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Evening. I'm thinking on taking our eldest camping at a site on Loch Lomond or possibly loch earn. I'm thinking Cashel or Milarrochy Bay but have no experience of either. Wondering if anybody could help with recommendations. The site needs to be by water so we can do some paddle boarding etc... Cheers.
Midgetastic?
I've only wild camped before it was illegal, but yes, midges, midges, MIDGES. Bring nets and smidge repellant, get them all smoking too.
Bad idea at this time of year. Midge hell on earth!
+ 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Midges.
Smidge and a baseball cap does the trick. We live on the west coast so know all about these little ****ers... Hoping for a breeze however and will pack a hazmat suit just in case.
Are you crazy? This time of year?
Go further afield and avoid the hassle of pished up loonies, Rangers and Polis pointing torches at you at 3am. Tayviallch and Loch sween much more realxing.
Loch Lomond best September to march.
Haven't they banned 'wild' camping by Loch Lomond to deter all the oiks?
Are you crazy? This time of year?Go further afield and avoid the hassle of pished up loonies, Rangers and Polis pointing torches at you at 3am. Tayviallch and Loch sween much more realxing.
This for both, the midges will be least of your worries. Last year a guy was attacked with an axe by some headcase for asking the headcase to turn the music down (Loch Earn). The bams were turning pretty much anywhere on Loch Lomondside where you could pitch a tent into an open toilet/skip resulting in a ban on wild camping. Sadly this will probably just move said bams a couple of miles up the road (making Loch Earn more popular with them).
I think there's some decent sites on the south side of Loch tay, and Loch Lubhair looks ok, although you'd probably be right next to the road.
EDIT - [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-24175255 ]Not last year, year before.[/url]
EDIT again - actually, for a first trip, I'd be thinking about Loch Morlich or one of the other lochs up Aviemore way. Much more chilled and with reasonably good facilities round and about, worth the long drive to get there IMO
Was at Cashel last year. Nice place, but predictably rocky as a camp site - I have a mallet and a very solid peg to make pilot holes for the rest of the pegs!
Clean site, reasonable shop, good staff. Midges were not as bad as I remember, but bad enough!
No gazebos, as its a bit tight and apparently can get windy (the booking company still took a booking for one but we got refunded at the site) but who is going to sit outside in the evening.
Built lots of reindeer houses on the stony beach - the toys the kids had bought were small stuffed reindeers....
Good walk down the Loch to the Oak Tree Inn, which was busy but great food/beer.
Camping on lomondside is banned. There are a couple of designated spots, in islands, that you can book with the national park.
Midges will be fine, don't panic. And if they are bad, use smidge.
The nutters are few and far between, just they and their drunk, noisy pals congregate in certain places, and Earn and Lomond are some of those places.
I would look at some other options, just to 'escape' with the lad, rather that put up with drunks all night.
Drop me an email, and I can suggest a couple of quieter / less know spots.
matt_outandabout AT hotmail.com
We've just had four nights at Cashel before we got to Fort Bill and it was great, our pitch was right on the loch side and nice and quiet,
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We took Smidge but never needed it,
Drove past those campsites ^ last week and they looked very nice.
There's a nice site at inverarnan, right at the north tip of loch lomond, by the drover's inn. But the midges blocked out the sun, pretty much- they're not as aggressive as a leanachan flying shark but they made up for it in pervasiveness. Would camp there again but not in midge season.
Is there an official campsite at loch earn? There's the one at balquiddar station but it's not close to the loch, the one on the south side is caravan only. If you want to "wild car camp" on loch earn yep it is busy and can be rowdy, the south side is better though- between aardvorlich house and the campsite has pretty good access from the road and loads of wee beaches and coves, but can still be busy. And yep the appeal of "wild camping" so near to civilisation for a lot of people is to make a bloody racket. Less midgy than loch lomond, still midgy though.
I suppose the idealness of the location is pretty much what counts against it!
Ah hah- ardvorlich cottage offers tent pitches now. it's not a campsite, it's a big b&b with big grounds so could be a good half-and-half between wild and site camping. It's not lochside but is about 5 minutes walk down through a field to the water (to a bit of lochside that I've never seen anyone else use). We used to stay there often as kids, it's a really nice spot. Not really sure it's what you need to be fair but maybe.
Drop me an email, and I can suggest a couple of quieter / less know spots.matt_outandabout AT hotmail.com
Based on matt's posting history, I'd say that's about the best advice you're going to get
Edit: I hadn't realised you meant a campsite...I assumed wild camp...
In which case Lomond has a couple of good spots, but I would also suggest Loch Tay Highland Lodges http://www.lochtay-vacations.co.uk/
Prepared to travel further North, Loch Morlich is ace, or head west as Oban has beach camping at Ganavan sands or even more 'wild' would be Resipole - http://www.resipole.co.uk/
Further south, Loch Ken holiday park is hard to beat.
We camped at Milarrochy Bay last May. Lovely site and we had a great weekend but unless you're prepared to use a lot of deet then the midges really are a bugger. When we were there the weather was lovely, sunny and no wind so midges aplenty. Most people sat in their tents/caravans or ventured out totally covered head to toe. DEET worked for us and we were midge free.
Glenmore at loch morlich?
Loch Morlich is ace
One campsite is right by the loch with kayak/canoe hire on the doorstep.
Another is slightly further away but in the woods and not far from fine launch point if you're paddle boarding.
Would recommend Glenmore for scoff, it's aimed at people who've been out and about all day so simple, satisfying and lots of it.