Wild Camping Scotland.

Written 20^th July 2012

Next was another big drive. We drove to Scotland and crossed the border

where we camped in a campsite in a nice little coastal town called Coldingham. (We were now on the East Coast.)

While there we discovered that you are aloud to freedom camp where ever you like in Scotland (pretty much). So we decided to freedom camp (there known as wild camping) for the rest of the Scotland part. In Scotland it was quite cold and the days were long. In many places the sun set so late that you could still see oaky at midnight if you were outside and accustomed to the light like we were. It got dark though at about 11pm and the sun rose about 3am. You'd get woken by singing birds and the bright sky at 3.30am and wonder why you were so tired this morning, look at the clock and roll back into sleep. That first night was cold and crisp with misty rain. I had my computer changing at reception and after tea I went down to collect it. While I was there a Scottish bloke started yarning to me and by golly he was hard to understand! He was a nice fellow though. It was lovely to speak English to someone. I kept not understanding him though. He really did have a tricky accent. The next morning we went down into the little harbor near the town. It was called St. Abbs.

 It was very pretty down there. There were people going diving (with super thick wetties on), boats pottering about and sun dancing on the sea.

After a little looksee we headed over to the beach and checked the surf. Some people were trying to surf a ripple on longboards. We wouldn't have had any luck on our shortboards out there. There was a sweet red mailbox there in a hedge that was adorable.

 I would have liked to post letters in that post box! We hit the road again after that as when we were at Lands End we had decided that if we were going to Scotland we must go and visit Loch Ness and see if we could spot the Loch Ness Monster. We drove up the coast until we thought it was late enough to start searching for a campsite.

We went down a few little roads, not finding anything really suitable and then saw a road with a signpost reading Todhead Lighthouse (it is near a little village called Catterline). We thought that might be promising so we headed down the little narrow road, past fields of sheep and green paddocks,

until the road came to an end at the foot of a lighthouse. We couldn't really see if there was a good spot there but were not yet used to wild camping and so were not confident about marching around investigating. We nearly turned around but then a bloke came out of the old lighthouse keeper's house and Steve wound down his window for a yarn. The bloke was a nice guy called Harry and he said there was a good spot for camping by the lighthouse and also offered us the use of his tap. That was lovely as we were running very low on water indeed. We had a walk around the lovely place. The grassy land sloped down from the light house to the cliff and the sea. In the cliff lived heaps of gulls and birds. It is a very pretty place. A little way around to the North of the light house was a stoney beach with a waterfall splashing down onto it. That was Harry's beach and later he told us he has spent years cleaning up the litter from it. We set up the tent and then Steve moved it (which I got cross about and took a while to get over – probably due to hunger.)

It was a pretty awesome spot though - right under a light house!

We had another little walk around before dinner and I took some photos.

And I made friends with a snail.

When was the last time you took the time to watch a snail? Try it - it's relaxing.

After dinner, which we cooked huddled behind the lighthouse wall, we did some washing as Harry had very kindly offered us the use of his washing machine and dryer! We were very stoked because we hadn't done washing since we had been at Sarah's and things had gotten dirty since then. When we were coming back from doing that we started yarning to Harry and his lovely wife Sheila. We ended up talking to them for the whole night (well Sheila until she had to go and pick up their daughter Anna). They were both very interesting to talk to.

Harry had lent Steve his fishing rod so the next morning Steve spent a pleasant hour or so trying to catch some mackerel. He got one bite but no fishes.

Harry and Sheila kindly let me use their shower too so that was lovely. Thanks for the very kind hospitality both of you if you ever read this! We really enjoyed our stay and will always remember the night we camped under the lighthouse in Scotland.

(This was the view from our tent.)

After we had packed up and returned the rod to Harry we set off to go and look at a castle nearby that Sheila had recommended. It was in an absolutely lovely spot. The castle was called Dunnottar Castle. It pas perched on the cliffs above the sea and very picturesque.

We were about to go in and as we came up to the entrance a castle staff person came out and said that the castle was closed because a man had fallen down the stairs and injured himself! Poor bloke. It had been raining and was rather slippery. We admired it from the outside and then headed back up the track, past the ambulance and coast guard which had then arrived and back to the car. We went along the coast a bit more to the town of Stonehaven where Harry had suggested their was an international food market. Unfortunately we didn't choose the right food! We ordered some garlic prawns along with some potato thingie but when we got them we discovered that the “prawns” were just some kind of crab meat or something that had been molded into the shape of a prawn!!! I did not like them at all and Steve had to force them down! Haha, oh well. The other food looked like it would be nice but we had already run back to the car to avoid the rain again so we decided to drive on.

Continued 22^nd July 2012

At one point on our drive we stopped for a walk. We walked along what looked like a farmers track, rutted and puddle ridden. We got to an old ruin of something which we could not figure out what is was. We talked to a local man there and he said it was called Slain's Castle and was apparently the home to a vampire!

After the castle we continued on our way until we were very hungary. We kept driving through all the little coastal towns looking for a likely pub to stop at for a pub meal. Eventually we spotted a friendly looking one in a little seaside village called Cullen. After the delicious pub fare (Steve had Scampi and I had this yummy lemon ginger chicken, mmmm...) we got back on the road to look for a camp site. About 5 seconds later we pulled off the road again as we had spotted a beachside carpark with access to a little seaside green where some camper vans were parked up for the night. So we set up camp and chilled for a bit.

Then we were asked by a lady with a big “lorry” to move because more lorries would be coming in the night. So we shifted our tent more to the side (easy to do as you just lift the thing up and carry it over then re-peg it).

And indeed in the night a whole bunch of trucks turned up and in the morning we awoke to realise we were camped amongst a traveling circus or something similar! :)

After breakfast we packed up camp and drove towards Culloden Battlefield which is near Inverness (the capital city of the highlands). I had wanted to go there as some of my favorite books (The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon) we set during the lead up, battle, and aftermath of the battle. It was a somber and interesting place to visit. The battle took place in 1745 and was between the Jacobites (largely highland clans who supported Charles Stewart who's father they believed should be King of Scotland) and English Loyalists (mostly English but both sides had both English, Highland, and Lowland Clans involved). We visited the informative museum

and went on a guided tour of the battlefield with a very good guide who spoke so clearly and loudly and expressively that you almost felt like you were at the theater. In the museum their was a room which was like a video representation of what it would have been like to be in the battle. It showed video on 4 walls around you and showed the lead up to the start of the battle and then the battle (a bit shorter than the actual battle). It was quite frightening. It was like chaos all around you and it was very graphic – with people getting blown up by cannon, gunfire and bayonetted or cut up with swards. It made we want to cry to see all that destruction going on around me even though it was pretend! We found the clan stones where the mass graves of the clansmen were buried.

On the outer museum wall there is a sort of memorial to the dead and there is one brick that sticks out of the wall to represent each man that died. On the one end there are 50 bricks representing the supposed amount of English fighters who died, and then a gap of flat wall, and then 1000 bricks sticking out on the other side to represent the Jacobites that died.

The English had spent the night before the battle celebrating the birthday of their leader (have forgotten his name) and the Jacobites spent the night marching through the bad weather to try and get tot he English camp, only to be turned back. When they were ordered into battle they had spent a sleepless night trudging through the rain with no food so they were cold, tired, and hungry. They were defeated very quickly. We spent quite a long time there and then we went to look at some nearby stone circles at a place called Clava Cairn. It was an interesting place too.

There is a split standing stone there like the one from Cross Stitch.

Then we drove on to Inverness where we had a very cheep and yummy pub meal. It was a nice little city.

We had to leave though so we could go and find a campsite. We drove down the North Western side of Loch Ness to the village of Drumnadrochit and found a nice spot there next to a little stream rushing towards the loch.

We played 500 until quite late at night since in gets dark so late there!