I know IABU.... Scottish Highlands tourism

[Firefightress1]

I know IABU as we were tourists before we moved to Skye but I'm absolutely gobsmacked by how busy it has been over the weekend. I know its not even the busiest time yet but I'm already struggling to get diesel to get to work and the coop is stripped bare. Had a campervan nearly drive into us earlier on the wrong side of the road at a junction and people parking in passing places on single track roads which means traffic is at a standstill.
We always followed the rules and pulled in/let people overtake but there seems to be a new selfish version of a tourist. I know we need to get used to it but people just blatantly disregarding signage and peeing/sh*tting all over the place is just awful!
I honestly don't remember it as bad as this when we were tourists but i guess we didnt live here then
There are so many facebook groups trying to make improvements but the tour buses and guides still insist on stopping at closed sights and encouraging groups to force open gates and move cones to gain access. Its causing so many issues to wildlife and repair operations that are badly needed.

There's just too too many campervans. Even the quiet places of old are now super busy. Not the fault of individual campervanners just the volume is too much. Many campsites and campervan sites unused while vans take up parking spaces, passing places and lay-bys. Sorry to sound so unwelcoming, I really am, but it's just all so unpleasant and intrusive.

My dad lives on Skye and is really unwell just now I will be making the normally 2.5 hour trip to see him tomorrow but expecting it to take at least 3.5 hours each way and be a complete nightmare from start to finish. He rarely leaves his house in the summer months now as he find it too overwhelming, he was always a really fit and active person even as he got older , hill walking, sailing etc so it’s a big deal for him to stop leaving his house in summer now.

@fioreun we're campervanners and have avoided Skye and the NC500 in summer for the last few years, the volume as you say is unreal and it must be very difficult indeed for residents.
Can I ask if you mind out-of-season visitors, or would you say that people are so fed up they don't want to see any campervans in the winter months?

Ah I’m across the water and the fuds just turn up over here instead. I dread the summer months and trying to get into Glasgow as the trains are full of drunk sunburned wallopers!

Highlands and Islands' culture has always been about being welcoming, no rules, no signs etc. Folk parking up quietly and responsibly were always welcomed and there was a lot of respect and freedom. It breaks my heart how this has changed and I don't know how we can get back. And it's happening all over all the Highlands, Islands, Grampian etc, not just the hotspots.

I'm not in any way a spokesperson, just expressing my feelings and reflecting the views I hear around me. It does feel like an invasion and I understand and thank you for thoughtfully looking for solutions, but I fear others would follow suit deepening the problem. I know I'm a broken record but I can't see a solution.

Why are people so inconsiderate when they visit places? I live near a beach and lovely parks during the hot weather they are absolutely trashed. People come for day trips and seemingly leave everything behind.

I’ve been out litter picking, but it’s like trying to bail out the Titanic with an egg cup! Towels, tents, plastic kids toys, flip flops, disposable vapes, bbqs, obviously food and drink containers all strewn across the beach and dunes. It honestly blows my mind that people can be so selfish and thoughtless.

Why make the effort to go somewhere beautiful and then damage or litter it? I genuinely don't understand the mindset.

As a Highlander I would say we would welcome out of season tourists as it would be better if tourism evened out through the year. The roads in the summer are awful with loads of campervans parking in the most inconsiderate places, some leaving rubbish etc. A tourist was recently heavily fined for emptying his campervan toilet into a loch (the same lochs people come too see and locals use for watersports in the summer). The weather in the winter can be pretty harsh though but the Highlands are stunning in late October/early November though nippy so wrap up well.

Haven't been to Skye since we were wiped out by another tourist taking the bend too fast when I was stopped in a passing place! I shudder to think what it is like now with camper vans. Such a shame that these places are being ruined

Having read this thread just after we'd booked a motorhome for a couple of weeks, I was actually quite hesitant about our trip to Scotland.

DH planned it - meticulously as always - not only what sites we would stay at overnight, but where the fuel stations were, where we would have breakfast and dinner and where we would stock up on supplies.

We had a fabulous trip, met some lovely people and saw what a beautiful part of the country Scotland is. We travelled miles on the single track parts of the NC500 without seeing another vehicle, when we did, we used passing points very competently and thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

We didn't use the toilet facilities 'on board', but the communal showers and toilets on the campsites, and others in cafe and supermarkets.

We avoided Skye on the basis of what we read here and on other sites but did travel from John O'Groats to Orkney (minus motorhome), and spent a wet, quiet Sunday on a tour of the islands. I didn't know it had so much history.

It certainly wasn't a cheap holiday. We spent an average of £150 a day in addition to the motorhome hire cost, but it was something different for us, we thoroughly enjoyed it, and at no time felt unwelcome.

Just headed to Skye now…now very nervous that it’s going to be a bust! We’re not in a motorhome but thinking we won’t be welcome. We’ve had such an amazing few weeks around Scotland and met some wonderful people. I feel as though our Skye leg is going to be a huge mistake.

We live in an AONB and an area where a famous battle was fought. We don’t go out at weekends and hardly go anywhere in the holidays. Tourists marching over our land. Metal detecting etc. pure entitlement.

Well they can’t detect without permission although people do.

I take it you never leave Skye to visit other places? We also live in a hugely popular tourist area. Cannot imagine not leaving my house all summer just because ‘others are on our land!’

In my ideal world there would be a maximum number of camper vans and motor homes allowed in Scotland at any one time. Three would be the perfect number

Have Scottish freedoms made Scotland a victim of its own success?

It's an interesting business model that hires out camper vans and motorhomes that can be parked up anywhere for free overnight. What if the hire companies were obliged to only hire to people with paid up campsite bookings? Like when you could only go to Greek Islands with an accommodation booking because they were fed up with people camping on the beaches?

All my family live in a popular holiday area, AONB etc, and I can confirm that local teens are just as capable of leaving a beery-disposableBBQ-toilet paper mess as visitors.

Last time we went to Skye it was the shitty attitude of some of the residents that put me right off going again (not in a motor home, no litter left, no impact upon the precious shelves of the Co-Op at Portree as we were staying with relatives). Attitudes like that of the OP - who was a tourist and someone coming in buying up a local house all too recently but has since appointed themselves as the supreme arbiter of access to the Highlands and Islands.

Fuck feeding the economy visiting places when it's arses like that who will just complain that anyone who arrives 1 day after their removal van rocked up their dares to exist.

Cornwall is another place that can ram its tourism industry up their collective arse after the way the locals have behaved towards tourists and spoken about them in the past. I'm sure you can run a modern economy on midge-power.

If that's your attitude towards the locals then to wonder they didn't like you. How dare they not fall at their feet on gratitude for you deigning to set food on the island.

I’ve often found that the shitty attitude towards tourists comes from those who have recently moved to the Highlands and Islands after years of being tourists themselves, and now take quite a NIMBY attitude and are horrified that anyone else has discovered their spot. When you point out that they were a tourist until recently they always say “but I wasn’t like that”.

it’s the hypocrisy that gets me 🤣

We’ve just had a couple of weeks on Skye and it was great.

We’re in Scottish coastal town and not too bad we lived abroad for years…..the second home/Airbnb issue is HUGE here tho and it’s not just because it prices local families and people who want to make a life here out. There’s the cultural effect and the degradation of community plus the lack of key workers (they can’t afford to live here) which I have REALLY noticed.

Also the dog shit and the litter! It was disgusting after the Easter bank holiday a real noticeable difference to what it’s normally like, always ticks up once the tourist season starts in June too.

And just before anyone accuses me of being a nimby incumbent, DH born and raised in the town only moved away after Uni. I was born about 20 miles away!

I love Skye. I so want to come back to the cemetery, all the gorgeous people I used to see in the Highlands are now there or scattered across the seas. It's such a beautiful place.

@DisquietintheRanks comments like that are so short sighted we have that problem here and it’s so frustrating. The demeans is there from both locals and tourists but thanks to the double whammy of Brexit making the pool smaller anyway and the fact that service workers just can’t afford to live locally because of the insane house prices and rental lots of great business can’t operate despite there being demand! It’s attitudes like yours that mean the UK is going to the dogs!

Attitudes like what @renovationheavenandhell ? Suggesting not all dogshit in an area comes from tourism, or suggestion that a hotel might want to figure in housing seasonal staff as part of its business model just as hotels have always done?

Ok so, what we’ve had max 9 hours in Skye and I can honestly say, it’s NOTHING like the comments on here. I mean, it’s absolutely stunning (my iPhone isn’t doing it any justice) but the locals we’ve met so far (in the Noost, the book/fishing shop in Portree), the Harbour Restaurant and the Coop to name a few have been utterly fantastic.

Yes, there are campers (more than expected) and the roads are narrow but it’s no where near Cornwall standards, or some
other tourist areas. There will always be those who visit and don’t know how to conduct themselves - we have them at home. Visitors who light disposable BBQs and hide them under the sand for others to ‘find’. Or who leave litter all across the beach. But on the most part, people come to appreciate what you have here. It’s a beautiful place. I can see why you’d want to keep
it hidden. I’m so so glad we’ve made it over.