Experiencing Scotland In A Week: Wild Camping, Castles & Loch Swims
When you visit Scotland for the first time you quickly realise you’ll be only dipping your toe into the sheer vastness and beauty of the place! There is so much to choose from and see, I felt a little like a kid in a sweet shop! I’d hoped to get some sketching done, but honestly I opted to just simply soak up my surroundings and enjoy our holiday. (What a shame I’ll have to return to do some work there!)
There were three experiences in particular I wanted to share as inspirations for my art work to come:
Wild Camping on the Isle of Skye
Embo Beach to Dunrobin Castle
Wild Swimming in Loch Ness
In 6 days we managed to cover a surprisingly wide area: from the Isle of Skye, the Cairngorms, Dornoch, Glen Affric, a rainy day in the town of Inverness and even a cold water swim in Loch Ness. But alas, we didn’t make it to Glencoe like we’d hoped to drive along the A82 where James Bond ‘Skyfall’ was filmed, due to weather some extreme warnings!
Wild Camping in the Scottish Highlands
If there’s one thing you hear about the Isle of Skye, it’s that it nearly always rains! So when we arrived to take a look around Eilean Donan Castle in the hot sunshine on route to Skye, just a 30 minute drive away, we thought we had it made for our wild camping in the Scottish highlands.
Alas, this was all about to change as we made our approach to the Skye Bridge. We literally drove out of the sunshine and straight into the ominous black clouds covering the mountain peaks of the island. Initially it felt quite unnerving to willing head straight into the storm, coupled with not knowing exactly where we’d sleep that night, but the adventure of it all was exhilarating.
As we slowly made our way up the winding mountain roads, heading in the direction of Portree, the thicker the clouds grew and the heavier the rain became, We began to wonder if we’d need to abandon our plans, until we stumbled across a secluded lane passing through a sheltered glen, lined with pine trees and a meandering river. We both knew this was the place - we’d found it!
It was completely still, save for the gentle bubbling of the river and the continous drizzle that filled the air. You could tangibly feel the wildness. It was as though you knew you were only an invited guest.
After an arduous trudge through the long grass and occasional bog, we set up our tent on some solid ground next to the river and quickly got the fire going before the light faded. We’d opted to eat out before setting up camp because of the weather, so all that was left was to finally sit round the glow of the fire and enjoy. I was surprised at how well the fire would dry our clothes out from the drizzle and keep us warm.
Falling asleep to the sounds of the rain and poking your head out in the morning to the river rushing past certainly leaves you refreshed in a way sleeping indoors couldn’t. The tingle on your skin from being in the fresh air all night and the sense of achievement has left an indelible stamp on me and tug to return.
Camping and painting might of been a little bit of a tall order this time round (!), but the sense of wildness and stillness will stay with me as fuel to pour into my paintings.
SOME WILD CAMPING TIPS (IF YOU’re INTRIGUED TO GIVE CAMPING IN SCOTLAND IN A TENT A GO):
Take midge repellent (it works we didn’t get bitten once!)
Pack a good (light weight) breakfast - we had croissants!
Research where to have a shower! Although I love the outdoors, I’m not a completely ‘rough-it type girl’, I like some luxuries! We missed planning this part of our adventure, and after being turned away from one camp site and with bad signal, it would have been slightly less stressful if we knew where to go. In the end we used ‘Camping Skye’ found on the road near to the bridge to leave Skye. They let us use their hot showers for £3pp - bargain!
Familiarise yourself with the Scottish Outdoors Access Code
Check the local facilities- We travelled from Invernesss to Skye for our camp and made sure we’d be able to pick up what we needed on route: think fuel, food, camp gear…
Leave the spot how you found it - no one likes it when beautiful places are spoilt by others ignorance!
Embo Beach To Dunrobin Castle
Tucked away in a Northern Scotland woodland is the fairy tale castle of Dunrobin overlooking the coastal views of Dornoch and Embo beach. With a mountainous backdrop and a manicured garden inspired by those at the palace of Versailles in Paris you are in for a visual treat.
Now I’m not usually one for fairy tale castles, but behind the scenes recently I’ve been inspired to paint castles on tops of hills (it has a personal meaning I’m sure I’ll explain one day). So when we stumbled across this hidden treasure it was a gold mine of inspiration, particularly when I discovered the slopes of the castle get covered in Spring flowers- that’s all my favourite things in one location: spring flowers, coast, woodlands and vast skies. I’ll be keeping an eye on this place, and again, must return.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned the vast skies yet! The place where it hit me most was our walk along Embo beach (above- you can see Dunrobin Castle as the small white dot along the coastline!). The skies just ‘feel’ bigger in Scotland, and the colours are different to those in Cornwall. I could see lilacs, brilliant blues and lavender shades contrasting against the darker purple and green jewel tones of the mountains. Like I’ve said I didn’t have much time to paint, but as soon as I returned to Cornwall Embo beach was the first colour study I made!
Wild Swimming in Loch Ness
We even managed to fit a spontaneous wild cold water swim in Loch Ness just hours from getting off the plane at Inverness. The weather was perfect for it, a BBQ on the shore with some friends and quick dip in the Ness at sunset…we didn’t catch any sightings of any monsters though!!
FIND THE LOCATIONS YOURSELF
Dores, Loch Ness, EAST SCOTLAND
DUNROBIN CASTLE, GOLSPIE, NORTH SCOTLAND
ISLE OF SKYE, WEST SCOTLAND
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