Best Campsite in Arisaig - Scotland?

With the forecast looking great and the camping gear itching to get out Jess and I took a little trip up the west coast of Scotland to the stunning white beaches of Arisaig and the Hogwarts Express.

Its quite a long drive from Glasgow (3.5 hours) but the scenery along the way is incredible, driving through Glencoe with the sun shining made for some pretty dramatic shots. Surprisingly the road was quite straight and we arrived in Arisaig just before dinner.

Don't like reading or want the quick story? Check out a one minute Youtube Video to see what we got up to.

Our first mistake, we didn't book a campsite and forgot that the whole of Scotland takes the day off when the sun comes out so everything was booked up. Luckily for us we found a tiny campsite on a farm which was un-signposted and lay just feet from the stunning white beach of Arisaig. The only way I can show you this campsite is with the GPS coordinates since I couldn't find a name and its not mentioned in Google maps (56.925204, -5.869055), there is a couple of tiny camp sites along the coast so should be room at at least one of them.

The site is very basic and contains just a little toilet block in the middle of the site, but the view and surrounding area well makes up for the lack of facilities. Added to the fact you can have campfires on the beach and it wasn't crowded (probably due to the lack of signage) we found it perfect.

The local beaches in Arisaig are quite famous for their white sand and crystal clear waters and I can see why, if you watched our Youtube video you will see just how incredible this place is.

After a quick swim in the sea we took to the hills to hunt out the Hogwarts Express, actually called the Jacobite steam train. You can hike up to the Glenfinnan Viaduct made famous by the Harry Potter films to watch the train steam past.

If you park in the carpark you can take a short walk to watch from a distance or take the longer walk to the bridge which loops around and back to the carpark (1 hour walk). The train passes during the summer months and the best time to watch is 3pm when you will see both the steam trains pass in opposite directions. If you prefer the comfort of riding the train rather than walking you can book yourself a seat here for the 2 hour journey from Fort William to Mallaig (2nd class return = £35 or 1st class return = £59).

Burnt to a crisp and baking in the heat we finished off the 1 hour hike and swiftly fell into the car blasting the AC on max to cool down. Best cure for a little afternoon sunburn? A swim in the sea! So we headed back to the campsite to cool down before dinner.

It's not just the beaches that Arisaig is famous for, the sunsets here are epic too and lucky for us the weather was perfect for watching the sunset from the beach. With some fire wood, marshmallows and some Old Pulteney Whisky we took to the beach to watch one of the most in incredible sunsets ever.

Next morning, we packed up the tent and set of on our long trip back to Glasgow. I highly recommend a trip to Arisaig to camp or just check out the stunning beaches, it's quite easy to get to being just 40mins from Fort William and has plenty of walks within the surrounding area.

I hope you enjoyed this post, keep tuned for our next camping adventure, Islay! Where we hiked some wild landscapes and visited one too many distilleries.

Our Tent

A side note for anyone who's interested in our gear. We had no idea which tent to buy when we started out so we just copied our pals, which turned out to be a great decision. If you're just starting out with camping and looking for a great lightweight and well-built tent I can't recommend our two person Vango tent enough. You can buy one from Go-Outdoors for around £200 which may seem steep but the quality is well worth it!

Click here for more info or to shop our tent. 

Liked this Adventure? why not check out our Camping trip to Oban last month here.