This was my second visit to Stonehaven. It is a lovely site, no doubt, and my review last time was glowing. I have no real reason to change that. The only negative I felt from my last trip was that the site has a busy feel with a lot of pitches in a relatively confined space – and yet, once on a pitch, there is no sense of feeling too close to one’s neighbour.

It is a regimented site, more or less on a grid system. I am not one of those offended by this, but I do recall others describing it as a car park. I love the fact that the site has a bright open aspect, not surrounded by tall trees as so many sites are. I also like that one almost feels a part of the local community with the site surrounded on two sides by typical Scottish stone cottages.

The location is marvellous, obviously, right by the sea on the edge of what is a delightful little town. Having booked a serviced pitch I was confined, with only two available, to the northern boundary of the site which is perhaps the least-best place to be. Behind there is the swimming pool, some recreational areas, and a couple of plain buildings – the purpose of which are unknown to me; one of these had a very bright, heat or movement-sensitive light that seemed to be on more than it was off and shone straight into my van; the same building also emitted an odd, constant, high-pitched, but low volume, humming sound. This was not a major issue, but enough to be worth mentioning and, if I had a choice, I would have avoided this part of the site. The best place to be is on the east and north boundaries. On my last visit I had the pitch in the north-east corner; I really believe that this is the best pitch on the site and I don’t think I would book a service pitch here again – they are not in the best of locations. Oh, for being able to book specific pitches!

For myself, I do think it is a pity that the local authority allow motorhomes to park overnight along the front just outside the site. I do not begrudge those who are content to wild camp the right to do so, although it is not something I have ever felt comfortable doing, never have done, ever, in 35 years and do not really agree with in principle. But there are places where wild camping has little impact and can be acceptable and there are places where it should not be allowed; this is one of the latter.

I have spent too much time on negatives because this really is one of the best sites in the network; it is in a wonderful position, great for the town and shopping (a large CoOp is only five minutes' walk), excellent for caravanners for trips out and about and good also for transport links to Aberdeen on the X7 or further afield on the train (although the station is a good walk mostly uphill).