Scotland - 2022

An 06:45 start and 350 miles got us to the south of the Lake District by about 2 p.m. In time for a short yomp to Grange-over-Sands. A very pretty village on the north of Morcombe Bay. But where the hell where the pubs?…

Wigtown - self described as Scotland's capital of bookshops. Would probably have been very nice it it hadn't been raining and there wasn't a pandemic on. Went for a walk down to the harbour - a little way outside of to…

Scotland's most southerly point apparently. Misty - very misty. The Mull of Galloway is a long pointy bit sticking out into the Irish Sea. Unsurprisingly, there was an impressive tidal race of the end of it. More surp…

Friends had recommended a visit to Port Patrick. And very pretty it was too. Just a little short on open coffee shops. We almost went paddling from here! A bit later we then almost went paddling near Stanraer (Loch Ryan)…

A top drive up from Stranraer to Culzean along the A77. Then a very pleasant little walk down through the grounds of Culzean castle, along the shore and back through the woods. Having 1:25000 ordnance survey mapping on t…

A walk along the foreshore from Seal Shore campsite on Arran. Spotted seals, dolphin and a big diving bird with a yellow head (a boobie?). Almost went paddling from here,

And Kilroy. And Aidan, Liz and Scooby. A walk round a bit of Arran taking in the cave where Robert The Bruce was meant to have watched the spider doing its thing. Part of drive right around the island of Arran - abou…

On to Kintyre and Carradale. The harbour is, ahem, a bit of a pit with one of the locals presumably being a compulsive hoarder of trash. Carradale Bay beach is good - Scooby liked it and so do the locals seals. A lot…

Well - sort of. Just round the corner at Carskey Bay. We didn't see another person on the beach until just as we got back to the campervan. Liz didn't find her three pieces of plastic rubbish until we were nearly back at…

Up the Kintrye peninsula, past Trabert and on to Oban - ready to catch the ferry to Barra in the Outer Hebrides the next day. Good campsite with fine views over the Sound of Kerrera. Saw the offshore lifeboat towing in a…

Into Oban to catch the ferry across to Castlebay on Barra (bottom of the Outer Hebrides). The trip across was ok - with 5 hours across F4ish seas, it was a result that neither Liz or the dog barfed. Unfortunately, most o…

Woke up to 45 mph winds and teeming rain. Somehow 45 mph winds seem stronger here (where there is nothing between us and Newfoundland) than down in Devon. And the van has sprung a mini leak. Either that or one of us didn…

A bit of a road trip around South Uist and Benbecula. The first "panoramic" photo is the view from the Co-op car park on Benbecula. Top lunch at the "Marine Supplies and Seafood Cafe" in Kallin. £3.50 for an excellent…

A shorter ferry trip today from Ardmhor at the north of Barra to the ferry jetty on Erisksay. The winds hadn't really abated that much and 24 hours of winds to build the swell meant I feared for the worst with Scooby an…

A short yomp around along Balranald beach to keep Scooby Hound happy and then continuing on round the headland that is Balranald nature reserve. Avoided most of the rain and the bogs and only got slightly lost once (whic…

Another rainy day with 40 mph winds so we set off in the van to do a circumnavigation of North Uist with a gtrip up to Berneray in the north. The drive round North Uist is maybe 30 miles on very good single track roads w…

Up to the top of Berneray for a beach walk dodging the rain. The wind was blowing a hoolie but we dodged the rain. The colours of the sand and the sea could make you think you were in the Caribbean (apart from the afore…

Ferry from Berneray (top of Uists) to Leverburgh on South Harris. Wish I'd had the GPS on as the ferry took an amazing number of left and right turns to avoid the various reefs and rocks. Looking at the navigation buoys…

Scooby Hound in love with the beach at Luskentyre Sands on Harris. Miles and miles of pristine sand with views across to Taransay.

A visit to Tarbet and then back south along the "golden road". Lots of theories as to why it is called "golden" but most likely is the cost. The landscape is very "lunar" for much of the route - lots of rocks and some m…

Reckoned to be the most impressive set of standing stones in the UK after Stonehenge, the Callanish stones are something special (albeit Avebury might try to claim the 2nd spot). We were lucky enough to be there when it…

After non stop high winds for the last two weeks, the wind finally abated enough to go paddling. Well - sort of. It dropped to about a Force 4 but it was on on shore wind and in a sheltered bit of ocean. It did, however,…

Another wonderful beach for Scoby Hound, This time it was the Eoropie Beach right at the north end of Lewis. Then on to the Butt of Lewis lighthouse. The most norrth westerly point of somewhere or other. Also in the Gu…

Took the ferry across from Stornoway on Lewis to Ullapool on the mainland. Then up to Scourie for the night. Sadly Scooby's run of 18 consecutive days of "beach action" came to an end today. We got to Scourie a little la…

So we made it to the farthest planned point on our Highlands and Islands road trip. Durness is about 10 miles from Cape Wrath - the most north westerly point of the mainland. To get to Cape Wrath itself requires a short…

Outstanding scenery on the road from Durness (near Cape Wrath) down to Ullapool. Then a walk round Ullapool looking for where to have a pint and fish and chips in the evening. Found an outdoor place selling a stonking Cu…

Down from Ullapool on our way to Gairloch. Stunning scenery yet again. Stopped at Inverewe Gardens - Liz in gardeners heaven. Aidan and Scooby in the rain. Came out of the Gardens to find that the hired motorhome in fron…

With two of the three camper van inhabitants not waking up until gone 09:30, we opted for a lazy / veg / reading day today. Scooby got 2 walks along the beach.

A soggy, soggy day. Miles and miles of driving in rain that only varied between drizzle and full-on pissing down. Lots of ups and downs and single track roads. We avoided the trip into Applecross as I was too chicken s…

So today we failed to a) walk the 7 mile round trip to the end of the loch peninsula because of a little stream (Liz has a bad hip and wore the wrong shoes) b) failed to go out kayaking because there might have been to…

From the amazing Glenbrittle campsite on Skye back via the Armadale to Mallaig ferry. Then on to Glencoe via Fort William. Balked at paying £6 for a car park to photograph the "Harry Potter viaduct" at Glenfinnan (or th…

Spent the morning cooped up reading in the van as it hammered it down. So a change of plans saw us driving up through the Glencoe Pass in the teeming rain (medium scary) and then down a spectacular single track road to L…

Another windy and sometimes rainy day for the drive down from Glencoe to Portavidie (on the mainland opposite Tarbet on Kintyre). Portavidie is a somewhat weird place - shed loads of money has clearly been spent on the…

A walk from Portavidie to Low Stillaig and on to an "almost island" to watch for the wild life that didn't turn up. Fell out with Scooby Hound who had the time of his life chewing on stale sheep shit to see which ones s…

Left Portavidie and crossed the Argyll peninsula to get a ferry across from Dunoon. Unfortunately, we didn't read the tiny icons on the CalMac timetable and turned up in a campervan at a ferry for foot passengers only.…

We decided to break the journey home into 3 stages. So we stopped in the Malverns - near Swan Handley. The Swan in Swan Handley is fine pub but doesn't do food after 4pm on a Sunday. Oh well.

After an overnight stop in the Malverns, it was an easy three hours back down the M5 to home in Devon. Ah well - that's it - the great month long "Highlands and Islands" tour is now over. Only two years later than origin…