Travels in a Campervan: Pictish Stones and Royal Cairns

Friday 12 July 2024

Nido's parked up at the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve, on the Burn 'o Vat car park. We stayed here last year and decided to return. It's quiet, surrounded by trees and just over the road from Loch Kinord. The parking spaces are a bit tight and there are - for some reason - large boulders placed at the side of the spaces which, if the car park's busy tomorrow morning when we leave, could provide me with some interesting manoeuvring to get out. This is a great little spot too as it has fresh water and a chemical toilet dump for motorhomes, situated outside the toilets, which stay open 24/7. It's another excellent 'free but we hope you'll make a donation' provided by NatureScot and I was very happy to do so; there's a QR code on the noticeboard of the visitor centre to make a card donation, or cash donations can also be made. The car park gets its name from the amazing bowl-shaped geological feature created by glacial melt at the end of the last Ice Age, which is a few minutes walk from the car park. There's a narrow entrance-way which requires a clamber over rocks and crossing a stream, which leads to a natural amphitheatre It feels a bit like an Indiana Jones moment as you pass through, with giant moss covered boulders, cliffs dripping with ferns and a waterfall at the end. It's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.

There was no rain yesterday, but a cold wind had us walking in several layers. We left Cullen heading for walk along the Speyside Way starting in Cragganmore. The route we took was along the disused railway line, starting at the old train station (now a private house). We enjoyed a peaceful walk for half an hour or so before retracing our steps. On the way to our stopover I saw the sign for Inveravon Church and the Pictish Stones, so took the narrow single lane track down to a small parking area. The Picts were native inhabitants of much of what is now called Scotland in the 1st millennium AD. The stones were created around the 6th century onwards. Most of the symbols on the stones are abstract, based on geometric shapes like the circle, crescent and rectangle. Some symbols, such as the mirror and comb are easily identified. Others are of animals including the eagle, salmon or snake. The stones are stood within the porch of the church and, unlike many such artefacts, you can get right up and touch them.

Speyside Way - photobomber at the bottom!

Retracing our route back to the main road, we later passed the Walkers Shortbread HQ and factory - a well known Scottish biscuit - just outside Charlestown. In Charlestown High Street there was one of the original Joseph Walker shops, so I pulled in to buy some cake and biscuits...well it's got to be done!

Our stopover for the night was in the car park of the Tomintoul Bowling Club. They've set it up as a campsite with 8 pitches, all with electric if you want it. Although you can just turn up, I actually called them yesterday and booked a pitch, which was just as well because all were taken; once we'd arrived a few vans turned up but had to leave as there was no spaces available. They have toilets open 24/7 and fresh water and bins but no toilet cassette dump. Payment is cash stuffed in an envelope and posted into an honesty box. Another great community initiative which must bring in some decent income. After lunch we took a walk around the village. It's not huge and set out in a grid system with streets running parallel and at right angles to each other, so it was easy to wander around. It's only a small place so it didn't take long. We bought an ice cream and sat on a bench watching the world go by....just like and old couple in their 60s! I cooked a curry and we sat and watched some YouTube before turning in for the night.

Tomintoul bowling club campsite

We planned an early start this morning to ensure we could get a decent parking spot at the Balmoral car park. We had a quick cup of tea then prepared to the van to leave. But we had a strange fault on the toilet. The Thetford toilet was secondhand when it was installed 10 years ago (long story, best forgotten), so it's no surprise it's now feeling its age a bit. It has an electronic flush system, with the flush water provided by a separate cistern which has a filling point outside the van (it came off a caravan - long story, best forgotten). This morning, when pressed, the flush continued to - well - flush even after the button had been released. The quickest way to stop it was to switch off the water pump on the van's control panel, which provides the power to the toilet flush. However, we need this on to use the water taps. After a bit of playing around I couldn't get it to stop, so simply removed the toilet's fuse, which is situated under the cistern just behind the toilet holding tank - accessed from the external toilet cassette hatch. A bit of Googling suggests I made need to replace the control panel - thankfully it's nowhere near as expensive as the two control panels recently replaced on our Thetford fridge. Thetford as a company are not easy to deal with and almost impossible to contact to discuss fault-finding. I think they know it's quite a small marketplace - them and Dometic - so they can charge what they like for their products and have no need to provide any form of customer service...rant over! Luckily we have a husband and wife company close to home who provide an excellent service in mobile motorhome repairs. With the toilet, however, I'm going to have a go at fixing it myself when we get home...what could go wrong!

Toilet flush power isolated (we have a spray bottle as an alternative), we drove the 40 minutes to the Balmoral car park. It's £5 to park for the day and motorhomes can stop overnight for £10. There's nothing there though - well apart from a whacking great castle - and it's next to a busy road, so it's not on our list of places to stop over. The journey was an interesting one, across the featureless high grouse moors between Tomintoul and Cockbridge. These two places often feature in the winter on the traffic news, when the snow gates between the two have to be closed.

On arrival we had breakfast and Cathy made our picnic lunch before we started a 6 mile walk around the adjacent forest, following a route taking in all 8 of the Cairns dedicated to the family of Queen Victoria. We walked with a couple of groups at the start, making our way up the steep forest path, passing one small cairn before reaching the summit at the impressive pyramid Aire dedicated to Queen Victoria's late husband - Prince Albert. Once passed there we left our fellow walkers behind; I suspect most people walk to this point then return to their cars. The walk meandered up and down paths through the pine and birch forest and we stopped off at various points to walk around the Cairns and take in the impressive views from some of them. We had our lunch sat on rocks with a magnificent view of the distant mountains.

Back at the van it was a 15 minute drive to our current stopover. Hot showers were enjoyed (I'll never get over the novelty of having a shower in a car park!) and I cooked a simple meal of quesadillas (using up some wraps, ham, cheese and red onion) with a salad. It's now very quiet here as the day trippers have left and only three vans are parked up. I'm quite surprised more aren't here as it's a lovely place to overnight. We've seen a lot of French, German and Czech Republic motorhomes in the past few days; either the Scottish Tourist Board are marketing the country throughout the EU or our fellow Europeans are glad to come somewhere in the UK that looks and feels like the EU and where motorhomes are welcomed, not shunned. We've had a cup of tea and our heads are tiredly nodding after a very enjoyable walk. Salty has already turned in for the night!