Scotland - Isle of Skye, North Uist, Lewis & Harris & the NC500
Why Scotland?
Scotland has been on our to do list for quite some time but to be honest the unfavourable weather & remoteness has been something that makes us forget it and instead head to Europe and its warm weather & easy of travel. Obviously with the covid restrictions in place it isn’t so easy right now to head across to Europe so it seemed like the best time to finally plan that trip north. Lew being in between jobs also meant we could take 2 weeks off without it coming out of his annual leave which was also a bonus. Right now the UK has a traffic light system for travel with green, amber and red countries depending on their covid levels & variant risks. Green you can travel to without quarantine but still have to swab before boarding the plane at each end which can be a costly exercise at £150-£200/swab per person. Amber countries you can travel to but have to swab and complete 10 days quarantine at home on returning, you can pay for a fast 5 day swab but thats just an extra expenses (make sure you check the most up to date rules as these have since changes and swab prices less since I wrote this blog back in June). When we returned from NZ in March this is what we had to go through. Then you have the red list countries which are banned from entering the UK unless your a permanent resident and they get taken to a hotel quarantine facility just like we did in NZ and its at the individuals expense. The anxiety for us around travelling in this environment is the uncertainly of countries moving between the traffic lights which get reviewed every two weeks. That and the fact that the swabs are expensive! All of this forced us into the Scotland trip and I know for sure we will be pleased to have seen this part of the world before we return to NZ.
Early in May we were in the Cotswolds and struggled to find food because of the covid restrictions in place. I even took our flat microwave from London and meal prepped for days to ensure we had food, but we still spend our days out searching for lunch. This is when we decided the van idea was a great option to see Scotland as we were entirely self sufficient and Scotland allows free camping, unlike England. Its something we havnt’t done before but meant our accommodation and transport was all wrapped up in one which was ideal because we had no clue where we actually wanted to go. We finalised the plan on the train up to Edinburgh booking the ferry across to the Outer Hebrides and it was lovely to have the flexibility for once.
Monday 7th June 2021
We took an early morning train from London Kings Cross up to Edinburgh which is a speedy 4 hours. Unfortunately someone died on the tracks north of Newcastle and so our train was cancelled and they set about putting us all on coaches to continue the journey north. The line for the coach was like nothing we have ever seen before and I cant believe they manage to fit this many people on board one train even with covid restrictions. Thankfully they cleared the tracks an hour later and we were able to squeeze onto another train. We had a lot of stuff with us for our 12 days in the van - think bedding, spices, homemade muesli, you name it! Hence we took an Uber from the Edinburgh train station 20 minutes outside of town to pick up our van. We arrived at about 2.30pm and left at 5.30pm. It took forever and the company (Easicampers) was incredibly unorganised and understaffed. We even had to wait until out van was cleaned before we could head off on our adventure. We were given a quick tour on the van so we knew how to actually use it with its water tanks, bathroom, LPG and the actual van itself which was manual. The lady Claire mentioned how the toilet had a foul smell coming from it despite her cleaning it throughly. It smelt very very strongly of urine and im quite used to smells with my work but this was something else! We got her to re-clean parts which we spotted some urine leaking but I figured some airing out and a better clean by me would fix the issue. Oh how I was wrong!
The next part of the day was doing an absolutely massive grocery shop since we didn’t think we would have access to anything large once we left the cities. We spent over £200 ($400 nzd) which would be breakfast, lunch & dinner for two weeks! We managed to figure out how to fill up the water tanks & diesel before we set off to eat dinner in the carpark of Stirling Castle! It was a stunning night and we were excited about the adventure to come! We finished up pretty late between Tyndrum & Fort William in a park off the main road.
p.s Stop into Stirling Castle if your in the area! It was the key to the Kingdom of Scotland
Tuesday 8th June 2021
The heavy rain from the night before had thankfully subsided but we had slept with the overpowering stench of urine and called my parents to ask them about the cassette & why this smell might be happening. We discovered how difficult it was to attach the cassette properly so it didn’t overflow like it had overnight so we set about finding some bleach later on to properly give it a good dousing.
Glenfinnan Railroad
This was a highlight we were told as this beautiful old steam engine crossed over a famous Harry Potter like Bridge. I managed to find the exact times it would be on the bridge on the train website which was ever so handy since it only makes two journeys a day! It travels from Fort William to Malliag and you can ride it as a tourist. We rushed to get there and didn’t get a great spot. So I would recommend going early, paying for your parking and then heading up one of the hill top walking tracks to get a better view than down in the valley. It was quite spectacular as it whistled and steamed away round the bridge
Malliag
This certainly wasn’t as big as we expected but it is the ferry port where you can take a ferry to Armadale on the southern coast of the Isle of Skye which is what we planned on doing. Its very short and you are expected to stay in your vehicle on the crossing which takes about half an hour. The actual town of Malliag did have some nice walks up to look over the city and a few nice looking places to eat including a bakery on the waterfront. But other wise we used the half hour ferry journey to make lunch in the back of the van! Bonus!
Armadale Castle
This wasn’t a place we actually stopped but I heard that there is an incredible museum that is well worth a visit and is unlike anything the other castles have. Its the home of the MacDonald clan.
Elgol Beach
This is a pretty spot with a few walks around the area on a nice day. It is a bit of a drive to get in there on a rough one lane road which we realised is quite normal off the main roads of Scotland but is quite tiring driving. I was recommended a walk from this beach to Loch Courisk but it wasn’t something we had time to do.
Glenbrittle Campsite
This place was absolutely fantastic! I would highly recommend using this as a base to stay for at least one of your nights on Skye. Keep in mind that it has no cell service, but as the sign in the office reminded us…put your phones down and actually speak to one another. There is a small shop/cafe onsite which makes homemade croissants if you get your order in by 6pm the night before. It had easily the best water fill up/grey water disposal we found on our entire trip and despite it raining torrentially the entire time we were here we really enjoyed it!
Wednesday 9th June
Fairy Pools
This is on the way into Glenbrittle and unfortunately after the heavy rain there had been some seriously bad flash flooding which meant we were unable to cross the two rivers to get to the Fairy Pools. The only piece of advice I have for you is to park up the hill in a forest carpark which is free and then walk 5 minutes down the road to avoid paying for the actual fairy pools park which we felt was quite expensive. There are toilets you can use in that carpark but the walk starts opposite the paid carpark entrance.
Dunvegan Castle
The seat of MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the clan MacLeod actually just means ‘son of Leod’ and clan meaning children of the family. Now this is quite the impressive castle built in the 13th century in pieces with some older such as the fairy tower and some newer parts. It is on the side of Loch Dunvegan and is stilled lived in by the 30th chief of the clan Hugh MacLeod.
The gardens are especially pretty at this time of year with all the purple rhododendrons in full blooms making the rather stark castle look a lot more liveable. Walking around the inside was rather impressive and there was even copies of Shakespeare especially for the the clan.
The MacLeods apparently were always at odds with the MacDonalds further down the island.
Coral Beach
This is a really lovely walk if you continue driving past the castle onto the small one lane road and park up before walking into the special beach. The beach, as the name suggests is made from crushed white coral like seaweed that makes the water look tropical blue when the sun comes out! We thankfully did get a break in the weather which allowed us to enjoy this stunning place.
By now it was time to park up for the night and using the free app Park4night we found a spot just north of Portree on the side of Loch Leathan and below The Old Man of Storr. There was no services of course but that’s why being self sufficient in the van is ideal. It was windy and pouring right throughout the night and following day. Welcome to Scotland as many people would say to us as we complained about the weather.
Thursday 10th June
Thick heavy, sideways rain meant there was no chance we were able to walk the famous Storr track today for the risk of being blown away or caught in flash flooding was far too high.
Lealt Waterfall, Kilt Rock & the Staffins
If your heading up the coast of Skye and across the road through the Quiraing to Uig (which is insane!) I would recommend stopping off at these two short tourist spots to check out the coastline as it is quite stunning!
The Fairy Glen
This is a very strange but pretty place in the hillside. Skye has a connection to fairies which is why this area gained its name. There is some free parking if you continue past the paid parking as it seems a strange place to pay for parking in such a remote location. Wander around, admire the area and climb the small grassy hills.
From Uig we took the ferry to Lockmaddy which is on the North Uist islands. You can also get a ferry straight to Tarbet and the only reason we didn’t was that the ferries were sold out. So in order to complete our trip as we wanted - seeing Lewis & Harris (aka the outer hebrides), we had to go this way around. It was a huge boat but the weather was rather nasty and made for a rough crossing. We both felt rather nauseated when we finally got off 1 hour 45 minutes later. p.s look for a couple of cute shops before you get onto the ferry if your waiting in line. I found a lovely couple of kids books - one about a puffin called Harris and another about Harry the highland cow but there was also lots of local pottery. It will be fun reading these stories to our future kids someday and remembering this trip.
North Uist Islands
The North Uist islands are very small and incredibly isolated. We has minimal service the entire time we were there which made it tricky to find food, water, chemical disposal or a place to park!
Note that ports tend to have your chemical waste disposal, water etc which does make it a little easier once you know this. We drove the entire circuit of the island seeing out first glimpse of the gorgeous beaches the Outer Hebrides are known for. A fabulous place to park for the night is on the island of Berneray at East Beach where there is a honesty box and free choice of a spot along the waterfront. The intense rain & wind didn’t make this as pleasant as it perhaps could have been but it was close to the ferry leaving Berneray early tomorrow morning and we had found a place to fill up with water we could go back to in the morning - that was our biggest stresser daily. No water = no shower, toilet or cooking!
Friday 11th June
We had an 0700 ferry to Leverburgh meaning a very early start for us to ensure we didn’t miss it. We had no service to download the information as to how early we had to check in before the ferry left so we went with 45 minutes like it was on a ferry the day before. We were very early but it meant we could fill the water & empty the toilet cassette before we even had breakfast, what a successful day already!
Lewis & Harris, Outer Hebrides
We arrived into Harris after breakfast & a cuppa on the ferry. This was apparently one very treacherous journey in the past because of the many islands and reefs between the islands. These days large coloured buoys make it pretty easy for the ferry to make the journey. There were numerous beaches everyone told us we must visit and even a cute little bakery call “The Temple” we were supposed to visit but unfortunately drove past & then struggled to find somewhere to turn our van around on the one lane roads. We didn’t really have plans for the day so continued through to Tarbet.
Isle of Harris Distillery & Harris Tweed
Right next to each other are these two gems. Book ahead for your distillery tour of how whisky and gin is produced as they were all sold out when we stopped by. Their gin bottles are absolutely stunning and we purchased a wedding present for some friends of ours. Their gin is infused with local sugar kelp seaweed which makes it quite different. But otherwise not having an appreciation for gin ourselves there wasn’t much use in carting a bottle back to London no matter how pretty the bottle was. Tweet from Harris is quite famous and further on our travels we would learn more about it. We found a couple of gorgeous scarves for our mums to be sent back to NZ with the special “Harris Tweet” insignia on it. Other wise I didn’t really fancy a tweed handbag myself, I dont think it would match my constant activewear outfits.
FOOD!
Ok there is quite a few food places that people recommended to us so I will list them here for you to check out as well.
Taste n Sea - Fish n chips. They weren’t open when we stopped by unfortunately
Crust like that Pizza - AMAZING, highly recommend, great with a DF allergy and the pizza was actually fab
Mollans take away - fish n chips. The fish was fabs! Chips wernt anything special
The Temple - bakery we forgot to stop at but loads of people mentioned to me
Uig Sands - closed when we stopped by but seemed to have smoked salmon as well
Beaches!
Once again there were so many of them hence il make another list and you can choose your itinerary!
Ardiol Beach/Uig Bay
Carnish Beach
Mangersta Beach
Bosta Beach - on the island of Bernera, there is a walk called the great Berneray Trail you should look out for, we ran this
Luskentyre beach
Scarista Beach
Huishinish (off the beaten track but gorgeous)
Where to stay?
We drove and drove today and ended up right out past the last town of Breanais to basically where the road ends. It is very remote and no one else was around. We asked a local whether it was ok to stay here and he said SURE! We saw our first highland cows out here which refused to move off the road for us but atleast that meant we could snap some pictures. There was a lovely gravel patch overlooking the coastline we called home for the night and cooking dinner whilst looking at the sea was bit of a treat. In front of us was even the remains of an old village here from the 17th century but it became too hard for people to live in such remote and exposed areas.
Did you know?
Many years ago the rocky hills and shore of the Outer Hebrides were a part of a mountain range as high as the Himalayas. Over time the mountains eroded and were ground smooth by vast sheets of ice. As the ice melted, it left thin soil, humps, hollows and lochs. As the sea level rose, islands, beaches and sea inlets were created.
Saturday 12th June
We were catching the ferry back to Uig at 9pm tonight so we had all day to explore the Island! We started making our way back to Lewis through the small towns.
Gearrannan Blackhouse Village
This is the homes of a small village of crofters that occupied these houses until the 1970’s. The houses themselves were made from double drystone walls, very low profile and have thatch roofing which make them suitable for the Hebridean weather which we had experienced - wind & rain! Hence there is a lack of trees on the island and no ones houses we had seen so far had any sort of outdoor area. They get their name because in the early days they were smoke filled and had small windows. It is here we watched a video of how Harris Tweet is made which is a time consuming process with a very old machine similar to those that we have seen in other countries like india & Morocco. p.s you can actually stay in these houses if you wish!
Callanish Standing Stones
This is an arrangement of standing stone in a cruciform pattern with a central stone circle with a chambered tomb beneath. The stones were erected in the Neolitic era and there is many guesses as to how they become. Such as the stones are petrified giants who wouldn’t convert to Christianity. But no one quite knows the real reason.
Isle of Scalpay
There is a fabulous walk/run out to the lighthouse Eileen Glas which is a nice 10km loop and on a sunny day gives you a wonderful view of the many many islands off the coastline. Its close to Tarbet and the isle has a cool bridge connecting it! The community centre at the port even has free toilets and showers for a donation in an honest box which was fantastic!
We parked up here, ran the island, showered, cooked dinner and headed to Tarbet to catch the ferry back to Uig!
Sunday 13th June
We woke up in the same parking space along side the Loch Leathan hoping to walk The Storr this morning, alas more rain and wind making it again dangerous. We made our way into Portree to get some washing done at the Youth Hostel which was SO nice to have some clean clothes. We left at about lunch time and the plan was to make it to Applecross.
Eilean Donan Castle
This is the picturesque, most recognisable castle you might have seen propped up on an island surrounded by three sea lochs.
The first castle was established in the 13th century to protect the area from viking incursions but unfortunately this original was bombed during the Jacobite uprising and lay in ruins for 200 years. It was then rebuild using much of the old ruins in 1912 by the MacRae-Gilstrap family and this was when the bridge across was added. All the staff here were incredibly friendly and we had a bit of a laugh about the weather. The sideways rain and wind made it tricky for us to walk over to the castle and we were starting to get sick of it. Thankfully their humour about real Scottish weather reminded us that this was normal for them!
Applecross
The road to Applecross is like nothing else. It is a treacherous, single track road over the Beach na Ba “pass of the castle” and was the only road in and out of the area until 1975. It rises up to 636m and has the steepest ascent of any road in the UK. The weather was horrific so we couldn’t see very much at all which was probably a good thing! The ladies at the castle had said it a pretty scary drive for both driver and passenger. There was a clear warning about not driving it if you are a learner, in a camper van or if the winds are too high. It was exceptionally gorgeous once we arrived on the other side into the small village of Applecross where there is a village pub and loads of walks. There was another really lovely village called Shieldaig we drove through which was very pretty on the side of the loch.
We carried on to stay in a place called Gairloch Beach carpark and viewpoint which was an absolutely stunning beach with toilets in the carpark. The sun sets so late and its twilight until about midnight that we went for a wander on the beachfront after dinner. One of the most relaxing evening we have had so far. Amazing what a bit if good weather can do!
Monday 14th June
The good weather didn’t last long and we were soon driving onwards through rain after filling up our water, sending some postcards to our grannies and accidentally releasing all out grey water into the street as I pulled the pipe off the tank. We weren’t really sure about where you could drop your grey water. It was hard to find anything like we had in Glenbrittle and Lews dad told us that they just emptied into a drain when they did their trip many years ago. Using eco friendly products in everything we do we didn’t see the harm of where ours went but still chose appropriate places. Despite this we still felt awkward like we were taking a squat in public or something!
Ullapool
This charming little city was where we stopped off for lunch at Seafood Shack whilst we got a spot of sunshine to even drink a gin outside whilst we ate. The food here was incredible and I learnt that langoustines are like a large prawn but are closer to a lobster and a lot of people were having these for lunch at this place. We didn’t get to try them ourselves unfortunately.
We carried on this day until we found a spot on the side of the road to spend the night and to make the drive to Tongue the next day a lot easier.
Tuesday 15th June
North bound! This was the day we would turn back around and start making out journey back to Edinburgh. On the list today was the famous Smoo Caves & Sango Bay viewpoint which are close to the town of Durness. We got great weather up here and even did a bit of a loop track in the area whilst the sunshine was out.
Smoo Caves
This is the largest coastline cave in the British Iles and was believed to have been a Stone Age home more that 5,000 years ago. You can actually take a tour and enter into the cave but we have seen a fair few in our time. Its free to walk around the inside and above it. There is a really great food truck called “cheese n toasted” that sits in a carpark near smoo caves and we had a fantastic one with vegan cheese and veggies. Highly recommend.
We continued our drive and made it past Tongue to a town called Lairg where I could finally wash my hair as we were plugged into a gas station water pump. Oh the simple things in life! We made an impromptu decision to actually head out to the coast to Golspie where Dunrobin Castle is and visit that. This all really happened because the public toilet in Lairg was closed and Golspie was the next closed! So off we went. The benefit of having a house on wheels.
Dunrobin Castle
Park4night took us into the castle carpark where a couple of other vans were. There were no signs in the actual carpark about not being able to stay overnight so we did! Lew was very distressed about this and spend a bit of time searching for signs and looking online. I was just happy with a pretty place for our evening walk and the view from our windows into the surrounding meadows. The castle grounds supposedly closed at 7pm but a gate was open so we managed to get a glimpse of the beautiful gardens and the castle itself! Absolutely stunning and very much like a fairy tale castle! Far prettier than Dunvegan and we looked forward to our visit in the morning.
Wednesday 16th June
Dunrobin Castle
Sunshine! What a perfect morning to visit Dunrobin!
We purchased our tickets and heading into the incredible castle which very much resembled a French Chateaux with its conical spires dating back to 1275! It was home to the Earls and then later the Dukes of Sutherland. It was a hospital during the First World War and then a boys boarding school before being converted back into a family house.
There were so many gorgeous trinkets in the cabinets and each room was beautifully designed. One ceiling in particular really caught our eye along with the tiger and lions skin rugs.
The castle also has falconry and we were lucky enough to see a GYR falcon, Harris Hawk and the fastest bird in the world the Peregrine falcon in action. These birds used to hunt for the families to bring back game meat instead of guns being used which I think would be incredible to see and a lot more humane. Families would often have 4 falconers employed for a constant supply of meat. The falcon dives from 500ft and whacks its prey on the back of its head smashing its skull. The Harris Hawk also had a really cool ratchet with it claws where it can put out a lot of force and even loosen off its leg muscles whilst retaining that force. They often hunt in packs unlike the falcon and can even run along the ground. It was quite spectacular watching them all fly around the courtyard of the castle & I highly recommend you see at least one of the shows when you visit.
Outside the castle as we left there was an impressive line up of supercars. This is another way to see the NC500 is hiring out one of these cars and speeding your way around the 500 mile track. Thats a way to certainly turn some heads.
After the castle visit we made a quick omelette in the carpark before making the journey south through Inverness. With Inverness just being another city we didn’t bother to stop as we hadn’t planned anything here nor had we heard great things about the city.
Lochness
We were recommended that if we were in this area we HAD to go to Dores Beach and see Lochness. The loch of all out childhood memories of Scotland with the rumours of Nessie the Lochness monster. There is even a man here called Steve who has been hunting full time since 1991 for Nessie and has a spot on the edge of the lake ready to pounce at the sight of her head or hump above the water. It was a seriously windy day on the lakeside but we stopped for a bite to eat at the Inn - mostly so we could use the tap on the side of the building to fill up the van without feeling guilty! There is also a lovely loop track around the nearby forest and waters edge we took a wander through.
Boat of Garten
This was where we ended up for the night in the most beautiful little forest carpark and it was the first night we briefly got the chairs out from the back of the van to sit and read outside. Ok now we are starting to see what van life could be like. I don’t think the idea is your crammed up in the rain not able to leave the van. I think it’s having the doors wide open, enjoying nature and sunshine. But as our parents keep reminding us…your in SCOTLAND. We cooked dinner here and went for the most lovely 3km walk at 10pm at night since its still light out until at least midnight. How crazy is that, it’s because we are so far north. The sun only really goes down for a couple of hours so you definitely want a good eye mask whilst your here.
Thursday 17th June
We begun our drive into the Cairngorms which was a place we were really excited to be in since its surrounded by mountains and has a very different vibe to anywhere else we have been in Scotland. We had a couple of mountain roads to drive over and even came across a ski field. We did think it looked rather flat and more like a beginners field. Do they even get enough snow up here or I wonder if its much like some of NZ’s ski fields where they have to make a lot of snow or your just skiing on tussock?
Ballater, Aberdeenshire
A very very pretty little city alongside the River Dee that we actually made a detour for fuel (thank goodness we did as it was gorgeous). This town is also known as the warrant town because of all the royal warrants outside a lot of the storefronts. Balmoral Castle is only 11km from here and this is a little town that Queen Elizabeth often frequented in her early years. We just had to stop and walk around as the sun shone down on the gorgeous brick store fronts and everyone seemed to be outside enjoying a bite to eat. We found a wonderful place called ‘Rocksalt & Snails’ which felt very French and had a lovely courtyard where we could have a bite to eat. They had some really tasty vegetarian sandwiches and we left feeling like perhaps we were really starting to enjoy this trip…sunshine absolutely helps! We found some vegan ice cream at the local shop called ‘Shorty’s’ of Ballater. I also found the cutest little Harris tweet handmade scotty dog from a shop called the ‘Roaring Stag’ and he was a part of a collection called the Tweedy Beasties. They had some seriously cute puffins and cows also. But this little guy in his blue tweed really stood out. There is also an old confectionery shop called ‘Dee Valley Confectionary’ which is close to the beautiful old train station. It seemed like a great place to be based for walking and biking in the surrounding area
Crathie
This is where Balmoral Castle is and we parked up in the castle carpark where it is free to stay the night and £3 ($6 nzd) during the day. We opened the back doors of the van and enjoyed reading overlooking a little stream behind us before heading out for a run. Lew had plotted a run through the forest around Balmoral Castle but we wernt’t sure whether this is somewhere you can just enter. It turns out a local a day or so later told us there is no trespassing law in Scotland so we absolutely could use the area! But what we did find instead was the Prince Albert Cairns and the most incredible pyramid which was Queen Victoria’s memorial to her beloved husband who died of Typhoid at aged 42. Queen Victoria went into a deep state of mourning and withdrew from public life spending a large amount of time at Balmoral which meant having all her Royal duties sent up to her by horse and carriage or train since there was no email back in those days. Perhaps she was the first person to invent “working from home”. If your are in this area it is somewhere you absolutely must visit. The perfect pyramid overlooking the grounds of Balmoral just seems so out of place but is also so unique its a rather majestic memorial for Albert. We did ask and he isn’t entombed in the pyramid like the pharaohs are in Egypt!
Friday 18th June
Balmoral Castle
Time to Visit the beautiful Balmoral Castle! We brought tickets online last night to enter into the Castle at 10am. You get given an audioguide as you wander around the grounds of the Castle. There is only a certain period of time you can visit as the Queen comes up here for two months in August to take a break from London life - although her duties are still on going. Im sure this year it will be slightly lonely without her own beloved consort Prince Phillip but maybe she will gain some comfort in knowing Queen Victoria also mourned then loss of her own life partner here at Balmoral. Balmoral has been a key part of the Royal Family since 1856 when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert purchased the ground after falling in love with the area. They demolished the original castle and built their own so the castle that stands here is not as old as some of the others in Scotland.
The gardens surrounding the Castle are incredible and employ a lot of local people for the upkeep of the organic garden which Prince Phillip designed. There is all sorts of fruit and vegetables ranging from blueberries to every type of potato under the sun. The gardeners work hard to ensure the garden is ready and the roses in full bloom for when the queen arrives in August. All the tourist remnants are removed so she can be here in peace which is why you are not able to visit during this time. She can however pop up for a visit anytime she wants but we were told she would just stay in one of the smaller houses on the grounds and no one would even know she was here. Balmoral Castle is on 50,000 acres of land that includes a lot of forest that was planned during Victoria’s reign. The only inside of the castle you can visit is the Ballroom which is still used for dances and celebrations today. The room has a lot of stag heads and beautiful old paintings including one of Queen Elizabeth II on a horse with the castle in the background. We wandered around the pet cemetery and up into some of the forest walks which gave us an incredible view back own over the castle and its lands before heading back to the van.
Tarmachan Cafe
WOW. We drove past this the day before and were really taken by the gorgeous architecture of this building. It is an architecture practice with a cafe in the front of it. It is leased by the lovely Tom & Kate who had relocated up here from England to run this cafe. The food was unreal and Lew couldn’t stop raving about his toasties. Easily the best he had EVER. They catered so well for food allergies and the food was all local and beautifully presented. This place is an absolute MUST if your in the area, you will not be disappointed. It was very affordable as well and we left with full tummy and a treat for later which didn’t last the walk back to the van.
We had worked out that we could fill the van up with water using the flexible chopping board and tipping out water containers down the homemade funnel into the water tanks. It was a bit of a fiddly process but we couldn’t access the water taps under the toilets in the visitor centre because it was too small to get the van in there. We planned on staying in a campsite tonight but didn’t want to have no water whatsoever and this also meant we had a shower this morning.
Braemar
This is a cute little town we stopped off in and boy oh boy everyone was friendly! There is an incredible hotel here called ‘The Fife Arms’ which apparently has £20 million ($40 million nzd) worth of artwork including a Picasso & a Freud! It was built in the 19th century and looks rather Swiss and expensive. They have their own whisky tasting room and a myriad of other things the locals told us about. It would be worth it to stay atleast one night here. The bellboys out the front showed us the entrance and that was enough for us to be in awe and wonder what the other rooms are like. Its a little gem we would like our parents to come back and stay in someday. There was also another incredible shop across the road called ‘Tor’ which was the most beautiful wood crafts shop that smelt heavily of linseed oil and was born out of covid times. Unfortunately not a lot of it was within our budget but we appreciated the craftsmanship and had a great chat to the local man running the store who encouraged us to do a short walk around the countryside before we headed onwards. Braemar is also where the Highland games are held and it does have its own little unassuming castle.
Pitlochry
This is where we planned in staying at the campsite. It’s close enough to Edinburgh for us to drop the van back in the morning and was also recommended by a lot of people as a small town just outside of the Cairngorms. Unfortunately we didn’t think we had to book ahead as we hadn’t the rest of our trip and the campsite and 5 surrounding ones in the area were also full. Crap! I managed to find one place further south in Kinross which was another hours drive towards Edinburgh. We quickly looked around Pitlochry which was mostly shut up aside from the restaurants at this time of night. We walked down to the hydroelectric dam which was a bit of a must see in the township. Other wise we continued onwards as we hadn’t had dinner and still needed to sort the van out for tomorrow morning.
Kinross
We found the campsite and it seemed just fine. We paid £20 ($40 nzd) for the two of us for a night and was shown to our spot on the uneven grass. We set immediately about cleaning the cassette of the toilet as it had been stinking all day and I bleached the inside of the bathroom since we planned on using the campsites amenities. Lew however discovered that the showers were ‘closed due to covid’ which they had failed to mention to us when I called and also checked into reception. This was very frustrating since we had driven all the way down here and really needed the showers open. To top it off we had just run out of gas despite the van saying we still had plenty left. This meant we couldn’t use our own shower since we had no hot water and couldn’t even cook dinner. It was 8pm by the stage and we were starting to regret our extra walks and slow moving pace of the day which lead to it being so late. Well the toilet was clean and I made Lew fill up the water in the van before we went back to reception to claim a refund and leave. We were there less than an hour and the old man would only give us half back, so rude. I did mention that showers had been open everywhere we went for the past two weeks all over Scotland after he gave me the excuse of having to clean them after every person. Basically covid is being used as an excuse for a lot of things - this being one of them. What is the difference between a shared toilet block and a shared shower block? Anyways we moved on trying to find out where we could get LPG. No where. There were places over half an hour away but they would be closed by the time we arrived. So we had no way of cooking, no toilet and no shower. I found us a carpark on the side of a loch at a cafe which would open and have a toilet in it in the morning. Overnight I just peed into a container! Lovely I know but thats how desperate I was. Thankfully we had some leftovers for dinner and I made us just wash ourselves with a flannel and head to bed. Tomorrow would be a big day of packing up and getting back to London. Iv never been so excited to return to running water and our beautiful apartment.
Saturday 19th June
FINALLY the day we would drop Urie back. I can tell you how pleasing this is! We spent the morning cleaning and packing up all our stuff which was in every nook and cranny in the van - as you could imagine after almost two weeks on the road. We had a lot of non perishables which we later donated and also a lot of food we planned on cooking with the night before when we had no gas which we had to chuck out. We just couldn’t drag it all back to London as we already had oodles of stuff. We hadn’t remembered to empty the grey water at the campsite the night before so had to pull over into a gravel/grass carpark just outside a city to drain it. We couldn’t find anywhere else but I had made the mistake of tipping the left over soy milk down the drain so the milky looking liquid coming out the side of the van wasn’t the most subtle. It started flowing out from under the van so we had to turn it off and move on. FAST! We felt horrible but it just needed to be done. We didn’t want to be bad van owners but too be honest as free as Scotland is to van life, filling water and emptying grey water really wasn’t that straightforward and caused us a fair amount of stress!!! We did find another patch of grass and got rid of the rest of the liquid a bit more subtly. We also had a lot of recycling and I had tried numerous places to get rid of this but found a place in a small town. With out armfuls of recycling we walked into this community centre. It said “ no fly tipping, your on camera” on the bins and I asked Lew what that was….he said basically what we are doing now! Once again we felt bad but what was the other option? Leave it on the side of the road or put it in a normal bin where it would go to the landfill. Nope. Now all there was left to do was handover the van and explain the list of issues we had with it including the more recently addition of the “Add blue” light making the dashboard look lit up like a xmas tree with its check engine light also. All went well at the van place but we couldn’t honestly recommend Easyrent Campers. It’s just been such a mission and despite having a brand new 2021 van it caused us a lot of stress. They took us to the tram station and we were able to get into Edinburgh Waverly. We had too much stuff so I left Lew at the train station and I went out to get some food from a place I was recommended by a friends called “The Bahn Mi Bar” tucked away in the arches just outside the train station. The food was incredible and made the long journey back to London a little easier. We were exhausted and so ready for a hot shower! We even took an Uber from Kings Cross as we couldn’t be bothered carrying the 40kg bag and other things all the in the underground to our front door. Our apartment felt huuuuuuge when we arrived and we were so pleased to have some basic creature comforts back again. By the way we did about 2000km (1241 miles) in Urie over the course of the trip despite it being the North Coast 500 we added a lot of additional Scotland places onto the usual route and cut off some that didnt make sense. So I would recommend having a good line up of downloaded podcasts or music to keep you occupied whilst you gaze at the countryside or sit on the side of the road waiting for the rain to pass.
Trip Highlights:
Crust like that Pizza in Lewis
The many many beautiful beaches in Lewis & Harris
The Isle of Scalpay walk/run to the lighthouse
Glenbrittle campsite
Coral Beach - Isle of Skye
Glenfinnan
Stirling
Seafood shack - Ullapool
Harris Tweed
Dunvegan Castle
Applecross path
Dunrobin Castle and its Falconry
Balmoral Castle
Prince Alberts Cairn
Tarmachan Cafe
The friendly locals
Ballatar
The Bahn Mi BAr - Edinburgh
In summary we dont think van life is really for us. Although perhaps if we had our own van we felt comfortable with things may have been easier. We realise that doing this sort of trip in a van is very very very easy in NZ because of all the accessibly free water and Department of Conservation (DOC) campsites. This also gave us a expectation that Scotlands NC 500 and surrounding areas which openly welcomes vans, caravans and wild camping etc would be similar and it really wasnt. We reflected on what we would do differently if we ever had the chance to do such a thing again. Honestly accommodation along the way would be our chosen way of travelling. There is pros and cons of whatever you choose to do. Perhaps we just got seriously unlucky with the weather and if you have the ability to be flexible on your dates I would be aiming to choose the driest week/time period if possible! We have had so many other friends visit Scotland this year and some even come back with a tan raving about the sunshine. So don’t let us be all doom and gloom on your plans!
If you want to check out some of the footage we got on our journey check our my instagram highlights linked below, just click on the insta button & id love to have you follow our current & future travels :) Iv also attached the Google Map from my screenshot at the top of the page on the link on the paperclip for you to check out!