Hello, we’ve booked a mobile home for the week following late may bank holiday, the aim is a tour of Scotland.
We’ll be looking for mountains, hillwalking, lochs, coast, bit of mtbing thrown in.

There’s a lot of Scotland though! Any suggestions for bits not to miss?

We’re an outdoorsy family, kids of 5 and 8, so kid friendly suggestions would be good!

Ta!

crinan canal is fantastic to cycle along. from lochgilphead to crinan and back, is a nice ride with the kids.
ace cream tea at crinan too….. 8)

Fort William for all of the above 🙂

Great, will look into that, cheers! Also PS – we are planning to wild ‘camp’ for most of the time, would be great to hear of any good spots you know of to pull up forthe night

Get up to Clachtoll, there is an ace little seaside campsite there I have motorhome’d on it. Lovely quiet wild area with some nice beaches and amazing walks

Fort William is an actual dump. (we’re going up on Saturday for the SSDT) but the surrounding area is simply outstanding. I couldn’t even begin to to tell you where to head for.

You could do worse than Glencoe, Fort Will, Kintail, applecross, Torridon and back around by Dalwhinnie and the A9.
A lot of driving though. Why not visit mini Scotland – Arran, and spend more time oot n aboot?

Find an area use this, job done.

http://www.wildcamping.co.uk/forums/wildcamping-maps-poi-files/

I did a wee bike tour a couple of years ago that would make a nice option for you.. I’d start by going via Glencoe and Fort william, then taking the ferry over to Skye at Glen Elg (you can wild camp on the beach) before following this…

Lots of great beaches, interesting geology and a wee bit of history.

Fedden Farm and Calgary Bay on Mull are motorhome favourites.

http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/2012/07/coasting-around-west-day-1.html

I did this last week. If you can make it to torridon/assynt/outer hebridies, you will be rewarded. Only if the weather is good mind you 😉

Back up this weekend.

You may struggle getting a campervan to Knoydart though 🙂

Great, thanks for the suggestions!

Assynt!

If you take the A82 from Glasgow to Fort William, you cross Rannoch Moor and go through Glencoe – outstanding. Or you could detour to Obamn along the A85 and visit Ben Cruachan, a hollowed out mountain with a power station inside – you’ll never see anything more like the lair of a Bond super-villain. On to Oban, one of the nicer distilleries (a visit to at least one of which is compulsory, at Oban pick up a Friends booklet and entry is free), then you can follow the coast up to Fort William, but you miss Rannoch Moor and Glencoe. North of Fort William, you can head to Mallaig, past the Glenfinnan viadct – you might want to check the times of the Jacobite train, everyone loves a steam train, especially one that was in Harry Potter as it crosses THAT viaduct. Turn off at Arisaig and follow the B8008 for some staggering sea/island views – and an ok campsite right on the beach. Mallaig itself is ok, and I should have said you might stretch your budget by taking the ferry over to Skye. If you do find yourself at mallaig, I can recommend the ferry to Tarbet and back, or you could walk along the side of Loch Morar and ferry back. A day or two on Skye, then bridge back to the mainland. Turn left to follow the Lochcarron road – watch some shinty if it’s the right day – check out the Lochcarron Camanachd website for details.
plan b here if the ferry is a bit spendy, would be to follow the A82/A87 from Fort William to head past Eilan Donan Castle, just beyond which you turn right tonto the Lochcarron Road (or on to Skye, whatever)
If you like seafood, you might want to check out the Loch Kishorn Seafood Bar. If you feel heroic, you might want to try taking the Bealach Na Ba to Applecross. If not, head on to Torridon. From there, just keep going north until it’s time to head back. Which will be about now.

Wild camping in a camper van? North of civilisation, pretty much just pull off the road

Google images says
Rannoch Moor

Beach at Arisaig

Loch Nevis, the ferry to Tarbet goes this way

Bealach na Ba – can’t be that bad?

can it?

Loch Carron

Lochcarron Camanachd (it’s just hockey, really)

Don’t take your motorhome over applecross, I found it a tight squeeze in some bits and that was in a Mk1 MR2!

As above, out of towns you can pretty much park where you want. The ski centre at Nevis Range has a big empty car park and some great trails, stay till the midges get you and you get lightheaded due to lack of blood!

Don’t take your motorhome over applecross, I found it a tight squeeze in some bits and that was in a Mk1 MR2!

I’ve taken a T5 over a couple of times. Not over belach na ba mind you! Go the long way round.

You can park in the Laybys in the North West now. No more hassle from polis and Ghillies. No overnight parking signs removed! Arrive late leave early and remember the access code. Roadside camping isnt wild camping. And your neighbours may not be pleasant.

might be useful

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=203913049334888237522.00049af91baebfd18ebc7&t=h&z=6

Wester Ross is absolutely stunning in most weather conditions along with Skye and the Outer Hebrides. Just back from Harris a couple of weekends ago and it was amazing.

You could go the long way round to Applecross, head for the Bealach, park in the car park at the very top and have a look, see how heroic you feel, then go back the way you came. You might even want to camp there

I took someone elses T5 over belach na ba, it’s absolutley fine. Then drive back round on the coast road.

My recommendation – Cnip on Lewis is stunning and really does have that ‘end of the world’ feeling. Plenty of hiking and biking potential on Harris, which no doubt you’ll be passing through if you choose to do some island hopping.

Also the western beaches all along North/South Uist and Benbecula are pretty stunning.

I took someone elses T5 over belach na ba, it’s absolutley fine. Then drive back round on the coast road.

It is fine if you’re confident in a car/van, bit I can imagine it being hairy for someone not used to those roads. I’ve had a few bum clenching moments in winter, but in reality it’s just the exposure that makes you feel that way, the road itself is a doddle (unless you’re driving like a loon!)

This is all great info – thanks ver much for the advice – very much appreciated. These places all look absolutely stunning!!!

id glasgow rannoch moor fort william isle of mull return plenty to see do not too much travelling in a week

Yeah there is a danger of too much travelling. Aim is to strike out as far as possible the first night then work our way up a bit further then back down. Looking through the above I cannot wait. Hope we get the weather!

You will definitely get weather and if you don’t like it give it 5 mins and it will change .

Yeah there is a danger of too much travelling. Aim is to strike out as far as possible the first night then work our way up a bit further then back down.

This is what we do most weekends and is a good plan.

You can get (almost!) anywhere in Scotland (from Glasgow at least) in under 5.5 hours, but you’re in the highlands proper in under 2. That means you can’t really go wrong after 2 hours IMO.

We tend to leave on a Friday after work and just drive until we can’t be bothered any more. Sometimes that means we’re in the Clachaig in glencoe for 8pm, other times it means we’re pitching up at Glenbrittle on Skye at 11pm. If we’re heading up for something in particular and stop short, we just sleep in the car, get up nice and early and do the last couple of hours in the morning.

If you can bring yourself to do it, head up as far as Ullapool in one go (it’s very straight forward driving). That opens up the islands, or an incredible trip back down through Assynt, Torridon, Shieldaig and Glencoe. You could even pop over to Skye on the way back without having to go out your way or pay for a ferry.

V good advice from peterfile.

This is a complete repost from another thread, but probably seems more appropriate here. this is a selection from my shots last week…hopefully will whet your appetite for some north west adventures!

North of Fort William, top up fuel at every opportunity

No need!

I know what you mean though, despite never being that far from a petrol station, it’s comforting to have a full tank, particularly when driving at night or in an area you don’t know.

There’s more petrol stations than anything else up in the NW.

Zoom in on sections on this map.

Provided you’re not letting it drop down to under 50 miles range, you’re never in danger. The only concern is trying to fill up at night. But, on the couple of occasions I’ve been worried, hang around the closed station for a few minutes and the owner will generally come
over 🙂

EDIT: oh yeah, definitely fill up on a Saturday though!