Loched Out in the Rain
Constant rain, or sun and midges… what would you prefer? Join us as we travel around bonny Scotland for five weeks doing some hiking, puffin spotting, and coincidentally making it to Inverness for the start of the Highland Games! Oh, and we did the whole thing with a bowl taped to the ceiling, catching the raindrops.
Optimistically, we planned to finish our vanlife stint with a two month tour around bonny Scotland in the summer months. Untouched beaches, countless lochs and a million mountains to climb… What more could we ask for? Well, sun. Or even just a dry solid 24 hours would have been nice! Saying that, we did have our faces eaten off my pesky midges during those rare warm, dry evenings. Fires are a must to keep them away!
We lasted five weeks and to give Scotland its due, we did make some pretty great memories and met some great people; two of whom, I think we’ll be friends with for a very long time. We drove on some of the most scenic roads we’ve ever driven on, had some excellent park-ups, got to see wonderful wildlife, took on some challenging but rewarding hikes, and even climbed Beinn Nibheis (Ben Nevis) - the tallest mountain in Britain, with a summit that is 1,345 metres above sea level! Here we are at the top, absolutely freezing and trying to smile for the camera…
Pre-Ben Nevis, though, we spent some time in the Cairngorms National Park where we did a weekend of wild camping and hiking. This is where we saw our first loch, and actually pitched up our tent right by it. The evening was so peaceful and the good night’s rest set us up perfectly for the next two days of hiking. The Cairngorms is one of those places where every 10-15 minutes, you’re surrounded by a different magnificent sight. The hike we did covered many settings, from dense forest with thousands of Scotch pine trees, to climbing high up on wide-open moorland with hardly a tree in sight! It was a great introduction to the ever-changing scenes we were to find ourselves experiencing in Scotland.
In keeping with the theme of walking in nature, we headed East and stayed for a few nights in Cruden Bay where we did an evening walk to Bullers of Buchan and saw thousands of seabirds nesting. The sound of them all calling to each other from the cliffs was incredible, and on our way back, we even saw our first puffins!! This was the first time either of us had seen puffins in-person, so it was pretty special for us.
I can’t mention the walk to Bullers of Buchan without mentioning two more things; the cave itself, and the spectacular Slains Castle that you can freely explore at your own pace, and even climb up the old staircases to catch a glimpse of the views the historical residents would have had.
Bullers of Buchan refers not only to the village name, but the collapsed sea cave that is a whopping 30 metres deep! It provides a perfect nesting spot for many types of seabirds including kittiwakes, puffins, fulmars, shags, razorbills and guillemots along with herring gulls and great black-backed gulls (according to Wikipedia). We managed to identify guillemots, shags, puffins and razorbills. It’s a magnificent, yet somewhat terrifying sight to stand at the top of it and watch the sea rushing through the arch and filling up the cave. Don’t go too close to the edge!
As I said, on the way to Bullers of Buchan, we got to explore Slains Castle! This historical gem stands proud on the cliff edge, looking out to the North Sea, and originally belonged to the Earl of Erroll. Being in the castle, I can only imagine the hustle and bustle that went on inside back in its heyday.
As we continued to meander around the East of Scotland, we realised how close we were to BrewDog’s HQ!! This is located in Ellon and when we discovered this fact, we were only a 15 minute drive away. Anyone who knows me, knows how much of a BrewDog fan I am, so doing a tour of the brewery and spending a Friday night in the taproom was a no-brainer, and an absolute must.
The tour was great; approx. 1.5 hours and was super informative. We had a few tasters during the tour which were obviously very well received, and the guide explained to us that all the fruity flavours comes from putting actual fruits into the mix, rather than using artificial flavouring - some would call it healthy!
Enjoying indulging in our interests, we headed up the coast to Fraserburgh and visited the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses (during our time together, we’ve come to the realisation that Tora is in fact a lighthouse enthusiast, so as soon as I saw this attraction on the map, we immediately headed towards it). The Lighthouse Museum was excellent, though the tour itself was even better. We got to go up the narrow, spiral staircase to the top of the old retired lighthouse (the prettier white one with the yellow paintwork in the image below) and learn about the lifestyle of old lighthouse keepers, the process of running the lighthouse and take in the breath-taking views from the balcony. In the first picture below, you can even see our van.
We finished off the tour and left Fraserburgh because the town didn’t actually offer too much more than the museum itself. We headed towards Inverness, stopping off at a couple of charming villages like Charlestown of Aberlour and Grantown-on-Spey. Grantown-on-Spey is where we made friends with Matéo and Victoire who were on a wild camping and hiking trip all the way from France. We played pool and cards with them, before inviting them back to the van for one of Tora’s delicious home-cooked pasta dishes, and the rest was history - friends for life! - Thanks, Tora.
With a stroke of luck, we made it to Inverness just in time for the Inverness Highland Games to begin that weekend! We grabbed the opportunity to see some local culture with both hands, bought tickets, invited our newly made friends and…………….. got absolutely drenched… again! In true traveller fashion, we styled it out and sat for the entirety of the games with our cagoules on and topping up our pints with fresh Scottish rainwater.
The days that followed, the rain continued to pour and we were desperate to do something other than sit in pubs and watch the raindrops hit the windows, and with that we decided we’d had enough of the East and went to Fort William. Here, we met up with Mat and Vic again, and we set about planning our Ben Nevis climb! Mat and Vic were waiting for two friends (Raph and Gab) who they met last year while holidaying in Slovenia, as they’d also planned a Scottish trip this summer.
We were pleasantly surprised by the town of Fort William. It has all the shops you could possibly want in preparation for climbing a mountain - so naturally we were in outdoor shop heaven - and has some really nice pubs and restaurants with views over the bay. The weather was also much better here, and we saw blue skies for the first time in what felt like forever!
After spending a week in Fort William, we bid the place a fond farewell as we wanted to explore the Isle of Skye and see what all the fuss was about. The drive there was absolutely gorgeous. Long, winding roads shadowed by mountains towering overhead and so. many. lochs! Driving over the Skye Bridge felt like we were entering a new world and we were excited to see what was ahead. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn on the West, and yet again we were stuck in the rain. Not to be beat, we grabbed our cagoules back out the bags and persevered through the weekend. We met up with Vic, Mat, Gab and Raph again who were wild-camping by Dunvegan Castle. They’d chosen an excellent spot and we set about getting a camp fire on the go. Despite the rain and wind, we ended up with a lovely roaring fire that we sat around as we shared our week’s stories and discussed onward plans.
The next day, Tora and I were woken up quite early by a park ranger who wasn’t happy about our chosen parking spot, so with that, we hit the road again and headed to the much talked about Fairy Pools. This was a magical place and we saw more people here than I think we’d seen the whole time we were in Scotland! It was packed full of tourists who were all there to see the Instagram-famous waterfalls for themselves. We left the tourists behind and did a circular hike here, crossing super boggy land, stepping on precariously placed stones to cross rivers and streams, and admiring the beauty of the hills that surrounded us.
Our last stop, before exiting Scotland, was the Lomond Hills Regional Park and we stayed just outside the village of Glencoe. From where we were, we could see the majestic ‘Three Sisters of Glencoe’ mountains, and we had a river running right by our van. Had we known how beautiful this place was going to be, we’d definitely have prioritised leaving the East sooner, and exploring some other places within the Lomond Hills. However, that’s all part of travelling - you learn as you go - so if we do ever visit Scotland again, we’ll be sure to spend a lot more time on the West side.
All in all, our time in Scotland was time well spent. Considering we both work online during the week, and therefore only having weekends to fully explore, we packed a lot in, and we left with some wonderful memories and two new friends.