Scotland West Coast

Scotland is a big place and journey times and mileages between towns can be quite considerable due to road conditions and twisting routes. If you haven’t been to Scotland before you need to understand it’s not like going to Yorkshire or Cornwall. The west coast isn’t very specific and could mean Galloway and Stranraer all the way to Sutherland via Kintyre, Torridon and that is before you even think about the islands. For what it’s worth I would highly recommend taking in Gairloch (Wester Ross) at The Sands site. 

….hence my earlier post. The info given isn’t specific enough.

I don't know why you'd want to avoid towing through Glencoe. It's an area you shouldn't miss if you're doing the West of Scotland. We frequently "do" the north west and usually stay the CAMC sites at Bunree, Morvich and Kinlochewe. From Morvich we use the road bridge for trips onto Skye and from Kinlochewe, you can get further north to Ullapool (good private site) and the Calmac ferry across to the northern part of the Outer Hebrides.

A proper tour of Scotland, or even just a part of it, needs some good research and planning to get the most out of it. The travel times between places can be deceptively longer than most folks think, as you are going to go around a lot of mountains and lochs, often on not particularly fast roads. As someone has mentioned, it’s a bit different to driving in other parts of the UK in some places. All depends what you want to see and how long you have got to be away. 

We used to go to Mull of Kintyre. Towing a van from South Yorks, not using ferries you could be around 12-13 hours if done in one drive, and that’s years ago before traffic was as heavy. Quicker if you could get the right ferry connections, but we had to drive like the clappers from Dunoon to Portavardie, all on small roads. Easier if you go via Arran, but that’s Summer sailing only I think. Needs some good research as I say…….

Via Michelin will give you a time for any given route. Knock a bit off if you are towing and it will give you pretty accurate idea of travel duration.

The Visit Scotland website is currently articles on the TOP TIPS for ISLAND HOPPING which could be of some assistance to you..

https://www.visitscotland.com

Point taken.

Sorry we haven't replied sooner. The word midges  is enough to completely put us off, We are going to re-think a trip to Scotland, look at the map and stay on the mainland perhaps visiting an island or two. We will plan this for next April/May when the midges are not so prevalent!!.

THANKYOU EVERYONE WHO ANSWERED OUR QUERY. 

Bill and Mary 

If you still fancy Scotland, the East Coast isn’t too bad for midges. East Lothian coast and St Andrews coast is very interesting. The other thing to be aware of is just how popular the West Coast is. We sat chatting to a couple who did the NC 500 last year, and they said it wasn’t what they expected, absolutely nose to tail with MHs and campers. We had a nice little tour of Dumfries and Galloway area last June, no midges, and not too busy. You could hop to Arran, and then across to Mull of Galloway if you want to do more. We took our van to Carradale and explored all over Kintyre Peninsula. Easy to do a trip to Northern Ireland as well, from Campbeltown.

We are currently on Mull, the island is fairly quiet at the moment and haven't had any problems with Midges so far.🤞

We have only seen one other caravan but plenty of camper vans and motor homes.  A trip in the autumn or next spring is a good idea, don't let the thought of the midges put you off.

We are currently on Mull, the island is fairly quiet at the moment and haven't had any problems with Midges so far.

Helen, if you don't mind me asking, which of the sites on Mull are you stopping on, and would you recommend it should we want to visit the island later in the year?