Scottish Island Hopping - Kintyre to Inveraray

So, having caught an earlier ferry from Islay back to Kintyre, we could now travel a little further towards home, before pitching up for the night. Loch Gilphead Caravan Park looked very nice and was our original choice when we thought we were catching the 3:30 pm ferry (no bookings taken for stays of one night - just turn up), however, we pushed on towards Inveraray. The choice of sites in this area was not great, and we’d seen an advert for Argyll Caravan Park earlier in some tourist information.

Now, due to bad experiences in the past, we would not normally choose a site on the basis of an advert, preferring to use the internet and word of mouth to find a site that suits us. We drove straight past this site once, because from the road it looks like a huge static park, however, not finding anything further along, we turned back and asked at Reception whether they had touring pitches. They did, which were located right through the site at the other end. This site was OK, but expensive at £18.00 night and we were pitched in an area that felt like a concrete car park. Granted, we DID have views of Loch Fynne, however, this was over a stretch of brown smelly weed and stagnant water, with millions of midges in attendance. I think tourers tend to use this site for just one night because when we woke the next morning, everyone else had gone – it was like the Marie Celeste! However, for a convenient stop-off on the journey south, its adequate if pricey.

Inveraray is well worthy of exploration, however, there was no parking to be had for our motorhome as the town was full of tourists - Japanese, American and Australian mainly. Inveraray Castle has a huge car park, and parking is free, and it’s about a 5 minute walk down the drive into the town from there. The castle itself is fantastic and should be visited if time allows. We didn’t have very long to explore the town, as we wanted to stop off at the Loch Fyne shop a short drive away. Parking at the restaurant/shop was no problem and we stocked up on fresh fish, sea food and gifts at the fabulous shop, which is very similar in style to the Farm Shop at Chatsworth House.

Our destination for our penultimate night was the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Luss, Loch Lomond, a site we’d stuck our nose into last year whilst walking round the Loch and really, REALLY liked the look of. We were not disappointed..............