Saigon Raider Posted November 5, 2016 Share Posted November 5, 2016 We are planning on doing a bit of travelling around the Highlands and Islands next summer when we are home. Was thinking of getting the ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway and maybe somewhere after that. We will have a 5 year old and 3 year old. Where would people recommend? Particular islands worth visiting? Good caravan sites for kids (with fixed berth caravans)? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted November 5, 2016 Share Posted November 5, 2016 Don't go to Summerisle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Tout P'ti FC Posted November 6, 2016 Share Posted November 6, 2016 For campsite, Seilebost beach: http://www.westharristrust.org/camping-2/camping/The beaches in Harris are sensational, kids love playing on them. The next beach along after Seilebost has a standing stone at top of the small hill overlooking it, usually Highland cows grazing. They will love climbing it. Big waves here, often spot surfers at this one.The wee ferry which runs to Berneray from Leverburgh is a short zig zag crossing through rocks, great views, kids will love that.In Lewis, the park around Lews Castle was a big hit for my wee one: http://www.lews-castle.co.uk/?page_id=150General rule of thumb is that Harris is compact with beaches and rocks to explore, Lewis is vast and a bit more of a hassle to explore with small kids.As for other islands, I'd always recommend Islay (just back!), and I've heard this campsite is exceptional: http://islandofislay.co.uk/campsite.phpBut a bit of a drive for you to get from Lewis to Islay! So more realistic might be to ferry from Harris to Uig on Skye and explore there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mantis Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 On 05/11/2016 at 01:47, Saigon Raider said: We are planning on doing a bit of travelling around the Highlands and Islands next summer when we are home. Was thinking of getting the ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway and maybe somewhere after that. We will have a 5 year old and 3 year old. Where would people recommend? Particular islands worth visiting? Good caravan sites for kids (with fixed berth caravans)? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers If you haven't been to the Hebrides before then don't try to visit too many islands as you'll be staring at the photos trying to remember where you were and which ferry you were on. Lewis is my second home as my wife is a Leodhasach and I go up about 4 times a year. Uig is absolutely wonderful but not much accommodation, a few B&B's and the Otter Bunkhouse is new. A good trip for a first time is just Lewis and Harris if you've got a week. Get a Hopscotch ticket and go home via Skye, making it cheaper. If you've got 2 weeks then go Ullapool- Stornoway then down to Uist & Barra and home by Oban. Again the ferry ticket is cheaper that way. Save Islay, Jura, Tiree, Mull, etc etc etc for later, you've got your whole life. Dont forget Lewis has summer football ! My blog HERE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8MileBU Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 For campsite, Seilebost beach: http://www.westharristrust.org/camping-2/camping/The beaches in Harris are sensational, kids love playing on them. The next beach along after Seilebost has a standing stone at top of the small hill overlooking it, usually Highland cows grazing. They will love climbing it. Big waves here, often spot surfers at this one.The wee ferry which runs to Berneray from Leverburgh is a short zig zag crossing through rocks, great views, kids will love that.In Lewis, the park around Lews Castle was a big hit for my wee one: http://www.lews-castle.co.uk/?page_id=150General rule of thumb is that Harris is compact with beaches and rocks to explore, Lewis is vast and a bit more of a hassle to explore with small kids.As for other islands, I'd always recommend Islay (just back!), and I've heard this campsite is exceptional: http://islandofislay.co.uk/campsite.phpBut a bit of a drive for you to get from Lewis to Islay! So more realistic might be to ferry from Harris to Uig on Skye and explore there. Mull probably has the most child friendly options of the islands but, Tiree, Colonsay and Coll have some beautiful beaches. Will be paying my first visit to North Uist, South Uist and Barra I think in April so will report back with my findings in a couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budmiester1 Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 I did some sailing last year up to the Kyle of Lochalsh stopping off at a few of the ports on the way up. I was pleasantly surprised by Mallaig, it has plenty of good wee pubs and restaurants. You could stop off there and take the ferry over to Skye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8MileBU Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 I did some sailing last year up to the Kyle of Lochalsh stopping off at a few of the ports on the way up. I was pleasantly surprised by Mallaig, it has plenty of good wee pubs and restaurants. You could stop off there and take the ferry over to Skye. Mallaig in December in a howling gale and driving rain is quite an experience! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budmiester1 Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 Mallaig in December in a howling gale and driving rain is quite an experience! Got that on the way back LOL [emoji23] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throbber Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 1 hour ago, budmiester1 said: I did some sailing last year up to the Kyle of Lochalsh stopping off at a few of the ports on the way up. I was pleasantly surprised by Mallaig, it has plenty of good wee pubs and restaurants. You could stop off there and take the ferry over to Skye. Mallaig is an absolute toilet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budmiester1 Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 I take it you've never been to Kyle of Lochalsh? It's a total dump, only thing going for it is the train out of it [emoji41].It makes Mallaig look a paradise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mantis Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 I think Mallaig's ok these days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kincardine Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 On 1/4/2017 at 16:01, The Mantis said: Dont forget Lewis has summer football ! My blog HERE That's a brilliant read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arabdownunder Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Daft teuchters, playing with only 10 players and putting a midget in goal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mantis Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 3 hours ago, Arabdownunder said: Daft teuchters, playing with only 10 players and putting a midget in goal He's not a midget. The others are colossal. The 11th guy is out of shot as they didn't make fisheye lenses back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mantis Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 5 hours ago, The_Kincardine said: That's a brilliant read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hk blues Posted January 6, 2017 Share Posted January 6, 2017 He's not a midget. The others are colossal. The 11th guy is out of shot as they didn't make fisheye lenses back then. Poor camera work. The keeper could have sat on the 11th man's shoulders in the centre of the picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invergowrie arab Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 On 1/4/2017 at 19:43, throbber said: Mallaig is an absolute toilet. It's shite. Just mind they lock the swing parks up on Lewis on a Sunday. Quite right too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throbber Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 There was a campaign in Lewis to open the swimming pool up on a Sunday which was quickly shot down recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Went to Canna once from Mallaig. The regular decent sized ferry was getting repaired so I was pretty alarmed when I saw the 20 foot open boat with cab affair that was the replacement. The sea was quite rough going out and the old stomach was heaving a bit but little did I know.... The boat stopped at Rum first. The boat 'skipper' said we'd be about an hour and a half there so we could stay on the boat or wander. Why wasn't offered to us but maybe he has a gal in every port. It was about 20 minute walk to, as far as I know, the only settlement. I came to the community centre. For some reason it had a giant pile of deer and ram skulls in front of it, very welcoming and in no way sinister and frightening, with some huge whale spine bones thrown in for good measure. There was a girl who ran a sort of cafe there. I say 'sort of cafe' because you could only get tea and cheese on toast and that was your lot. I had tea and cheese on toast and walked back to the jetty to find the boat was gone. Then, fortunately, though obscured by bushes and rocky outcrops, I saw the boat moored at a different jetty about a mile and a half further away up the coast. When I got there the skipper looked genuinely disappointed that I'd found the boat. At that point I was the only one. After an interminable wait the other 4 passengers arrived on an 8 wheeled off road buggy driven by a man with a sort "I eat raw rabbits with my bare teeth" kind of look. The mountains were covered in mist. It was getting darker when it should have been getting lighter and the sea was getting rougher. The skipper allayed our fears by telling us how much worse it would be when we rounded Rum and got out into open water. To be fair to him he was completely correct. We rounded Rum and it became horrific. Up and down and rolling side to side, when previously it had only been up and down. Looking left I saw a giant deep sea fishing trawler, about 5 times the size of our boat, that had been turned upside down and crashed into the rocks. Eventually we got to Canna. Even in harbour it was so rough it took a while for the skippers mate to tie the boat up as we couldn't land on the slipway. To get off the boat I had to jump off the boat on to a ladder on the harbour sea wall with the boat flying all over the place and then clamber up to the car park with white knuckles and a rather perturbed look on my face. We should have had all day but before we left the boat skipper told us a big storm was coming in from the Atlantic. We'd have to leave in two hours at the latest. Looking out to the Atlantic you could see it coming. It was awe inspiring, both beautiful and frightening. The light was very strange, dark but not dull, sort of a mixture of strong black, purple and dark blues that had a sort of luminous quality to them. Looking back to the mainland it was pink and cream with the mountains standing out in light blue silhouettes. It was astounding really. It was already very windy. I literally had to hold my woolly hat on with both hands or it would have been gone. I climbed a hill and walked as far as I could. The scenery with the blue mountains, weird light, atmospheric colours, tall sea cliffs and sea stacks and rough white capped seas was incredible, not just to look at, it had a feeling that you connected to. There was really no sign of civilisation at all except for St. Edward's church on the island of Sanday across the bay and even then it was constructed from rough hewn stones. I genuinely felt like I was the only person on earth and that nothing existed except the island I was standing on and the mountains and seas all around. I couldn't walk the length of the island though because I wanted to be sure I'd be back at the boat within the allotted time. I got back to the boat and it was just me and an American couple who must have been on the island before because they hadn't come out. The skipper had a worried look, which concerned me as he didn't look like the kind of guy that usually worried much about things. We went back out into the sea. We weren't so much 'sailing' as slapping into building sized waves. I honestly though the bottom of the boat was going to cave in as it made such a colossal and explosive bang every time we hit the water, which was roughly every 3 seconds for about two and a half hours. Waves were coming over the open section of the boat so myself and the American fella, who looked like Sigmund Freud, took refuge in the cab. At first I tried to sit down but it was awful careered around on the mountainous seas, so I stood up and clung to the skippers seat head rest with the power of a Harpy eagles talons. The American lady took a different approach and did pirouettes, dressed in a sou'wester, in the open section of the boat waves crashing over the sides "Honey! Isn't this amazing!!!! Weeeehhhh! Honey! This is wonderful!" I couldn't help notice he neither answered or joined his wife in her crazy briny ballet. I was beginning to think we might actually make it. Mallaig was in view now, framed by the mountains looking massive behind it, a stunning vista. Then the skippers mate became animated. Much to my dismay the skipper turned the boat round. "Spotted a whale" he said. We did various circles in the massive seas. "Look there!" said the mate. "Between the giant crashing wave and that other crashing wave" I thought rather sourly. How the hell you were supposed to see anything I wasn't sure. The boat was going all over the place and so was the sea was violently chopping up and down in huge crested waves. I certainly didn't see anything, even the size of a whale. Mallaig got closer and the seas got a bit calmer as we came round a peninsula of Skye. The relatively minor swell that had terrified me on the way out now seemed kinda fun, however I should stress I was still glad to get off the boat. Incredibly it had stayed dry all day and so I sat on a bench and ate fish and chips before heading back in the dark to the alluring lights of the West Highland hotel with its old cracked leather sofas and wonderfully silly tartan foyer. There I sat down and reflected on a really wonderful day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sooky Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Could do with a bit of help here also. Couple of my English pals were going to come up in summer for maybe roughly a week (we're all around 21) and they really want to spend the majority of it in the Highlands. It's likely we won't have access to a car, which probably isn't the most useful. We were planning on doing a couple of days on Islay and checking out a distillery, probably Lagavulin. I was thinking of going the west highland line also? Fort William/Mallaig, maybe? I also have somewhere I can stay with family in Strathpeffer, just outside Dingwall, if that would act as a useful base to head to anywhere from?If it helps at all, we're pretty dull and quite enjoy hiking and historical type stuff. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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