Scotland 2020

In the wake of the first wave of Covid-19 campsites were starting to open up albeit in a limited fashion but many dates were already fully booked, it seemed that everyone else had the same idea. We had a vague plan of going to Scotland but first we went to Aberystwyth to see the grandchildren and our start date (11th July) depended on the covid rules in Wales.

Because our start date wasn't totally under my control I only started to try to book campsites with the Camping and Caravan Club a few days before going to Wales. I found that many of them were fully booked especially at weekends and reports in the press suggested that the powers that be weren't impressed with people 'wild camping'. We don't need power or hard standing but found that for those sites that still had some vacancies they mostly weren’t opening their facilities. I managed to book three sites:

Beadnell Bay 2 nights

Tarland by Deeside 4 nights

Scone 5 nights.

These pitches were at full price, there was no discount for the lack of facilities, and they were all grass pitches but in the case of Scone limited facilities were open.Two sites offered electrical hook ups.

This wasn’t a continuous run of nights though and so there were some nights where we were without a pitch. Also at the time we were unsure of our starting date. Once we had organised a starting date I was looking for a pitch somewhere between Aberystwyth and Beadnell Bay starting on the 23rd July. It seemed that I spent everyday on the internet with very little result, in the end I went back to the Caravan and Camping Club by phone and our first three nights were to be at Barnard Castle. Also of note is that we have been to all four sites before although in the case of Beadnell Bay it was to a temporary holiday site next door to the campsite (in 2015).This brought home to us the new normal. We got no more facilities for £27 than at the THS for £10.

So like Dominic Cummings we set off for Barnard Castle.The M6 was horrendous, bad weather and accidents turned it into a marathon, the total trip 250 miles. 

One of the holdups an artic carrying a lorry on top of another lorry on its trailer

After turning into the nearby Caravan and Motorhome Club site by mistake we were shown our Jumbo pitch on the correct site. On this site part of the new normal was that just the dish washing area was open. Just as well we had a source of lots of hot water as overnight a bird got into our toilet tent and liberally went to the toilet, presumably in a panic to get out.

Barnard Castle is a nice site there is a bus service and there is an easy pathway into the town which we took advantage of on the Friday. 

We had bacon rolls in town, people watched, looked at the shops, found a craft department in a department store and caught a bus back to the site.

I had worked out a way of getting to Richmond by bus on the Saturday, but the connections would have been a bit hit and miss so instead took the van. Richmond was packed on this very sunny day and the parking both in town and at the former railway station was full, so we went to Leyburn instead. There was little evidence of social distancing at either place. On our return we went to Morrisons in Barnard Castle, didn’t buy a parking ticket and parked in the wrong place. The very nice parking attendant let us off parking in the wrong place and I don’t think he noticed that the displayed ticket was for Leyburn. Whew.

Spoke at length to a neighbour as we both packed up to leave the site. Both thought that the C&CC was ripping us off charging us the full price but the demand was obviously there .... and market forces etc.

Our next drive, the 90 miles to Beadnell Bay was simpler and sunny, but by the time we got there the wind was howling. During the next two days we saw awnings broken and windbreaks smashed. At one point our habitation door was nearly ripped off its hinges and afterwards noted that an earlier door repair now needs redoing. Beadnell bay is nice though and the beach very close at hand, which Juno enjoyed.

 

We had intended cycling into Seahouses using our trailer for Juno but the thought of the effort in taking the bikes off the rack and erecting the trailer proved too much so we used the van. It tipped it down, almost, but not quite, preventing me from having a fish and chip lunch. Afterwards it cleared up for another trip to the beach.

The next days we drove to Tarland in Deeside, which is on a level with Aberdeen and is around 210 miles on good roads, say 4 hours. We picked up the back of an abnormal load using up both carriageways of the A1 just as it moved off around the Edinburgh ring road and across the new Forth bridge until it pulled off at Perth. I thought they did those sorts of movements at night. An obvious route to Tarland is the A93 through Glen Shee and Braemore but we would be coming back that way so in an effort to get our drive back on schedule we didn’t follow the wide vehicle with its police escort into Perth but set off towards Dundee. We had a route to Aboyne over the Cairn o’Mount pass but thought we could skim a few minutes off our trip by going through Fettercairn. No you can’t - in the middle of the village there is the royal arch impassible to all vehicles except cars.We picked up our route just past there and headed up over the hills, a very pretty route.

At Tarland by Dee we were shown to our pitch. The procedure at all Camping and Caravan sites is having paid beforehand you turn up, stay in your vehicle and then get escorted to your pitch Our neighbours in a caravan immediately closed their blinds and curtains. We were quite relieved when at 7am the next morning they left. Their replacements were a very nice family in a large tent.

We had stayed here before in 2018 and had resolved to come back. Normally we come to Scotland much earlier in the year before the midges get going in the northwest and accordingly  late July was a good time to visit the relatively midge free northeast. 

Next to the site there are forest walks and off road bike trails for those with suitable machines involving jumps, ledges and the like. On one day we had our first big outing with the bike trailer. Taking the van a few miles to Dinnet, erecting the trailer and going down the former railway track to Ballater.This was a round trip on the bikes of 111⁄2 miles.

Scotland has been slower than England to lift Covid 19 measures and they have been wearing masks in shops for longer. The rule in Scotland for cafes is you can only take off your mask when seated at your table. In Aboyne and Ballater we think every one was being sensible and following the rules.There weren’t any ‘jobs worths’ controlling things.

From Tarland we went via the picturesque Glen Shee to the Scone campsite which is by Perth Racecourse. Here the showers and toilets were open. To achieve social distancing some of the cubicles and washbasins were taped off and by using a rear door as well, a one way system was in place. The facilities were closed more often to allow cleaning. We went to Perth using Park and Ride and this time visited the parks called North and South Inch. Brew and Chew, the very dog friendly cafe, was revisited (twice) and we bought the best ever scotch pies at Murray’s on South street.

We found a pretty place to walk, just a mile or so from the racecourse and half a mile from Perth called Quarrymill Woodland Trust. It had a cafe and shop and proceeds were in aid of MacMillan nurses. Normal Covid arrangement, sit outside but wear mask to get food, pay and visit gift shop.

On one of our little drives we went through Dunkeld and found a Beatrix Potter garden. I, for one, didn’t know of her connection to Scotland and we spent a pleasant hour exploring and reading about her life in Birnam Wood. Juno wasn’t sure about the bronze rabbits.

We now needed a site somewhere in the middle of England. Teversal (our AGM site) was available as was Bakewell so we went to Bakewell as we had not been there before. Second mistake. It’s not actually in Bakewell it’s on a hill outside Youlgrave. Now to get to the site you have to first descend a narrow steep hill through Youlgrave. Really how they expect caravans to do this route I can’t imagine. Also the locals park on this hill and several times

we saw the difficulties of getting through even if there was no other traffic.We were there over a weekend and it was very full.They had the cheek to say we were on a jumbo grass pitch. Pitches weren’t marked so what it really meant was we were parked in a field for £25 a night and no facilities., see previous page. Bakewell was rammed on the two days we went there and we went to the Monsal trail but that was too crowded to make for enjoyable cycling.

We came home on the 11th August. All in all it was an expensive, crowded holiday but at least we got away.

PS did anyone spot the Shakespearean reference?

In MacBeth an apparition tells him that he will only be vanquished when Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane. He is defeated after Malcolm’s soldiers passing through the woods cut down boughs to hide behind as they go on to Dunsinane.