Scotland has been on my bucket list of places to visit for a while now, as someone who loves being outdoors, it seemed like the perfect place to explore. When Camptoo reached out to us to review a campervan, we jumped at the opportunity to take it to visit the Scottish Highlands and Skye, with the freedom to drive and park up to sleep, it was the perfect way to get the most out of a Scotland road trip.

GLENCOE, KINGSHOUSE HOTEL

Day one we set off for our 5 hour drive from Liverpool to Glencoe, the Kingshouse hotel seemed like a good place to start our Scotland road trip. There are shower and toilet facilities, a restaurant / pub for food, a beautiful lake and there are often deer that gather around this area. As soon as we pulled up there were two deer by the lake in the car park, so we jumped out and went over to see them.

FORT WILLIAM & CORPAH SHIPWRECK

For our first full day on the Scotland road trip, we headed to Fort William to see the Corpach Shipwreck. We had planned to hike Ben Nevis on this day, however the weather wasn’t in our favour, 50 mph winds and rain just didn’t seem appealing to be up 1,345 metres high.

GLENFINNAN VIADUCT (HARRY POTTER)

As a massive Harry Potter fan, Glenfinnan Viaduct (for those that don’t know) is the actual railway that four of the films were shot at! Apparently it’s a popular filming location, with other movies and shows such as The Crown, Ring of Bright Water and Charlotte Gray.

There are a few train spotting viewpoints in the area where you can see the steam train go over the bridge, but don’t make the mistake we made and get the train times wrong! The view points are all about a 15-20 minute walk from the car park, so allow for enough time to hike up the hill and get settled if you do want to see the the Jacobite steam train (Hogwarts Express) go over bridge.

FERRY TO ISLE OF SKYE

From Fort William, we decided to head straight to Skye so we could spend a full 24 hours there. There are a few options to travel over to Skye, you can drive and take the bridge, there is a train that you can get, or you can take the ferry over. As we had the campervan, and relatively close to a ferry port already, we decided to take the ferry over. It cost around £30 one way. We caught the Mallaig to Armadale ferry, which took 40 minutes once onboard, the views were incredible.

We got off the ferry at Armadale terminal, and planned to do a circular route of Isle of Skye including Highland Cows, Sligachan Old Bridge, Fairy Glen, Fairy Pools, Quiraing and Old Man of Storr. The drive from the ferry to see the highland cows was absolutely insane! We stopped off at a lake along the way as we just had to get out and see it up close.

HIGHLAND COWS

No Scotland road trip would be complete without seeing some of the wildlife, and the highland cows were at the top of my list. There are several places to see the cows throughout Scotland and Skye, I’ve pinned the view point that we seen them at here.

We stayed here for about 15 minutes; once you’ve seen them, there isn’t really anything else to stick around for, they just constantly sleep or graze. If you’re lucky, you might find them near the fence and they are super friendly and used to humans wanting to give them attention.

SLIGACHAN OLD BRIDGE

After the highland cows, we headed over to the Sligachan Old Bridge, which is said to have enchanted waters beneath it. The bridge was built in the 18 hundreds, between 1810 and 1818. The bridge has a few different local legends to the waters that flow under, my favourite is the one of ‘the two great warriors’ many years ago.

SLIGACHAN OLD BRIDGE

After the highland cows, we headed over to the Sligachan Old Bridge, which is said to have enchanted waters beneath it. The bridge was built in the 18 hundreds, between 1810 and 1818. The bridge has a few different local legends to the waters that flow under, my favourite is the one of ‘the two great warriors’ many years ago.

FAIRY GLEN

Another stop on our mystical tour of the Isle of Skye, was the Fairy Glen. This ‘otherworldly’ place was one of my absolute favourite spots to explore on the road trip. Skye has a well know history involving the Fairys, but I struggled to find any real legends or stories about them, which was disappointing. The Fairy Glen is an incredible place to visit, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before and could not put into words how magical the place feels.

There is a large car park for the glen, and the popular stone circle is around a 15 minute easy walk. Once you park up, there are a few trails to follow, each take you through the most beautiful landscapes with green hills of all shapes and sizes. You will find the stone circle at the foot of Castle Ewan, which is the rock formation in the picture above – it is unmissable. The stone circle has been created by visitors over the years, moved into a spiral design as part of a good luck ritual that involves walking to the middle and leaving a coin as a sort of ‘offering’ to the fairies.

FAIRY POOLS

Next stop was the Fairy Pools. The drive from the Glen to the Pools was around 1.5 hours, and the drive was just as scenic. The car park is easy to find and relatively big, but you do need to pay for parking. The walk in total to the fairy pools and back is around 40 minutes, if you don’t include stopping time.

BREAKFAST AT CAFÉ CÙIL

The next day, on a mission to find a proper campsite for a shower, we found the cutest little food spot called Café Cùil, with hebridean brunch, lunch and speciality coffee. I had a bowl of rhubarb porridge which was insanely good. The café has the most idyllic setting and the menu drawing inspiration from the wild.

After feeling refreshed, fed and ready for a day of exploring, we headed to a local shop for supplies and then made our way to our first location of the day, Quiraing.

QUIRAING

This area was recommended to Phil by someone from Instagram. It wasn’t on our original itinerary, but it turned out to be my number one favourite place during our whole Scotland road trip. Quiraing is around 40 minute drive from Café Cùil.

Quiraing is a landslip with high cliffs, lots of rock pinnacles and hidden plateaus, a photographers dream. It’s such an amazing place to explore, another spot that feels somewhat magical, it just doesn’t feel real in parts. It’s a super easy and straight forward trail to follow, it took us around 2 hours and we stopped a lot to take in all the wonderful views.

LOCH GARRY

After a relaxing night at the camp site, we decided to break up the long drive home by stopping off at a few locations, including Loch Garry and the little White House.

THE ‘WEE’ WHITE HOUSE

Before the last leg of our journey home, we stopped off at the ‘little white house’ to see if it was as stunning in real life – it did not disappoint.

Another photography hotspot, the little white house (or Lagangarbh Hut as it’s actually called), dates back to 1946 when it was occupied and maintained by the Scottish Mountaineering Club. It now functions as a bunk house for hikers, what a stunning place to stay before adventuring in the hills. We had a quick pit stop here before heading home. There is a layby to park at and I noticed lots of trails in the area for exploring.

The white house might look small, but it can actually accommodate up to 20 people. Each of the 2 rooms has alpine style platforms fit with mattresses to sleep on, you will need to bring your own sleeping bag and other essentials.