Straight into my top five all time great sites
I absolutely loved it here and I really wished I had devoted more nights of this particular 19-night Scottish tour to Brora. I like that it is a small site, well laid out and bright and open with a limited number of trees – too often interrupting, or blocking entirely, lovely views of the surrounding countryside. You don’t actually see the sea from the site, but a short walk over the golf links, that lie between the site and the sea, brings you to a lovely sandy beach. Moreover, the site has a real beside-the-sea feel to it.
My only doubt is that I imagine in summer the site could have a rather busy feel to it; there are tent pitches between the main site and the golf course and there are many grass pitches on the outer perimeter of the circular road and inside the circle – the hard standings being on the inside of this circular road as well as a few on a spur off. I rather sense that it would feel very crowded in the height of the season; perhaps I would not come here then. But that is not really a negative - just my personal philosophy. I had a lovely pitch (52) which felt massive and had no neighbours close to it.
The village of Brora is about a 30-minute walk of about a mile and a half. Personally, I do not recommend doing the walk along the beach – as had been recommended to me by a caravanner I met at Onich. It is jolly hard work in the soft sand and there is a stream that requires a significant detour inland onto the golf course to reach a bridge – except that, possibly, when the tide is well out, this could be crossed on foot; I don’t know for sure. After that walk via the beach all subsequent visits to town were on the main road, either on foot or on my bike. I confined walks along the beach to more leisurely strolls – mostly in the Helmsdale direction. The village is delightful with two small supermarkets, a bakery and other shops and cafés – including a remarkable, Tardis-like, massively stocked, open-all-hours, hardware-cum-newsagent-cum-other-stuff store.
From the station you can get trains to Helmsdale or further afield to Thurso, Wick or Inverness. Mind you, this Far North Line is notoriously slow, under invested, sparsely time-tabled and inclined to lateness; long distance trips are perhaps more for the rail enthusiast than for those looking for a pleasure trip. I enjoy the trains, but a trip to Thurso was disappointing because the town is suffering badly. Caravanners have lots to visit in the area including Dunrobin castle, Helmsdale and much more.
I even managed to see Brora Rangers play Brechin City in the Highland League. This was a welcome bonus, very inexpensive and yet remarkably good football!
This is a true away-from-it-all site and required me to revise my top five sites list yet again. I had my best stay at Brora of any site in some time. Truly excellent!
