Review: A Long Weekend In The Cairngorms!

Our visit to the Scottish Highlands was epic! And we would highly recommend a visit.

We stayed at Inverahavon Caravan Site in Wildcat Lodge a mile or so from the very centre of Scotland - marked by a large stone that we visited on one of our road trips. It was part of the Cairngorms national park.

The view from our caravan/cabin site

Our journey started on a Friday evening, we drove 7 hours from Birmingham to Glasgow (it should have taken 5 1/2) and arrived to a home cooked meal at my Aunts. After 2 hours of catching up we headed to bed ready to hit the road the next morning. With a delicious Scottish breakfast filling us up we headed North.

It only took 2 and a half hours from Glasgow to Inverahavon, a stunning drive that took us via Perth. Knowing Perth was our last stop with a supermarket we stocked up before driving the last bit.

On arrival we were greeted by a fairly isolated campsite with a few cabins, thankfully we found our cabin easily and were able to unpack quickly. Charlotte and Hannah were driving up from Norfolk and would arrive later that day so we took the opportunity to unpack and explore the site and let Bisbee stretch her legs.

Celebrating our arrival

The cabin had everything you could possibly want including an outdoor hot tub. It was a perfect base for exploring the highlands and a great location to take the dogs.

Day 1:
Our first activity was to head to Nevis Range where we got a cable car to the ski resort at the top. As the cable cars (£16 per person) allowed the dogs we were able to reach the snow covered top and head off and explore. There are a number of tracks to follow, once you get out of the main ski lift area, although the amount of snow meant tracks weren't the easiest to find. We just headed in the direction that other people seemed to be walking.

The two main walking paths headed out towards different vantage points, one over looked the valley and loch below, this is the easier walk taking 40 minutes for the round trip. The other is to a spectacular view of Ben Nevis, this one heads off across ski slopes and takes just over an hour for the round trip.

As the gondola was working on an off-peak timetable we had be on our way down by 5.30pm. It allowed us to watch the sun-setting, which was well worth doing, but get down before it got too cold.

Dinner was a local pub The Tipsy Laird that had a fairly small menu but came recommended on Trip Advisor and had enough choice for us. We went for a Mac & Cheese and Fish & Chips.

Day 2:
After a relaxing start we drove half an hour north to Aviemore and Loch Morlich. The loch came recommended as we could walk the 4 mile circumference in 2 and half hours. In the end we only walked half as both dogs decided to take a dip in the ice covered loch and we all needed warming up. Thankfully there was a lovely cafe at the halfway point that was dog friendly so we could grab a drink before starting the walk back.

We picked up dinner at La Taverna, an Italian restaurant that did takeaway and headed back to the cabin to enjoy a restful evening, hot tub and games time and start our packing.

Day 3:
As we had to drive home later in the day we had an early start, our first destination was Loch Lomond, 2 and a half hours south. We headed to Balmaha Boatyard where we paid £5 per person to take a small boat (with the dogs) across the loch to Inchcailleach, a small, un-populated island that provides stunning views of the surrounding loch.

The island takes around and hour and a half to walk around, with clear signage for the different routes, although we somehow managed to take almost 2 hours. Partly that was because we couldn't stop taking pictures and partly because the dogs decided to chase the wild deers so we had to wait for their return. Thankfully Bisbee was in her pink equafleece as she managed to chase the poor deer towards the top of the island, if she wasn't bright pink we would have never seen her.

We experienced all weather conditions while on the island, beautiful sunshine, wind, fog and hail and snow. In fact our boat journey back was in hail - an experience we won't forget in a hurry.

From Loch Lomond we made the 5 and a half hour trip back to Birmingham through varying degrees of snow. The Beast from the East was starting to impact the main roads and we had to make a few pitstops to rinse the windscreen as our water was frozen. We were certainly glad to make it back without any drama.

We would recommend a trip to The Cairngorms if you love getting outdoors to explore, stunning scenery, long walks, holidays with a dog(s), fresh air and good food. The national park is well signposted and good roads make it easy to get around. We would recommend having a car, even though we got lucky with the weather it was a relief to be able to transport all the coats, hats, scarfs and snacks with us easily.

Without a doubt we will head back, there's still so much to explore!