# 2 week scotland tour



## hayabusaman0 (May 23, 2015)

Hi All. 
1st longish tour in the MH. We are thinking of touring round Scotland for 2 weeks, up the west side then down the east, start/finish inRaunds, Northant's.

Prob around May/June time( midge time?)

I want to include Spenny Bridge, Loch Ness etc. I am in the CCC so will be looking there as well.

Any advice, suggestions much appreciated.

TIA Paul.

A happy & healthy New Year to you all.


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## DBSS (Jun 30, 2013)

We have done the Scottish East / West Coast run a couple of times. Lots of places to squeeze in including some of the islands. Skye in particular is worth a visit if you have the time. But do bear in mind, the Scottish roads can be busy, with tourists as well as local traffic and this needs to be taken into consideration when planning the length of your trip.
Culzean Castle is definitely worth a visit as is the campsite at Ben Nevis, wild camping is also an option given the route you are considering.


Cheers Ian


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

If it is midge time I'd give the west a miss if they bother you, and it's worth joining the _National Trust for Scotland_ (cheaper than the English one but has full access) some will allow you to stay overnight if you arrive late  

Useful Android apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.org.nt.android.app1

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.org.nts.app.android.trusttrails

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geoguides.scotland

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.visitscotland.app


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Paul two weeks is not long for a trip round Scotland.

Once you are off the main roads in the Highlands or the West Coast and Islands (if you get as far as the islands) there are a lot of bendy single track roads with passing places, where you will be waiting for oncoming traffic; on these stretches it would be advisable to plan for average speed of about 20mph and even slower if you want to stop to see the view/take photos.

I would try to get hold of maps which differentiate between the normal two-way roads and the single track as AFAIK no satnav does that - it will help you to understand how far you can travel in a reasonable day's driving.

Another tip - keep your diesel and gas topped up before venturing into remoter areas, as filling can be few and far afield and with more gear work and hilly areas you will inevitably use more fuel. Same applies to keeping the food cupboard stocked, as away from towns you will find only small conveniece stores with limited choice.

Wildcamping is easy so you don't need to bust a gut to get to campsites which may be some distance away.

With only 2 weeks from Northants unless there are places you want to see in the Lowlands, I suggest you 'bomb up' on day one to North of Glasgow and then start your touring.

Having dealt with those aspects, you will find some magnificant scenery and some great places to wildcamp, with views over beaches, lakes and from mountain tops, which will beat a lot of campsites.

Enjoy the planning and the execution.

Geoff


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

there are a couple of apps for LPG refillables too, and I have the KMLs for all the Morrisons LPG pumps, and in other formats if needed, just ask.

I also have the Autogas POIS for TomTom, Garmin & Navman if needed, they are in my MHF folder in my signature link under those titles as Zip files to download as needed.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onthefencedevelopment.fill_lpg


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## Brock (Jun 14, 2005)

It's easy to do Scotland in two weeks providing you don't want to spend time wandering around. My first experience of towing a caravan was from Kidderminster to Brora in a day; Raunds isn't much further from Scotland.

Go up the west coast in May and you should avoid the worst of the midges.

Scotland has 12 tourist routes which should be OK for a motorhome unless you have a beast in which case a little more care will be required. Most motorhomers have done them, and the NC500 at some time and most of the stages.

http://www.visitscotland.com/travel/around-scotland/national-tourist-routes

http://www.northcoast500.com/home.aspx

I've always preferred the east coast from the tip down to Inverness, along the Moray coast and down past Aberdeen into Edinburgh. Trossachs are nice [Dr Finlay's Casebook country]. Avoid Ayrshire unless someone tells you they've mended the roads.


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## Warren Bennett (Dec 29, 2015)

Very envious, been saying i'll do the whole coastline for years. Might get to do it this year fingers crossed, allow plenty of time for the top end through to Argyle. Stunning.


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## siggie (Oct 2, 2010)

We too are looking at 'doing' the coast of Scotland in May and June, but for the whole 2 months rather than 2 weeks


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## Morphology (Jul 23, 2010)

This September I did all of the NC500 and also dropped into Skye and Mull and all the way down the Ayrshire coast to the Mull of Galloway in just over 2 weeks, and that included travelling to/from Kent.

It all depends what sort of pace you want to travel at, whether you consider the journey to be part of the experience, or whether you are the sort that prefers to to do a couple of hours, then stop for several nights to fully explore an area.

I only had 16 nights, and wanted to try and cover as much ground as possible (2,500 miles, moved on every day, took 3 different ferries and did between 3 and 6 hours driving a day). I had a great time.

If you are intending to wildcamp, I would recommend joining www.wildcamping.co.uk and downloading their POI files of wildcamping locations - took me to some brilliant spots that I probably wouldn't have noticed if they hadn't been included in the POI sets.

I stayed on a couple of campsites (Fort Augustus, Durness) in order to empty the loo and fill up with water but, apart from that, I wildcamped most other evenings. I did worry about whether I'd have problems with fuel, but my van has a range of around 500 miles on a full tank and the reality was that it was never an issue. Loads of small towns & villages had small filling stations. LPG may be a different matter. I had taken POIs of Calor Lite stockists with me as I figured I'd use at least one 6kg bottle (and I did), but my route took me past several places that stocked them, so it wasn't a problem. I think I paid about £26 for a 6Kg Calor Lite on Skye, which is a bit more than the £22 or so I can get them for here, but I wasn't about to complain.

Traffic? What traffic? One day I drove for several hours along one of those single track roads with passing places (an A Road) and met a total of 5 vehicles coming the other way. I found the whole driving experience to be extremely civilised - people pulling over to let you through, receiving a cheery wave when I did the same, a happy toot if I pulled in to let somebody overtake.

Morph


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## hayabusaman0 (May 23, 2015)

*scotland tour*

Many thanks to you all, looks like I shall be busy with the maps etc.

Paul.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

If you wanted to take in an Island I can thoroughly recommend the Isle of Arran. Been there more times than I can remember. Some of the best wild spots I have ever found are on Arran but then again Scotland is full of them. Some photos here. https://sites.google.com/site/hanktestsite2/blog/the-isle-of-arran

What I like about the islands (and ive done 18 of them) is you really feel like you have "got away from it all". Arran is easy to get to as well being the furthest south. You could hop over to Kintyre from there as well and carry on up the west coast, maybe even do Mull.


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## Sprinta (Sep 15, 2010)

I did the NW coast last year from the Isle of Mull up to almost Durness Head and back over 2 weeks and had probably the hottest time away up there ever. We wild camped a lot and campsited when we needed facilities. I'm a midge attractor par excellence yet didn't suffer, perhaps late September helped? 

Hayabusa man eh? what have you got,I've had 4 over 14 years, now on my 2nd ZZR1400 Performance Sport


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I used to prefer Arran which is of course a beautiful place, but the last twice we've been the roads have been terrible, especially around Brodick, hopefully the resurfacing we saw has continued, but we have found we like Mull even more, and the roads are really good.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Kev_n_Liz said:


> I used to prefer Arran which is of course a beautiful place, but the last twice we've been the roads have been terrible, especially around Brodick, hopefully the resurfacing we saw has continued, but we have found we like Mull even more, and the roads are really good.


The roads have always been a losing battle on Arran as they never throw enough money at them but ive seen worse, most of Belgium springs to mind. Mull is nice I agree but predominantly run and owned by the English. I was put off the place by staying in a hotel in Tobermory once which wasnt that great, cost £120 a night and the owner complained when I asked for a Vodka and Baileys when we got back from the restaurant at half past flipping ten!


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## 96299 (Sep 15, 2005)

We go to Scotland every year and mainly up the west coast. One thing we do to maximize our precious time and to allow for all the single track traveling time is to leave our night stop very early in the morning. We have been known to rise at 5am and gone by 6. Having time to do stuff at the next destination is very important to us, especially as like you, we only have two weeks to do it all in. :smile2:

Steve


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Chigman said:


> We go to Scotland every year and mainly up the west coast. One thing we do to maximize our precious time and to allow for all the single track traveling time is to leave our night stop very early in the morning. We have been known to rise at 5am and gone by 6. Having time to do stuff at the next destination is very important to us, especially as like you, we only have two weeks to do it all in. :smile2:
> 
> Steve


We sometimes do that when we were both still working, it depended on if we actually need to get somewhere that day, we did try for a Duvet day at least once while away, bit of a laugh really.

Nowadays, we do not rush around, we prefer the single track roads over others, if we miss something we go the next day, it's a holiday, we do not do chasing around.


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