Sites for sore eyes: Bunree

Gosh, it's been ages since the last post. July turned out to be a very busy month and I just couldn't get a post written.

Still. Summer is now most definitely here, and it's time to talk about another one of those special sites that we just keep going back to. The first in this occasional series was the excellent little lochside strip on the shores of Loch Naver at Grummore/Altnaharra.

This site, at Bunree just south of Fort William, is similar to Grummore in many ways. It too is a Caravan Club site. It too is by the shores of a loch, this time Loch Linnie, and here too (if you get there early) you can pitch up within mere feet of the water.

Here the similarities end. Grummore is an intimate little place miles from anywhere with almost no facilities. Bunree is a big site with all mod cons. Spotless toilet and shower blocks, laundry and drying room, children's play area, you name it, they have it.

It's also far from being miles from anywhere. Not only is it bang slap on the A82 just a few minutes from Fort William - one oh the largest settlements in the Highlands - it's even closer to the village of Onich, complete with village stores, hotel/restaurant, and petrol station. Even better, you're also mere minutes from the glory of Glencoe - somewhere I've enthused about before.

Perhaps because it's so well appointed and offers such fine views of the loch and the boats - both leisure and industrial craft - that make their way past, the site is almost always busy and advanced booking is absolutely advised. We've seen many people who've turned up on spec turned away, and we'd hate to see you disappointed.

It is, however, important to play by the rules. Competition for the lochside pitches is understandably strong, and if you want to stand a chance of bagging one you do need to arrive early. BUT it's really important not to arrive before the "first arrivals" time of twelve noon. If you do you're going to get gunned up with people leaving (you have to clear the place before twelve too, so there shouldn't be any overlap) and worse, you'll piss off the wardens.

That would be bad because they're lovely people who fall over themselves to be helpful and don't deserve the extra stress early arrivals clearly cause. On our most recent visit, in mid July we miscalculated how long it would take us to get there from the site near Stirling where we'd stayed overnight. (Not something we normally do on the way to Bunree, hence the miscalculation.)

When it became clear that we were going to be very, very early we slowed down, and as we created the summit of Rannoch Moor we started taking five minute breaks in laybys, culminating in a twenty minute stop at the endof Glencoe. (Not actually a hardship.) After all this heroic procrastination we arrived on site at three minutes past twelve. There were two caravans in the queue ahead of us...

Still, we had arrived, and we bagged a pitch by the water. Our latest highland adventure was well and truly underway - about which, more next time...