Petition Against NC 500 Campers

[in h]

A lot of the people who do the north coast 500 think they’ll find this.

That was a wonderful find! Thank you for posting it.
That was 1957. I don't think we went to that area until we bought our VW camper in 1960, but we went to the Highlands at least once every year.
It really was like that then.
We used to wild camp in the most amazing places.
When you saw another motorhome, you waved. Quite infrequent, though: maybe once a week if you were lucky!

 

[Tookey]

There is a grudging acceptance that the benefits to the area are worth having but with that comes real reservations that, at its worst and most frantic, the impact of numbers seriously damages and degrades exactly what makes the area attractive in the first place. I suspect that any bolshiness directed at camper vans in particular is to do with their bulk on tiny roads and their self-contained nature having no real need to spend on any local facilities beyond a bit of shopping and fuel. If the 'campers' to which you refer means 'tent campers' then I can see a need to reign them in, but Scottish access rules permit one overnight of Wild Camping as a right ... with the caveat that campers should "respect the countryside", sadly appealing to some folks' Better Natures is a non-starter. Loch Lomond area has slapped on bylaws to control all camping, sadly I can see this practice spreading.

1. Probably not, the Genie is out of the bottle.
2. I think that the single-lane roads with passing places should be written out of the route and, as you suggest, 'Aires' with sewage disposal / water taps / dumpsters created (possibly paid-for, say £5 a night?) created by Highland Council (HC) ... I understand that just such a possibility is being discussed, but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for HC to spring into action.
3. Accepted that it's a holiday-season 'spike' with this year Covid creating a spike on the spike, that said, even pre-Covid, 26,000 vehicles over and above normal traffic travelled the route. I can only comment on my own back-yard experience.... the B869 brings over-pressure on the road into very sharp focus, that section needs to be culled from the route, doing so would ease matters significantly while still taking travellers through some outstanding landscape. Two-lane roads cope with NC500 traffic much better and can pretty much handle anything that's thrown at them... sometimes it's thrown very fast! Boy racer convoys giving it some serious welly have been clocked at over 120mph on some of the tempting clear and empty sections. This brings joy to the heart of the Cops who periodically have a field-day with their speed guns, business is brisk. That style of driving is more akin to 'Cannonball Run' and not in keeping with the peace and quiet that typifies the area see https://tinyurl.com/y447bxpt

Some back-pedalling on publicity would not go amiss, hyped as "Scotland's answer to Route 66" it has become "a challenge" and "The Thing To Do" with its own 'Passport' which can be stamped at various points along the way, this encourages a competitive 'get-stuck-in' driving style rather than an thoughtful and appreciative cruise with pauses to stop and stare.

Here's the view from my balcony, the B869 is on the right. I stop and stare at this quite a bit!

View attachment 86078 click to enlarge.

Thank you for taking the time to write that post. Beautiful view

 

[caledonia]

There is a grudging acceptance that the benefits to the area are worth having but with that comes real reservations that, at its worst and most frantic, the impact of numbers seriously damages and degrades exactly what makes the area attractive in the first place. I suspect that any bolshiness directed at camper vans in particular is to do with their bulk on tiny roads and their self-contained nature having no real need to spend on any local facilities beyond a bit of shopping and fuel. If the 'campers' to which you refer means 'tent campers' then I can see a need to reign them in, but Scottish access rules permit one overnight of Wild Camping as a right ... with the caveat that campers should "respect the countryside", sadly appealing to some folks' Better Natures is a non-starter. Loch Lomond area has slapped on bylaws to control all camping, sadly I can see this practice spreading.

1. Probably not, the Genie is out of the bottle.
2. I think that the single-lane roads with passing places should be written out of the route and, as you suggest, 'Aires' with sewage disposal / water taps / dumpsters created (possibly paid-for, say £5 a night?) created by Highland Council (HC) ... I understand that just such a possibility is being discussed, but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for HC to spring into action.
3. Accepted that it's a holiday-season 'spike' with this year Covid creating a spike on the spike, that said, even pre-Covid, 26,000 vehicles over and above normal traffic travelled the route. I can only comment on my own back-yard experience.... the B869 brings over-pressure on the road into very sharp focus, that section needs to be culled from the route, doing so would ease matters significantly while still taking travellers through some outstanding landscape. Two-lane roads cope with NC500 traffic much better and can pretty much handle anything that's thrown at them... sometimes it's thrown very fast! Boy racer convoys giving it some serious welly have been clocked at over 120mph on some of the tempting clear and empty sections. This brings joy to the heart of the Cops who periodically have a field-day with their speed guns, business is brisk. That style of driving is more akin to 'Cannonball Run' and not in keeping with the peace and quiet that typifies the area see https://tinyurl.com/y447bxpt

Some back-pedalling on publicity would not go amiss, hyped as "Scotland's answer to Route 66" it has become "a challenge" and "The Thing To Do" with its own 'Passport' which can be stamped at various points along the way, this encourages a competitive 'get-stuck-in' driving style rather than an thoughtful and appreciative cruise with pauses to stop and stare.

Here's the view from my balcony, the B869 is on the right. I stop and stare at this quite a bit!

View attachment 86078 click to enlarge.

Can I ask are you Assynt born and bred and how do you make a living?

 

[Deleted member 47550]

I live next to one of the two single-lane sections of the NC500 just north of Lochinver in Sutherland, the other being on Applecross a little to the south. The road network in the far north reflects the local population density and historic traffic flow, and has served us well. I'm sure that everyone has experienced a 'pulsing' effect in traffic flow on major roads when the weight of vehicles exceeds a certain level, such an effect builds slowly but eventually decays reverting to normal flow once traffic density eases. Now imagine imposing a sudden increase in traffic many times the norm onto a road designed only for light traffic ... the outcome is inevitable.

Camper van hire companies have proliferated on the back of NC500, with many hiring out large vans to absolute novices. Being inexperienced and largely unprepared for the extingencies of van travel in a sensitive environment, add an almost complete absence of public toilets and disposal points and you'll soon find cassette contents dumped inappropriately and drivers afraid to manoeuvre in tight spots locked rigid with fear of damaging their hired van.

For many years adventurous motorhome travellers have quietly driven and enjoyed these roads, parking up overnight in wild places and moving on next day leaving no trace. Proper 'Wild Camping' by experienced hikers camped deep in the landscape In little tents or in bothies similarly ... no harm done. The real harm is being caused not by motorhomes, even those carrying clueless beginners, but by insensitive and sometimes obnoxious tent campers often travelling in a convoy of vehicles camping up 'festival fashion' right by the roadside and leaving their detritus behind before blitzing off in a cloud of dust next day. Don't overlook the fact that such groups also rotate around the route in opposing directions, which adds enormously to the excitement. Watching, as I do with great pleasure, two such groups trying to resolve how to pass each other on the B869 with just one small passing bay is really entertaining!

The few hundred souls that live on the 25 mile Lochinver to Kylesku B869 loop are hugely affected however, many who have lived their whole lives quietly and happily there have reluctantly sold up and moved away because a 20 minute drive to the village involves a hazardous 3 hour game of dodgems during The Season. A visit to the Doctor becomes a major undertaking requiring military planning.

Doctor, ambulance, bin lorry, courier vans, postman, police, coastguard and increasingly vehicle recovery trucks intent on picking up crashed or bogged NC500 drivers, all have to go about their business in the midst of the mayhem. It's great for the village shops and the accommodation providers, far less so for everyone else.

Visitors have always been welcome up here, but in the past they did so in a steady fashion, however sadly with the vastly increased traffic flow, the infrastructure cannot cope. We are rather hoping that once Covid fades and air travel resumes that the lunatic fringe will revert to their natural habitat in The Med. Problem is, you cannot un-shoot an arrow or un-ring a bell. The NC500 is here to stay

Well, enough of this, I have to get down the village and buy a newspaper, it's about a mile ... so let me see, check-list: watch, wallet, spectacles, testicles, emergency rations, sleeping bag, mobile phone. Yes I think that does it. I'm just going outside ... I might be some time.

I think you have put this perfectly and feel sorry for you - we've always visited out of season for many years now and I personally would love to retire in the Lochinver area (nice pie shop) - I'd like to think I've managed to work out how to properly use the passing places. We have often stopped at Achmelvich campsite which we found by chance once. Even in our T5 I found it tight to get down the little roads and wary of oncoming local traffic but was amazed to find a large van at the site with massive trailer with jet ski's, kayaks and motor cross bikes on the back trying to get free camping! Only 2 other camper vans there and we found nice spot close to rocky inlet and settled in for the night. Obviously the large van didn't want to pay to camp as the next morning while we walked into Lochinver (over the hill seeing an otter play in the tiny loch) that van and boats etc were camped on the small car park completely filling it! Felt sorry for the locals as no-one else could park there. I see now that someone has built some camping pods and called them the 'North Coast 500 Pods' obviously trying to cash in on the route. Seems tranquillity is going now.

 

[Deleted member 47550]

There is a grudging acceptance that the benefits to the area are worth having but with that comes real reservations that, at its worst and most frantic, the impact of numbers seriously damages and degrades exactly what makes the area attractive in the first place. I suspect that any bolshiness directed at camper vans in particular is to do with their bulk on tiny roads and their self-contained nature having no real need to spend on any local facilities beyond a bit of shopping and fuel. If the 'campers' to which you refer means 'tent campers' then I can see a need to reign them in, but Scottish access rules permit one overnight of Wild Camping as a right ... with the caveat that campers should "respect the countryside", sadly appealing to some folks' Better Natures is a non-starter. Loch Lomond area has slapped on bylaws to control all camping, sadly I can see this practice spreading.

1. Probably not, the Genie is out of the bottle.
2. I think that the single-lane roads with passing places should be written out of the route and, as you suggest, 'Aires' with sewage disposal / water taps / dumpsters created (possibly paid-for, say £5 a night?) created by Highland Council (HC) ... I understand that just such a possibility is being discussed, but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for HC to spring into action.
3. Accepted that it's a holiday-season 'spike' with this year Covid creating a spike on the spike, that said, even pre-Covid, 26,000 vehicles over and above normal traffic travelled the route. I can only comment on my own back-yard experience.... the B869 brings over-pressure on the road into very sharp focus, that section needs to be culled from the route, doing so would ease matters significantly while still taking travellers through some outstanding landscape. Two-lane roads cope with NC500 traffic much better and can pretty much handle anything that's thrown at them... sometimes it's thrown very fast! Boy racer convoys giving it some serious welly have been clocked at over 120mph on some of the tempting clear and empty sections. This brings joy to the heart of the Cops who periodically have a field-day with their speed guns, business is brisk. That style of driving is more akin to 'Cannonball Run' and not in keeping with the peace and quiet that typifies the area see https://tinyurl.com/y447bxpt

Some back-pedalling on publicity would not go amiss, hyped as "Scotland's answer to Route 66" it has become "a challenge" and "The Thing To Do" with its own 'Passport' which can be stamped at various points along the way, this encourages a competitive 'get-stuck-in' driving style rather than an thoughtful and appreciative cruise with pauses to stop and stare.

Here's the view from my balcony, the B869 is on the right. I stop and stare at this quite a bit!

View attachment 86078 click to enlarge.

I'm glad the road from Lochinver to Altandhu Port A Bhaigh campsite isn't on NC500 - that's a little white knuckle even in our T5!