touring Map of Scotland' (thank you Amazon) endeavouring to decide upon a route which would enable us to visit some beautiful natural areas such as Galloway Forest, the Cairngorms, and Glencoe, whilst also giving us the opportunity to see more touristy areas like Edinburgh and Stirling. Some of the places that we had initially planned to visit had to be cut from this trip, to allow us more time to explore others, leaving the planned route to resemble that below:

1. Galloway Forest - camping for two nights in Glentrool
2. Edinburgh - one day to visit the castle and look around some of the city before staying the night in...
3. Stirling - one night camping and a morning visit to the National Wallace Monument
4. Cairngorms - two nights camping in Glenmore
5. Glencoe - the last night camping
6. Inveraray on the shore of Loch Fyne - our final night spent in a hotel

The trip that followed would be a week long, 1200 mile journey, filled with picturesque landscapes, enchanting camping locations, incredible food and full of the wild Scottish essence that is so inescapable over the border. 

 

Part one - The Galloway Forest Park

Coming from the West Midlands, the first step in this journey was of course a 300 mile road trip, heading straight up north! This took us around seven hours including two stops for coffee breaks etc. The drive was relatively mundane until the M6 took us through Cumbria, and then we started to get a feeling of the amazing natural views to come, which only got better as we eventually entered the Scottish lowlands.

Around 2pm in the afternoon, we arrived at our first campsite, Glentrool Camping and Caravan Site. The site was really easy to find, being located quite close to the main roads that we had come in on, and our first taste of the local weather was of course rain. Fortunately, it wasn't too severe, and we were able to get our small three man tent setup quickly (Eurohike Ribble 3 for those wondering), and by the time I had made a basic tarp shelter to stow any gear that wouldn't fit in the tent, the rain had stopped, naturally.

We spent the first afternoon/evening here recovering from the journey, which involved trying out a new portable BBQ with some Texan spiced chicken drumsticks, and enjoying some cold beers.

The following day was dry and surprisingly sunny, which was ideal for us as we had planned to visit the Red Deer Range, only a 30 minute drive from the campsite. Being able to see the Monarch of Scotland himself, a red deer stag, was a goal of mine from the initial conception of this trip and as they can be elusive to see in the wild, once I heard about the range I thought this would be a great way to ensure that we could see them on our trip. The range itself is very basic, comprised of only a car park and a viewing hide, from where we could observe and photograph the deer. The deer are regularly fed by visitors through holes in the fence, and so although they have a good sized piece of land to roam, they seem to stay close to the viewing area. This was a good experience, but i don't  think it could compare to seeing them in the wild.

Once we had left the range, we went down the road to the Wild Goat Park that we had spotted on our way in the morning. The park is home to British Primitive Goats, a species which would have been really interesting to see, but unlike the red deer, the goats proved to be more elusive and we didn't see any. After this we drove towards Clatteringshaws Loch, which gave us some amazing views, and a short walk from the visitors centre to Bruce's Stone, which is said to mark the site of Robert The Bruce's first victory against the English.

 

 

After returning from Clatteringshaws Loch, we made our way to the Glentrool visitors centre, where we decided to walk along the Two Waters Trail, as it was only a short walk, but it gave us some amazing views of the forest and rivers.

 

This concluded our stay in the Galloway forest, and started our next leg of the journey, onto Edinburgh!