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 cringe when I hear people saying they are going ‘wild camping’ in their campervan. The problem is the intended meaning of the right to wild camp in the Land Reform act was not explicit. For me, it was always walking into the hills with your pack, so travelling light, leaving no trace and taking out anything you took in. Wild toileting involved a small trowel in an isolated area. People now use the legislation for car camping - taking in loads of stuff and never going a few metres from their car, shitting in places with heavy foot fall, building fires and then thinking they can leave their piles of rubbish in bags around local bins. That is not wild camping, it is lazy antisocial car camping and is terrible for the locals and the local area.

Car camping has always happened though

It was more than 20 years ago that I filled a small rubbish bag with other peoples waste ( teabags and the like) from a small
Lay-by where it's easy to camp

What's changed is the numbers

And possibly a greater percentage of people with no respect for others , people who don't realise that someone has to clean up their mess

But also car camping is an easy low cost holiday - much cheaper than a hotel or holiday cottage , and notably cheaper than campsites especially in Scotland which seem on average to be twice the price of English campsites , and are few and far between

When I was there a few years ago one thing I really liked was there were public toilets in nearly every small town. I read that lots were closed during Covid and they were leaving trowels in laybys for people caught short to use. I don't know how true any of that is or if this is part of the poo problem.

Had a fantastic time by the way and planning to go back maybe later this year. Will not be leaving litter or poo, never would. We were staying in hotels, not a motor home.

The public loos nearest where I saw the poo this weekend were open

I always take a few plastic bags with me just in case - taking responsibility for myself

I'd love to visit (and would be a considerate visitor we never leave rubbish etc) but wouldn't go due to the over-popularity and the type of descriptions on this thread. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like the type of people you really don't want, are the type to be put off by the litter and over crowding!

@Cathyt90 I'm not bashing ALL campervans. I drive single track roads a lot, and I would say between 10 and 20% let me pass within three good passing places. A further maybe 30% will let you pass if you repeatedly flash them for a couple of miles. The rest never let me pass. So on that basis around 80% of campervan drivers are inconsiderate. The vast majority here are hire vans, or people from Europe. I would say that privately owned vans with UK drivers are generally better at letting people pass.
Re the toilet dumping, just because you (a tourist) haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I live here 365 days a year. I have seen people actually dumping it on two occasions, and given they are trying to be secretive I think that's a lot! I have seen the results many more times.
Tourism is not helping depopulation, it is making it worse! Where I live, local people cannot buy or rent houses without help from parents etc, if they're lucky. They have to leave. The houses they would have liked to live in are the smallest ones, which make excellent second homes for tourists. There are good non-tourist industries here, and more trying to get off the ground, but they can't get staff, because people can't afford to live here.
If we were not in the fortunate position of being able to build on decrofted land, we might not be here either. But of course, your legal right to holiday in your campervan is more important than me and my husband's right to live in the place we grew up, and where our families have lived for unknown generations.
Responsible visitors like yourself are welcome, but it's ridiculous not to acknowledge that even responsible tourism is very damaging to this fragile area and the communities which belong to it.

in many ways the right to roam in Scotland is no longer fit for purpose.
Wild camping is dirty camping by the majority.

If the biggest private landowners get their way rewilding with bears and wolves will happen and that will sort the tourists out.

it's not just the Highlands. The Devil's Pulpit is a popular spot just outside Glasgow on the way to Killearn, made popular after it was used in Outlander. A few summers ago it was carnage out there, people parking either side of the A road, abandoning cars anywhere, emergency services couldn't get through and although locals knew to avoid it and go another way, it was total bedlam every weekend.

The council did come along and paint double yellow lines on the roads to stop the idiots which worked, partly.

It's such a shame that they needed to do this though because it's just common sense that you don't park in passing places or abandon a car on the side of the road which stops other people getting by. But common sense seems surprisingly uncommon. I really feel for people living near places like the Fairy Pools in Skye or on the NC500 who have to deal with the idiots.

There was a news piece this weekend about similar crappy behaviour in Wales. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65216905 Maybe if they started towing away cars and taking them to the pound in Inverness, leaving the useless tourists to find their own way there, they might start parking more considerately?

We were on Skye on Saturday and it was so busy. We landed from North Uist and it was mental all the way to the Broadford Co-op where we waited 20 minutes to refuel. Things didn't ease up till we got past Dornie. I visit a friend in Dornie often and spend a lot of time on Skye and Saturday was verging on unpleasant

We live midway between Leicester, Derby and Nottingham. It is green and quiet, not especially beautiful but some lovely walks and places to visit. No tourists, just locals.
Why would you move to an area like Skye and be surprised by tourists?

@midgemadgemodge We've had this in the SW for years. Shaldon is closed up for the winter as is Polzeath.

There was a thread on this last week, an interesting read.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4780800-i-know-iabu-scottish-highlands-tourism?page=10&reply=125312524

Sympathise with you all - the West coast is just as bad .

The curse of not being reliant on the ferries 😂

@annabelindajane funny, we were just saying last night that the bridge is something of a mixed blessing. P'haps.......close it in the summer, or charge a visitor tax!!

Just reading the other thread, interesting to see how personal people take things. On the whole tourists are well behaved, but with increasing numbers the number of incidents simply goes up. Good points on the size of Highland Council and lack of staff: staff do what they can with very little money and they are spread incredibly thin. Imagine the area as nearly size of Belgium covered by less than 20 people to deal with bad behaviour. Seasonal ranger funds need to come from government and is not guaranteed, so recruitment is only now happening.
Right to roam is also badly understood: it works as a shorthand, but really there's no such thing. People have a right of responsible access, which is a different kettle of fish.. and most definitely doesn't extend to car camping.
Layby camping is prohibited, but many drivers ignore that, purposely have a drink so even when police turn up (equally understaffed and thin spread) they can't move them on because over the limit
NC500 wasn't an initiative by the council or indeed broadly supported locally, but it is locals and Council picking up the pieces.

In the end what it boils down to is that people feel entitled to see what they came to see, even if is overwhelmed or nature and infrastructure can't support it, and act selfishly (not all of course) and act inconsiderate rather than find an alternative..

Whoever thought up the NC500 should have looked at the infrastructure first! It's a bit of a catch 22 and a lot of the problems stem from how success it is!

We own a small campervan and do get away but mostly book sites and rarely go to the West Coast as we cant face the traffic! Skye is stunning but mental! I do want to visit the outer Islands but dont want to piss off the locals (plus the ferries are nuts)
We have stayed near Ullapool but again was a weeks stay not to do the 500 and were shocked at mental sports cars on it!

We live in Aberdeenshire they are looking at introducing a 250 loop I really hope they learn a lot of the lessons from the 500!