More more forum powah!

Anyone had recent experience of the camping site at the Queen's Forest, by Loch Morlich, Aviemore?

We're thinking of taking granddaughter up there for a week in July. I used to camp there as a kid, for many years (regularly in February!) and loved it, but my info is forty years out of date.

It turns out that the only sane way to get up there is for me to drive with all the gear, and junior and Mrs Barnacle get to fly to Inverness.

No, but don't forget the midge hats.....

Probably not bad at Aviemore.

I’ve been to Loch Morlich in the last few years and the campsite there looked smart enough. It’s a very popular venue. There’s boat and canoe hire on the loch and plenty of other things to do around Aviemore.

Inverness airport is very good despite some stupid layout decisions (you walk around most of the airport buildings when you land - normally behind a very slow granny) and there’s a massive earth bank to keep the Highland jihadist masses from attacking. But it’s very easy to access via the new road.

The A9 has average speed cameras all the way up on the single sections and probably quite a lot of roadworks as they dual it. Allow extra time. I could drive that road with my eyes closed. Best route is usually A1, A66, M6 and up past Glasgow. If you can get as far as Perth before needing fuel, there’s a Tesco there just off the A9. I think the filling station at Aviemore was closed last time I went past - besides that it’s criminally expensive - so Tesco at Perth or Inverness is your best bet.

I can get from Hemel to Skye on a tank and still have a gallon or two left which is nice as I can benefit from the island discount and get it cheaper than here. The A9 is one of my least favourite roads... I'd probably look at A68 up through Coldstream to Edinburgh, but it's been a year or two since I went that way.

As well as the wet hire stuff, there are reindeer and nessie in easy range, should suit a li'l un. And a train up Cairngorm (what idiot thought that was a good idea? Mountains are for walking up and/or flying into/off.)

Not what you asked, but the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Loch Ness Shores is an absolute cracker. In a tent you probably want a pitch on the lower field; there are also camping pods for hire which looked good to me.

Ah MRS, you came you saw you conquered you left..
The Highlands are what they are laid back & tend to have a village mentality which is not a bad thing compared to what's going on in other parts of the country. You come to the Highlands for the scenery, the craic & take on board the oddities that you meet, simple. The A9 however, that road has always been a crap road to drive & unbelievably it has became worse.

Update: trip completed, everybody happy, even though we had to buy a new tent the day before we went (literally: they emailed us the week before to point out that the pup tent we'd booked was permitted to contain only children of age nine to fifteen, so we ended up with a six-berth twice the size. At least I could stand up in it, and it was cheap as our local Argos was closing ten minutes after I bought it...)

I'm inclined to believe that the A9 has become worse. It wasn't busy, but the average speed cameras have everyone terrified to move at more than 50mph. Fortunately they don't seem to realise that the limit on the dual carriageway sections is 70mph, so you can get past if you wait. Radio reception is crap, though, when it's not absent completely.

But between Sunday and Saturday, Junior managed to have a grand old time. Even the weather behaved itself; barely rained during daylight hours and the wind kept the midges down.