Crazy highlands and Skye tourism....

[Firefightress1]

Anyone else affected by the NC500/ highlands boom.
Yep 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.

I'm slightly further south than you, but yes I totally get it. They are out in droves this weekend and driving me mad. I simply don't understand the mind set of the people who want to visit such s beautiful unspoilt part of the country but spoil it and destroy it along the way.

It's so sad, we have a major sight closed for essential maintenance and repair and the tour buses are still stopping and encouraging tourists to move cones and force entry to gain access. What's wrong with people!

Yep, was working on Skye last week and the impact of motorhomes was huge. There are just too many for the infrastructure, many roads still have winter potholes. Is it time to start controlling motorhomes?

The potholes are awful! Luckily I've not burst a tyre but I've seen loads that have! I seen a motor home towing a car! Wtf! How green!

It's not just the vans - so many cars don't know the rules on single track roads

Just noticed a car driver leave a bag of rubbish behind after their picnic - I mean just why ? They brought the stuff here they should take it away

And what looked like human poo and loo paper on a really popular trail - seems they ain't heard of plastic bags to carry all your rubbish out

I completely understand why people want to visit, and fully encourage it if you respect it for how precious and beautiful it is. we fell in love with it and decided to make it our home. Walking earlier we seen so many scorch marks from open fires and bbqs left around the bay, there are so many alternatives and you can still have an open fire without causing damage that takes a year to recover.
Some people just have no respect for the land or the area.

You most likely didn’t see it because you were a tourist and only there a a few days whereas now you are a ‘local’ you will see it everyday.

Tourists are a necessary evil unfortunately. My MIL lives further north than us and we go visit regularly. Last summer I almost had a full on fight with an American who drove into my car, damaged it badly then kept driving. Thankfully he never got far and did not expect to see me pull up behind him and drag him out of his car.

It's gone absolutely crazy these last years.. there simply isn't the infrastructure and there is no arguing with people who feel entitled to go wherever they feel. Access rights don't apply to cars, but that message doesn't seem to filter through. Was shocked yesterday at the massive Glenfinnan car park completely full and people parking miles out on verges, often next to the clearway sign to get a glimpse of the steam train.. It's stopping me going out on sunny weekends for sure

Inconsiderate parking in wales

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/police-shut-road-cars-towed-26657788.amp

I can’t bring myself to go to Skye because it’s on literally every tourist itinerary mentioned on the trip advisor forums. I visited parts of the NC500 before it became a thing and when I went back a few years later the change in tourism (particularly people who didn’t know how to drive on single track roads) was noticeable and put me off going back.

Problem is that tourism is being encouraged with marketing and the NC500 without any investment in facilities or infrastructure - you can't have it both ways.

I'm born and bred and live in the highlands, it's a sad state of affairs 😪

I am particularly sad this morning that I came across 2 x shitty toilet paper on the path of my morning walk <boke>

Skye was never so bad 10 or so years ago when I lived there, it’s crazy now puts me off returning. Everyone has to stop and get a perfect photo never mind they are in the middle of a road!🙄 witht he state of the ferry service it will just get worse people visiting Skye because they can’t get to any other island!

It’s sad because obviously tourism brings in money yet there’s not the infrastructure to support it and it’s ruining the countryside. Since lockdown quite a few people I know have been “going up North” rather than their usual 2 weeks abroad with a lot of virtue signalling about staying in our country etc but us towing motor homes and staying in Airbnbs really any better?

I'm a bit away from you, but not far. I hate to tell you, but it's really not very busy yet. Expect about triple the numbers in summer. And the driving is normal, you should expect to have a near miss two or three times a week if you drive every day. Always look out for tourist poo, and the contents of campervan toilets tipped into rivers, especially at popular swimming spots.

I'm so sad it's like this now. Prior to about 2014 we had lots of tourists but they were a manageable number and mostly they stayed for a while. I used to enjoy talking to them and meeting new people. Now though, vast numbers of them trample through like a herd of uncivilised elephants, trashing everything in their wake and treating locals like a slightly irritating inconvenience. I really really hate them.

Where I used to take pride I now loathe commentators extolling the virtues of Scotland.

I just don’t get the mentality of some people “we will go to the Scottish Highland’s on holiday because of the beautiful scenery, whilst there we will dump our rubbish including our own shit!” WTAF os going on in their heads.

I find they don't even bother to go off the path to defecate - so lazy and disgusting 😟

Hopefully we’ll have a few hellish midgey seasons and that will put people off. 😁

This is really sad to read. I think lockdown seems to have changed the behaviour of tourists for the worse. So many people just don’t care about the environment or the eco structure. Let alone the locals. Good manners, common sense and respect also seem to have gone out of the window.

It sounds awful. I think a tourist tax, or voluntary donations at parking areas would be a good idea to fund infrastructure to support tourists. It could be used to build toilets in some of the lay-bys and encourage responsible tourism.

Oh, another camper van bashing thread, very similar to another. I have spent a lot of time in Scotland in my van and yes, it gets busy. But I've never once seen any shitting tourists or anyone emptying toilet cassettes in waterways.

Areas of the Highlands are becoming massively depopulated. Without tourism they will die. It's particularly ironic when people have now moved to areas they visited as tourists and moan about tourists.

There are antisocial idiots in any cohort of society, but the majority of camper van owners are responsible and spend a lot of money propping up the economy of the Highlands.

I am not campervan bashing - I have one

These things do happen

There are streams feeding rural water supplies that have had campervan waste emptied into them
I have seen people taking their cassettes into public toilets with clear notices not to empty cassettes into them- and only a couple of miles from an open campsite

It's not just campervans though and it's not all campervans

I saw weekend picnic people loading their waste around an over full bin - ready for wildlife to tear into
I saw human poo ( with toilet paper) one step off a major tourist trail
In our van we followed a car for more than 10 passing places before they finally gave in ( flashing every time a sign said "use passing places to permit overtaking ")
and moved over

In our van on a narrow road to a campsite last year we met a campervan bus - if they had met themselves instead of us it would have been a complete roadblock

And in wales this weekend the road was closed whilst 40 cars were towed away for illegal unsafe parking

It seems a minority of people have no idea how to behave and it spoils it for everyone

Tourism isn't a way to rejuvenate a rural
Community though- look how much poverty exists , how locals are pushed out of areas like Cornwall , north wales , north Norfolk and now Northumberland

The lakes has lost while villages to being turned into a holiday theme
park - stay in a rural village where no one lives the shop and school have shut and the cleaner travels 50miles go service all the houses every Saturday