When we first bought our van “Bertha” one of the main things we really wanted to do with her was a proper tour of the western and northern coasts of Scotland. Starting out from one of our favourite music festivals at Knockengorroch in Dumfries and Galloway we initially headed for Tayvallich near the head of the Mull of Kintyre where we met with our friends Barry and Shelly and enjoyed a couple of days of walking near Crinan. We then struck north via the Isle of Seil and along the great Glen before spending a midge plagued night on the shores of Loch Garry.

We then dropped in at Eilean Donan Castle en route to Skye where we spent 2 wonderful days and bumped into people we knew on 2 separate occasions completely by coincidence. Working our way further north we experienced the bleakness of the Torridon Mountains and spent the night at Gruinard Bay.

The following day we had a look at the Corrieshalloch Gorge and then wound our way along the single track roads up the coast towards Cape Wrath, leaving ourselves enough time to make the 8 mile round trip hike to the wonderfully remote Sandwood Beach. We explored Durness and the Smoo Cave before moving eastwards and spending the night wild camping at the tiny fishing harbour at Skerray.

Before heading back South we visited John O Groats and the most northerly point of the mainland at Dunnet Head. The final night of our tour was spent at Portmahomack on the East coast before making our way home via Aviemore and the Grampian Mountains.

All in all a wonderful 10 days and whilst the rest of the country was pretty much underwater we benefited from the unusually positioned Jetstream with beautiful sunny weather for almost the entire trip.