Now that we are almost into October, and the trees are just starting to show signs of turning, it’s a good time to check out our kindle guide to “leaf peeping” in Perthshire, Scotland’s “big tree country”

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Our guide to the best places in Perthshire to view the autumn foliage costs just £1.49 on Amazon Kindle.

Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer : the above link is an affiliate link with Amazon. This means we can receive a commission on a relevant purchase, but it does not affect the purchase price.

With Covid still causing all sorts of problems with travel this year, we have stuck to UK-based camping holidays for 2021. We have been lucky to have had one of the driest summers that I can remember, although on the second part of this trip we probably had as much rain as we have seen during the rest of the summer! (A slight exaggeration, but as we have come into September, the weather has, shall we say, started to become closer to what we are used to).

Both places that we visited, we have been to before on other trips, and you can read about them in more detail on their own dedicated webpages – Skye & Applecross and NC500.

As always with Scotland, there really is no right or wrong time to visit. For example, we visited Skye in early September on this trip and had mixed, but mostly quite wet, weather. On the other hand, when we went for a week in March back in 2018, we had beautiful weather and sunny skies for 90% of the time. At Clachtoll, during the first week of our holiday, we had mostly sunny days, which, coupled with the gorgeous white sand beaches and blue sea, made it look as if we had gone to the Caribbean! Just a week after we returned, we saw photos from both places that some people had posted on Facebook of the most wonderful northern lights, visible in colour by the eye, which is pretty special here in Scotland. Need we say how gutted we were to have missed that!

Our first stop for 6 nights was Clachtoll Beach Campsite, which we highly recommend! A lovely campsite, right next to the beach, with friendly owners and great facilities. We booked an electric hook-up for our tent, and were lucky to be given a pitch that was close to both the facilities and the path to the beach. If you follow our blogs then you know we love going out for paddles in our inflatable canoe, and this was the perfect place for doing so!

We took our canoe out in the bay, and past the “Split Rock”, exploring further bays and less accessible white sandy beaches. It’s possible to paddle all the way to Achmelvich on a calm day, but we went there separately as we were able to tie the (inflated) canoe onto the roofbars of our car to make for easy transportation.

There are also plenty of lochs in the area, and the one we chose for a paddle was Loch Assynt, where we got this great reflection of Adrvreck Castle in the calm waters…

Hiking is another activity where you are spoilt for choice in the area. The classic (for us) is Stac Pollaidh (read about that on our other blog), but on this trip we attempted (part of) the Quinag – there are three summits, but we didn’t tackle the three as it makes for a pretty long hike (of several hours) and was quite rough going over rocks and boulders where there was no defined path – at least that was what we found on the part that we did. However, for the section that we did walk, we got some pretty awesome views…

There is so much to explore from and around Clachtoll, we ended up wishing that we had stayed for longer, despite having visited the area twice before. Even the journey there is pretty spectacular, particularly once you join the NC500 and especially if you divert along (or later visit) the Coigach Peninsula (be prepared for some palpitations if you drive the latter on the single track road with it’s twists, turns and blind summits!) On the Coigach Peninsula, if you are canoeing from Old Dorney Harbour, there are lots of seals on the rocks and we managed to canoe really close to them. If you are more adventurous, and if the sea is calm, you can canoe out to the closer of the Summer Isles.

We celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary while we were at Clachtoll, spending the evening with some fizz and a barbecue on the beach (using our firepit). Bliss.

Please do browse our NC500 page for so many more places to visit and things to do in this area!

For the second part of our holiday, we planned to head to the campsite at Glenbrittle on the Isle of Skye. The closer we got to Skye the worse the weather became. When we reached Glenbrittle campsite the fog was so thick you could hardly see in front of you. The campsite is very remote and does not take pre-bookings, just turn up and get a spot. All the electric hook-ups were already gone, which we wouldn’t have minded had the weather been a bit better, but it was just unfortunate that when we arrived it was very bleak, almost zero visibility (as the fog was coming off of the sea) and cold. In the end we decided to try somewhere else, given that the next couple of days weather forecast wasn’t looking much better.

So we headed away from Glenbrittle and when we got a signal we called the campsite that we had stayed at previously in Dunvegan. They had spaces and said that the sun was trying to break through. We headed up there and although it wasn’t great, the weather was much better than it had been in Glenbrittle. We were also very lucky to have them manage to accommodate us with an electric hook-up as we were booking in for 5 nights.

Having been on Skye before, we knew what we wanted to do, however for a couple of these things, the weather had other ideas. The best thing we did, and fortunately on the best (only good) day weather-wise, was to head to Elgol with our canoe with the intention of just having a wee paddle around the bay. However, the water was so flat calm that we ended up paddling all the way over to Loch Coruisk (4 miles each way), which we had previously done on a boat trip back in 2018.

It was dry, with sunny spells, but rather hazy. Here are some photos of the trip, including one of the seals that were sunning themselves on the rocks…

Returning from our rather long paddle, we stopped off at the bar at the Sligachan Hotel for dinner. I said that I would drive (for a change) so that Paul could enjoy a “whiskey flight”. My wine might look large in the photo, but it was just a small one!

We had hoped to do some more canoeing, but never got round to it due to either the weather or the tides. However, we did manage to get out to the Coral Beach between showers (about a 5 mile drive from the campsite followed by roughly a 1 mile walk) and a walk to the Quirang (which, along with the Fairy Pools, is our joint favourite walk on Skye – unfortunately we didn’t manage to get any more good weather to do the Fairy Pools this time).

On our last evening, we booked the Old Schoolhouse restaurant in Dunvegan for dinner. We would highly recommend this restaurant. I had the best Cullen Skink soup yet for my starter, and the sticky toffee pudding that we shared for dessert was divine!

On returning home, we had a LOT of stuff to dry out, not least the tent, which had to be put up (as best we could) in the back garden! All our gear is pretty much piled up now in our spare room as we await our next trip to Langdale in the Lake District (hopefully 2nd time lucky – the last one was cancelled due to lockdown…)

If you have enjoyed reading this short blog, please use the Like and Share buttons below, and don’t forget to browse our website menus for lots of other trips and ideas!

We also have some books available from Amazon that might be of interest – check out our NC500 guide, or 10 Great Days Out From Glasgow. (Disclaimer – The links given to the books are Amazon Affiliate links, so we may earn a commission on any relevant purchases – the purchase price is not affected by this however).

This one has been on our “To Do” list for something like 20 years now, and we finally got around to it on Sunday (better late then never!)

We heard about Cumbrae from friends who many years ago told us about their day trip over to cycle around the island. It’s only 10 miles to go all the way round, and when they said it was relatively flat they weren’t kidding! It’s a very easy and pleasurable cycle, with very little effort required, so this is something that is suitable for anyone who can ride a bike, regardless of fitness. There was also very little traffic, and most of the “traffic” we encountered was other people who were also cycling around the island.

The ferry goes over from the popular seaside town of Largs. Parking was easy as it was a Sunday, we parked on the single yellow lines on Bath Street near the ferry terminal (we weren’t sure about parking, so we just drove up to the ferry terminal and asked advice when we arrived). There is also a big car park very close to the ferry terminal, on the promenade, where you can park for £5 for the day.

We left doing this trip until the schools went back as we had heard it was very busy during the summer and some people were having to wait quite a long time for a space on the ferry. Once you arrive on Cumbrae, if you’re on foot, you then need to catch the bus into Millport, then only town on the island, which is about 4 miles from the ferry port. Both the return ferry tickets and return bus tickets cost us £3.50 each, so £7 per person plus bike hire if you don’t bring your own.

On arrival we got off at the last bus stop where the bus turns around. The main road through town has the beach on one side and shops etc on the other. Walking back from the final bus stop, in less than 5 minutes you pass two bike hire places – On Your Bike and Mapes of Millport – we used the latter and got a bike each for the rest of the day for just £8 per bike. Both places also had electric bikes and 4-seaters (2 side-by-side in the front, and 2 in the back), both of these were also popular and we saw quite a few people on them during our cycle. The good thing about going over in September is that the season is tailing off, so there is no need to pre-book the bike hire, there were plenty available.

Everything about the trip was remarkably easy. The ferries are frequent, every 30-45 minutes, the bus is timetabled to drop off and meet the ferry without any waiting around, the bike hire was easy to find as the 2 shops mentioned were on the main road and we passed them on the bus. Parking in Largs was easy, possibly helped by it being a Sunday and near the end of the season. Even the weather was kind to us, with a slightly drizzly start to the day turning to sunshine later on, it ended up like a nice summer’s day.

We spent about 2 hours cycling round, as we made lots of stops for photos along the way. About 2/3rds of the way round (we went anti-clockwise, so we headed back towards the ferry first) there is a café with a great view and lots of big windows to look out from. It was the only place we saw where you could stop for food or drinks outside of Millport itself. Unfortunately, it was closed due to Covid (reopening soon), so we didn’t get to experience it. However, there was also parking opposite and some picnic benches, plus public toilets, so it’s one of many nice spots around the island where you could have a picnic.

Once we returned to Millport, we took the bikes back and headed to the Newton Bar in town for lunch. There’s not a huge choice of places to eat in town, but we were happy with this one. We got a table near the window where we could feel the sun coming through on our skin and see out to the beach.

We finished our day on Cumbrae with a stroll along the Millport beach promenade from one end of town to the other (which isn’t very far) and then hopped on the bus back to the ferry and Largs, where we took another short stroll and enjoyed some ice cream before driving home.

An excellent day, within easy reach of Glasgow, which we would highly recommend! If you enjoyed reading this short blog, please use the Like and Share buttons below – thanks!

Very weak and intermittent internet up here, so here is what we think is a pretty awesome pic from our trip so far. Canoeing from Clachtoll beach, in the Scottish highlands. I will write up a blog once we get back home, but I think this speaks for itself!

So the weather forecast had been pretty awful since Thursday, but by Saturday it had never really came to more than 15 minutes or so at a time of torrential rain, followed again by sun. In the end we decided that since Paul had Monday off, we would take our chances with the weather and go for a wee overnight camp on Sunday at Loch Drunkie (where our favourite spot, G, was available) and try out our new Itiwit canoe.

The “G” spot on Loch Drunkie is part of the permit camping areas in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Permits can be booked by clicking this link (select Three Lochs Forest Drive). When the loch is low, a beach appears, which we like to camp on, and due to the weather forecast we got it to ourselves as no-one else seemed to want to be out camping.

We took a tarp, which worked out well, as the heavens opened around 5pm and the rain kept on all night. However, we were warm and dry under the tarp, where we were able to cook and have a fire going in our portable firepit.

The highlight though, was our first ever paddle in our new Itiwit X-100 2-man canoe from Decathlon. We had some great times in the old Intex K2 before it went to “canoe heaven” but the Itiwit X-100 was most definitely a step up! It is much sturdier made, has great legroom for the two of us (no more crossed legs) and a drop stitch floor (like what inflatable paddle boards are made of). It was super comfy and felt sturdy and safe. However, having learned our lesson a couple of weeks ago, this time we wore wetsuits (and of course our life vests are “par for the course” anyway).

So would we now recommend the Itiwit over the Intex? Well, that depends… When we bought the Intex it was only £90 from Amazon (they have recently been well over £200), so at the low price, for beginners, as long as you wear a wetsuit and a lifevest (just in case) and don’t venture too far from land, then the Intex is a great one to start with.

Once you have decided that you love canoeing, but would like something sturdier, if you can afford to pay around £400 to upgrade, then we think there is no contest. We felt safer in the Itiwit as it looks and feels so much better quality. It also has more room, and if we ever decide to get a tiny tent, or sleep out under the starts, we could probably manage to get enough gear in it to go canoe camping (we have lots of plans for the rest of this summer, so we might have to wait until next summer to actually try this!)

In addition, the paddles from the Intex work absolutely fine with the Itiwit (which doesn’t come with paddles, you buy both the paddles and pump separately).

We loved it so much that we took it out again in the morning in the pouring rain! (Fortunately we had managed to pack the tent etc away earlier while the sun had come out).

So now we’re back to work and hoping that we can get a nice day this coming weekend to get out for another paddle, hopefully somewhere like Loch Lomond.

We are back at the “G spot” on Loch Drunkie the weekend after next for two nights this time, and although it was fine camping for one night in the rain, we are hoping the weather might be kinder this next time.

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The island of Inchcailloch on Loch Lomond is situated very close to Balmaha and comes under the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park’s “camping management zone”, meaning that you need to buy a permit (£5 per head) to camp there during the months of March to September. Outwith these months, camping is not controlled and is free. This is our favourite island on the loch as it has walking trails (which can take up to an hour if you take your time and stop for photos) and stunning views from the beaches and small summit.

The “campsite” is at Port Bawn (a fairly large bay) and backs onto the sandy beach. Although the National Park class it as a campsite, the facilities are basic, with composting toilets, picnic benches and some firepits. For more information on camping there or to obtain a permit, click here.

To get to Port Bawn you either need your own water transport (we use a 3-man dinghy with an electric outboard) or you can take the short ferry trip from Balmaha to the North Pier (from where it is roughly a 20 minute walk through the island to Port Bawn) or take a boat from Luss directly to Port Bawn. Covid has altered the availability and schedules of both, so check the relevant websites for up to date information – click here for information on the ferry from Balmaha and here for the boat from Luss.

If you are lucky enough to have your own transport, you can launch from either Balmaha (the closest point) or Milarrochy Bay. Both have car parks, although it is worth knowing that the car park in Balmaha (run by Stirling Council) are about to introduce “pay & display” parking, so you will need to check out what you need to do in order to avoid a fine the following day. We had a chat with one of the parking attendants from the council and he said that as far as he was aware the “day” tickets would be for 24 hours, so if you arrived at noon and were back by noon the next day (for example) you should be ok. They are also going to have some tickets specifically for overnight, but it seems these will be for campervans and motorhomes (no sleeping in the vehicles allowed!) For now, if you click here you can read the latest updates about the parking charges on the council’s website.

In addition to speaking to the parking attendant, we also spoke to the ranger who comes on to the island to check up on the campers / permits. We were saying that it would be good if the National Park could put some information about parking up on their booking webpage, and if possible the option to pre-pay for your parking along with your permit (you can already do this for the Three Lochs). He thought this was a good idea and is going to look into it.

So back to launching the dinghy… Firstly, you are not supposed to launch any craft with an outboard (ours has an electric one) without first asking the land owners permission. How you find out who the land owner of the small beach at Balmaha is, we don’t know, nor do we know how rigidly this rule is imposed or exactly by whom. Anyway, we never like to take chances, so we messaged the Oak Tree Inn in Balmaha to say that we planned to drop in for lunch before heading over to Inchcailloch, and asked if it would be ok to launch our dinghy from their pontoon (it’s a bit of a walk, but you can drive up to drop stuff off and then go back to park up in the car park). They said that would be fine (if you do the same, please ask them first and make sure you use the ends or back of the pontoon as the ferry to Inchcailloch comes in on the main part of the pontoon). We also noticed that there is now a sign on the pontoon saying that if customers wish to use it, they should call the Oak Tree first – the number is 01360 870357 (option 4). Please do follow this procedure, and give them some business by popping in for lunch or dinner, as it would be a shame if abuse of it led to them stopping people from using it.

Finally, for those without an outboard, then the easiest thing would likely be to launch from the small beach.

We loaded up our dinghy with the tent, air mattress, sleeping bags, spare clothing, coolbag, stove etc and headed off. The forecast was for a gentle breeze, so we didn’t waterproof everything – another lesson learned!!! As it happened, there was quite a few waves on the way over, and being in a dinghy, some were breaking over us and into the boat. It wasn’t unsafe, but it did wet quite a few things, including some of our spare clothing (which came off the worst). Fortunately the things we really needed (such as our sleeping bags) were either waterproofed or we managed to dry in the sun, but next time we will make sure we use dry bags (or at least bin bags) for the rest of our gear!

After safely reaching Port Bawn, we headed in slowly to the beach (it is worth saying here that you are not supposed to tie up at the jetty there and you should either beach or anchor your boat). We emptied out all our gear and took out the outboard and battery, then between us managed to carry the dinghy up onto the beach to store overnight.

We were the last campers to arrive, so we pitched up in a spot which was tucked out of the way (and which, we were later told by the ranger wasn’t actually part of the camping area – woops! He was very nice about it though, and as we met him when we were packing up, we didn’t have to worry about being asked to move). So if you are coming to camp and you see the spot below, which is a small clearing within the bracken, then give it a miss…

Finally pitched up, with half of our gear laying out to dry on the dinghy and unused picnic tables, we took our camping chairs and small folding table down to the beach to sit with a drink. We didn’t need any dinner that night as we’d had a sizeable lunch at the Oak Tree, so a bag of nachos with a dip did us just fine. We had also put a 1.5 litre boxed wine in our freezer for a few hours before setting off, so we had some nice chilled wine to drink.

We got a wee fire going on the beach by using just one thick log which burned from the top (it was more aesthetic than for heat and when we later headed off to bed we donated it to some of the other campers for their campfire).

The sunset was stunning that evening, and we got this great photo from the rocky beach to the side. There were also a load of paddleboarders out for a sunset paddle (looking to the opposite direction of the photo below).

Overnight, we had a good sleep until around 6am when the other campers dogs woke up! They seemed to be going mad at something, but whatever it was, we never found out. Paul wasn’t woken up by the dogs, and I eventually fell back to sleep, getting up at around 8.30/9am to make breakfast on a sunny spot on the beach.

Our trip back in the dinghy was as calm as a millpond and again the sun was shining for us. It’s a lot of effort to look out and pack all the gear needed for just that one night (especially with the dinghy as well), but we find these camps are so good for the soul, it’s almost always worth it!

A couple of people asked us where we bought our dinghy and outboard and how much they cost. Well, both were from Amazon and all together, the dinghy, electric outboard, mount and battery cost us around £500. The dinghy is an Intex Mariner (we initially started with the Seahawk, but sold that and bought the Mariner as it is sturdier) – the price changes quite drastically on Amazon, but if you see it for around £220-230 then you’re on to a winner. The electric outboard is a Bison and cost us about £160, and the mount (which we believe fits all Intex dinghies) was about £28-30.

Disclaimer – The above links are Amazon Affiliate links, but the items are genuine purchases that we have made and can recommend.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog, check out our other blogs (using the search facility – we have other loch lomond blogs, the 3 lochs, Portavadie etc) and web pages and/or follow us on Facebook. Please also use the Like and Share buttons below. Happy camping!

It’s been terrific weather this year in Scotland, the driest spring and summer that I can remember. We’re just about to come out of a heatwave tomorrow after about a week of soaring temperatures that we’re just not used to in Glasgow.

This coincided well with our overnight camping trip to the Three Lochs, permit “wild camping” within Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

As you can imagine, after all the restrictions and lockdowns, and with it being so hit and miss trying to get abroad, all the camping spots, both wild and otherwise, have been very booked up.

There was just one spot available in permit area “I” which is our second favourite area at the Three Lochs. We expected all the good spots to be gone when we arrived, assuming most people would probably be away for the Friday and Saturday, but we got lucky and got an excellent spot all to ourselves. We had actually had this spot once before, but had expected it to already be gone when we arrived. It’s higher up, quite near the parking, and overlooking Loch Drunkie, and as luck would have it, everyone else had headed down for a lochside spot, so we had a this all to ourselves, a very quiet and secluded clearing within the woods, and with a view!

We tried out Paul’s new hammock, secured between two of the big fir trees at the edge of the clearing we were camped in.

While Paul was on the hammock this rather scary looking beastie came flying around him and he nearly dropped his can of beer lol! What looked like a huge stinger, was apparently what this thing used to lay it’s eggs into the trunk of the tree (we since found out it is called a “wood wasp” and it’s harmless).

A short walk, followed by some good beer and wine, and a BBQ for dinner made for a perfect day / evening.

It was very warm, so we slept with the porch door open and just the mesh over the tent inner. Both of us had a good lie-in, then tried out Paul’s new coffee maker for our morning coffee (you can tell that he likes his gadgets, but it did make good coffee!)

In the afternoon we planned to go out in our Intex canoe, however our plans were scuppered when the seam burst! Fortunately this was before we got it in the water. We had previously repaired a small split on the seam, and had successfully tested it out since, however, it must have leaked a little and after Paul had blown up that side, we could hear a hissing noise. I put my ear to it, and then got a quick blast of fresh air in my ear as the seam let rip and split another 4 inches or so! That whole side went down in about 2 seconds, so we were very lucky that we hadn’t launched it when this happened! it just reiterated to us how important it is to wear a buoyancy aid and wetsuit.

So it’s off to canoe heaven for the Intex. We had a good couple of years out of it and many brilliant paddles. At the time of purchase it cost £90, so it did us well for what we paid. The price has since trebled (!) and at the current price (of around £275) we wouldn’t say it is worth the money, and it is probably better to check out something like the Itiwit ones from Decathlon, which seem to be much more robust. We have an old Intex one in the loft which has a repaired puncture (Amazon replaced it as this puncture happened after just a couple of months, so we kept the old one for spares), so we’re going to get that down and see if the repair is still holding. If so, we will use that until we can buy another, just making sure we are always a very short swim from land, just in case.

The inflatable canoes that we have been looking at to replace the Intex with are all out of stock just now, but it is likely we will go for something much more robust next time, and importantly, something with better made seams. The downside is that a more robust one probably won’t pack up as small.

We would still recommend the Intex if it ever comes back down to around the £100 mark, but would definitely advise keeping an easy swimming distance from land, buoyancy aids and wetsuits (if in cold water). Until we got a puncture on the seam, we had successfully repaired quite a few pin hole punctures, but with this canoe, seam punctures are not likely to repair well, if at all.

Well, we hope that you have enjoyed reading this weekend’s blog. Please use the Like and Share buttons below, and if you are interested in booking the Three Lochs, click this link here.

You can also find and follow us on Facebook, here is a link to our page.

We also have a mini guide on kindle and paperback for Days out from Glasgow, click here to view (this is an Amazon Affiliate link).

Have a good day!

Check out our web page on Yorkshire, England – stunning cliff walks, traditional seaside towns, a historic city, puffins, great fish & chips… what more could you ask for?

Click on the link here to read!

We are nearing the end of our week camping at Thornwick Bay near Flamborough in East Yorkshire, England. It has been quite a “mixed bag” with the weather, from sunny and warm to torrential rain. However, overall I’d say we have been quite lucky.

July is our summer, but like in Scotland, the Northern parts of England in particular are prone to unsettled and hard to predict weather.

We have spent a week here, and the highlights have been just walking distance from the campsite. The white cliffs and nesting seabirds, in particular the puffins, were just fantastic for us to see.

Here are just a very select few photos to view in anticipation of our webpage, which we hope to have up within a week or two.