We have 3.5 Cali days from Edinburgh - what to do?

[zeratul]

Next week with the long weekend we'll go for a small camping trip to Scotland with our 3 boys (8,6 and 4 years old), take the ferry Ijmuiden->Newcastle and drive to Edinburgh to pick up my brother in law and his girlfriend. We'll be camping 3 nights with 7 in beach. A first time. We take a popup tent of course.

So thursday at noon in Edinburgh till sunday evening in Newcastle, about 3.5 days.. and we want to see some beautiful parts of Scotland and don't mind driving a couple of hours (4h-8h) every day if it's scenic roads...
If the weather is fine, we can go for some walks.

Due to extremely busy at work I haven't had the time to plan anything at all or do some research like we , usually do...
As there are so many people from the UK here, I thought I'd just ask. Any suggestion what to visit, what tour to do, what campsite would be nice?

I've done the West-Highland way, 20 years ago.. loved it...

 

[Jonathan Duke]

Nice!

From Edinburgh, is a nice drive through the Cairngorms, via Braemar and Aviemore towards Inverness, and Loch Ness. Form there, you could head over the "Bealach na Ba" (Pass of the cattle) to Applecross....The Applecross Inn, is a great stop for food, and camping nearby. From Applecross, you can take the A87 back, past Eilean Donan Castle, and to Fort Augustus, then down through Glencoe, check out the Red Squirrel Campsite, and Rannoch Moor. Then you can return to Edinburgh via St Mary's Loch.

You'll find good roads everywhere, albeit the West Highlands are IMO the most spectacular. Google the above names, and you'll get an idea. The North West 500, is a popular route, but you may not have enough time to cover it properly, on this occasion.

 

[Brembo]

Hi,
Sort of between Edinburgh and Newcastle, try Peebles - Moffat via St Mary's Loch.Carry on through the Borders towards Berwick Upon Tweed, using minor roads and taking in some of the towns on route,ie, Selkirk,Melrose,Jedburgh,Kelso,Coldstream to name a few.Spent four days in this area a couple of weeks ago,stunning countryside.
Regards,
Dougie.

 

[Denzilgts]

Between Newcastle and Edinburgh why not call in to bamburgh castle, or Alnwick castle and gardens. Could certainly pass away a few hours there.

 

[hirsty]

Beautiful as Applecross peninsula is, I wouldn't go that far north west with such a full van & just a few nights. Glencoe & Fort William as a maximum IMO?

I'd be tempted to keep it shorter and maybe head towards Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and then head back to Newcastle along Hadrians Wall (or just fool around between Kielder and Holy Island, plenty to see, albeit flatter ...)

 

[zeratul]

So thank you all for your extensive replies. I've now read a bit about it and I think we will do Jonathan Duke's route, it seems to be very much in line with what we're looking for and the weather is supposed to be great.
Thanks for all the suggestions, unfortunately can't visit anything between Newcastle and Edinburgh because we have to pick up brother in law and girlfriend in Edinburgh first before we can really start our journey.

The total route looks like 500 miles/800km .. I guess that's perfect for 4 days, and it leaves plenty of time for camping, hiking, playing, and BBQ's.. Many many hours of daylight there now.



Remaining questions:

- What's the best app for finding campsites in Scotland?
- How do you access Rannoch Moor? I see there's a tiny road on Google maps from Allachader, is that a possibility?
- More camping tips and suggestions (could be wild camping as well, if you know a nice spot) along this route?

Thank you all so much, this is what makes this forum so nice.

 

[Jonathan Duke]

Rannoch Moor, is basically the main road from Fort William to Tyndrum. If you've watched the James Bond Skyfall film, you may recognise it. There's a small road off the main road, down to Glen Etive, there's lots of good wild camping spots around there, but the small roads, off the main road, are single-track. The drive around Kinlochleven, is also a favourite wild-camp of ours, lots of small lay-bys. However, as the Red Squirrel campsite and nearby Clachaig Inn, are in this general area, perhaps best to stop there for the facilities etc.

As you drive down towards Fort William, there's a small village called Spean Bridge, just before it look out for the SAS Commando Memorial, which offers a great view towards the Ben Nevis range (Scotland's highest mountain.)

If you want to add a few miles, you could go to the Isle of Skye, and drive up to the Old Man of Storr, it's a great walk to the top, then take the short road-ferry back from Armadale (check the fairy pools nearby) to Mallaig. This route, will bring you past the Glenfinnan Viaduct (famous from Harry Potter) back into Fort William.

Have a great trip, looks like you've ace'd it with the weather!

 

[hirsty]

I'd second what Jonathan said, that whole area north from Tyndrum (the Green Welly Stop) through to Glencoe village itself (fuel station) is one of my favourite parts anywhere in the world. I'm still not convinced about Applecross seven-up though!

Fort William itself isn't all that appealing to me, but the other side past Spean Bridge & all round Loch Lochy and the Caledonian Canal is fantastic - we were up there at Easter. Try the Glen Nevis campsite if you get chance:

 

[zeratul]

Ahh Glen Nevis, stayed there at the end of 9 days camping wild along the the West-Highland way. Great spot. Left our luggage there to climb Ben Nevis. Did the 7 hour walk to the top and back in less than 3 hours.. the effect of 160km West-Highland way in the legs with too heavy backpacks and then climbing a mountain without backpack. And it was 20 years ago. One of my most memorable holidays ever ..

 

[greenfintry]

Plenty of daylight now... not really dark before about 22.30 and light again by 3.30.... might be hard to get enough shut eye....

 

[zeratul]

Yes we noticed. But we have a cali cosy so it's really dark inside. We drove through Cairngorns Braemar and camped in Ballater. Glenshee ski area was stunning. Regret a bit not camping wild there but it's hard with 7. Fantastic weather enjoying our trip a lot.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[briwy]

Agree, Glenshee is great. Wild camped there three years ago, keep meaning to go back in summer.



They had six hookups, £5/night so a cheap stay.

 

[zeratul]

So we're back after what feels like a long journey. The ferry was great, a lot better and well organized than those with did with easter, going to Morocco.
Applecross was great, definitely recommended, but the campsite was not so clean.
We did a great hike from Glen Nevis to a nice waterfall, the kids enjoyed it a lot. The last night in the Red Squirrel Campsite we got eaten alive but those midges. Luckily you can make a fire there so the boys and me spent all night smoking them out.
Our company who slept in a popup tent had the most comfortable stay even though it was raining. The midges couldn't get through their mosquito maze, where as with the California it was completely impossible to keep it midge-free.
We had to leave in a hurry, bitten all over, to find a windy spot along the beautiful road south to have breakfast.
Cali's ceiling has midget spots forever I'm afraid. Even worse, some of them travelled with us and survived to Belgium. Hope they won't breed here.

7 in a Beach was not hard at all. The only thing is you cannot camp wild easily (toilet, shower, drinkable water) while the landscape was just so perfect for camping wild. Guess we have to return some day.

Thanks for all the advice we got here. It didn't feel like to much for these 3.5 days, we squeezed in as much Scotland as was doable for this long weekend.