Caravan Parks In Inverness | MOTORHOMEingLife

You get a good spread around Inverness. The private and council parks such as Bunchrew Caravan Park on the Beauly Firth and the Highland Council Bught Caravan and Camping Site near the centre give you an electric hook-up, hot showers, hardstanding or grass pitches and easy access to the city. Loch Ness Shores at Foyers is a Camping and Caravanning Club site on the loch, open all year. The public alternative is the wider outdoors around the Cairngorms and Glen Affric, which is cheap or free to walk in but short on pitches and services. Most touring visitors use a serviced park near the city as a base and get out into the hills by day.

Yes, the touring pitches on the parks around Inverness almost all come with an electric hook-up, usually a 16 amp EHU on hardstanding or grass. Bunchrew Caravan Park has ten hardstanding electric pitches plus grass pitches wired for electric, and the Bught site offers electric on its caravan and motorhome pitches. Loch Ness Shores has both grass and hardstanding pitches with hook-up. Fully serviced pitches add fresh water and a wastewater drain alongside the electric, which suits longer stays or bigger motorhomes. If you plan to head into the glens or down the quieter side of Loch Ness, expect basic or no hook-up out there, so charge your leisure battery and fill up on power before you leave the serviced sites in the city.

In summer you really should book ahead. Inverness is the hub of the North Coast 500, so between late June and the end of August the pitches at the popular parks around the city fill first, and weekends go quickest, so reserve online or by phone a few weeks out. Outside the school holidays, midweek in spring or autumn, you can often turn up and pitch with no booking, especially at the larger sites. Club sites like Loch Ness Shores take bookings year-round and members get priority. Our habit is to book the first and last nights of a trip, particularly if you are starting or finishing the NC500 in Inverness, and stay a little more flexible in the middle.

Not on the roadside. Scotland is famous for its responsible access rights, but those cover walking, cycling and wild camping in a tent on foot, not parking a motorhome overnight in a layby or car park. Around Inverness you should stay on a licensed caravan park or a designated club site. Forestry and Land Scotland has some day car parks in the glens, but overnighting there is not a general right and many display no-overnight signs, with the NC500 having tightened enforcement in places. The honest answer is to budget for a pitch; the parks near the city are good value and give you the services a free roadside spot never will.

Late May to early September gives the mildest, driest weather and the longest daylight, which is a real bonus this far north where midsummer evenings stay light very late. May and September are our favourites because the parks are quieter and cheaper while the days are still long and the midges are fewer. July and August bring the warmest temperatures, around 18°C, but also the North Coast 500 crowds and the highest rates, and you must book pitches ahead. Winter touring is possible since Loch Ness Shores stays open all year, though it is cold, wet and dark, so pick a hardstanding pitch with electric hook-up and pack warm layers for the short days.

Yes, if you have a day or two to give it. Cairngorms National Park is Britain's largest national park, roughly 40 km south-east of Inverness down the A9, with mountains, ancient forest, rivers and abundant wildlife including red squirrels and ospreys. The touring roads are quieter than the coast and the villages of Aviemore and Grantown make easy stops. Facilities inside the park are spread out, so fill your water and empty your tanks in Inverness first. You can day-trip the northern edge from a park near the city, or move down and stay within the park for a few nights to reach the higher trails and the funicular railway on Cairn Gorm itself.

For the most part, yes. The A9 that runs through Inverness is a trunk road built for lorries and handles the largest motorhomes and caravans, and the A96 to Nairn and Aberdeen is fine too. Watch the average-speed cameras on the A9. The one place to take real care is the A82 down the west side of Loch Ness, which is scenic but narrow and twisty, and the single-track roads into Glen Affric and the smaller glens, where you must use the passing places and give way with patience. Inverness city centre gets tight for anything over seven metres, so we park the van at the site and travel in by bus or on foot rather than threading the old streets.

Plenty within a short drive. Loch Ness and the ruined Urquhart Castle sit just south-west on the A82, and Culloden Battlefield with the neighbouring Clava Cairns lies a few minutes east, both packed with Highland history. In the city there are the Ness Islands riverside walks, Inverness Castle viewpoint and the Victorian Market. Further out you have the Cairngorms for mountains and wildlife, Glen Affric for ancient pinewood, and the whole North Coast 500 starting on your doorstep. The Moray Firth dolphins can often be seen from Chanonry Point near Fortrose. It is an easy area to fill a week or two without long towing days, which is exactly what you want from a Highland base.

On the caravan parks. Every licensed park around Inverness has a chemical disposal point, sometimes called an Elsan point or motorhome service point, where you empty the toilet cassette, tip grey water and refill fresh water. The Bught site lists chemical disposal and gas exchange among its facilities. Never empty a cassette or grey tank into a roadside drain, a burn or a field, since that pollutes and is illegal, and the issue is taken seriously along the busy NC500. If you are heading down Loch Ness or into the glens for a night, empty and refill in the city first because service points are scarce out there. Plan your route to pass a park when the tanks are full.

Generally yes. Most parks around Inverness are dog-friendly and this is excellent walking country, with forest trails, quiet beaches and riverside paths that suit a dog well. Loch Ness Shores even has a designated dog walk on site. Parks usually ask you to keep dogs on a lead around the pitches and to clean up, and some limit the number per pitch, so check when you book. The glens and the Cairngorms are great for dogs, though keep them under close control near livestock and ground-nesting birds in spring and early summer. The Beauly Firth shore near Bunchrew gives a good stretch of the legs. Always carry water on warmer summer days.

Inverness is fair value for the Highlands, though the North Coast 500 has firmed up prices. Expect around £24 to £38 a night for a serviced touring pitch with electric hook-up for two adults and one caravan or motorhome, with lochside spots and peak July and August dates near the top of the band. Hardstanding and fully serviced pitches cost a little more than grass. Club sites such as Loch Ness Shores can be cheaper for members, so the annual membership pays back on a longer tour. Shoulder-season rates in May, September and October fall noticeably and weekly deals can beat nightly prices, so if you are staying a while it pays to ask the park about a longer booking.

Absolutely, that is one of its main jobs. Inverness is the official start and finish of the North Coast 500, so from a park here you can stock up, service the van and either launch onto the loop or recover at the end of it. The A9 north over the Kessock Bridge takes you toward the Black Isle and the east coast leg, while the west coast return brings you back down through the glens. Because Inverness has the last big supermarkets, fuel and repair options before the remote north, we always start and end here. Book your city pitches for those nights well ahead in summer, since the NC500 makes Inverness the busiest point on the whole route.

Some are, though the season is shorter than in milder parts of the country. Loch Ness Shores at Foyers is open all year, which makes off-season Highland trips feasible, while the Bught site runs Easter to the end of September and Bunchrew March to November. Winter here is cold, wet and dark rather than mild, with frost and the odd snowfall, so a hardstanding pitch with electric hook-up is the sensible choice to stay off soft ground and keep the van warm. Daylight is very short from November to January this far north, so plan shorter drives and earlier stops. Always ring ahead in winter to confirm the park is open and the facilities block is running.

You get a good spread around Inverness. The private and council parks such as Bunchrew Caravan Park on the Beauly Firth and the Highland Council Bught Caravan and Camping Site near the centre give you an electric hook-up, hot showers, hardstanding or grass pitches and easy access to the city. Loch Ness Shores at Foyers is a Camping and Caravanning Club site on the loch, open all year. The public alternative is the wider outdoors around the Cairngorms and Glen Affric, which is cheap or free to walk in but short on pitches and services. Most touring visitors use a serviced park near the city as a base and get out into the hills by day.

Yes, the touring pitches on the parks around Inverness almost all come with an electric hook-up, usually a 16 amp EHU on hardstanding or grass. Bunchrew Caravan Park has ten hardstanding electric pitches plus grass pitches wired for electric, and the Bught site offers electric on its caravan and motorhome pitches. Loch Ness Shores has both grass and hardstanding pitches with hook-up. Fully serviced pitches add fresh water and a wastewater drain alongside the electric, which suits longer stays or bigger motorhomes. If you plan to head into the glens or down the quieter side of Loch Ness, expect basic or no hook-up out there, so charge your leisure battery and fill up on power before you leave the serviced sites in the city.

In summer you really should book ahead. Inverness is the hub of the North Coast 500, so between late June and the end of August the pitches at the popular parks around the city fill first, and weekends go quickest, so reserve online or by phone a few weeks out. Outside the school holidays, midweek in spring or autumn, you can often turn up and pitch with no booking, especially at the larger sites. Club sites like Loch Ness Shores take bookings year-round and members get priority. Our habit is to book the first and last nights of a trip, particularly if you are starting or finishing the NC500 in Inverness, and stay a little more flexible in the middle.

Not on the roadside. Scotland is famous for its responsible access rights, but those cover walking, cycling and wild camping in a tent on foot, not parking a motorhome overnight in a layby or car park. Around Inverness you should stay on a licensed caravan park or a designated club site. Forestry and Land Scotland has some day car parks in the glens, but overnighting there is not a general right and many display no-overnight signs, with the NC500 having tightened enforcement in places. The honest answer is to budget for a pitch; the parks near the city are good value and give you the services a free roadside spot never will.

Late May to early September gives the mildest, driest weather and the longest daylight, which is a real bonus this far north where midsummer evenings stay light very late. May and September are our favourites because the parks are quieter and cheaper while the days are still long and the midges are fewer. July and August bring the warmest temperatures, around 18°C, but also the North Coast 500 crowds and the highest rates, and you must book pitches ahead. Winter touring is possible since Loch Ness Shores stays open all year, though it is cold, wet and dark, so pick a hardstanding pitch with electric hook-up and pack warm layers for the short days.

Yes, if you have a day or two to give it. Cairngorms National Park is Britain's largest national park, roughly 40 km south-east of Inverness down the A9, with mountains, ancient forest, rivers and abundant wildlife including red squirrels and ospreys. The touring roads are quieter than the coast and the villages of Aviemore and Grantown make easy stops. Facilities inside the park are spread out, so fill your water and empty your tanks in Inverness first. You can day-trip the northern edge from a park near the city, or move down and stay within the park for a few nights to reach the higher trails and the funicular railway on Cairn Gorm itself.

For the most part, yes. The A9 that runs through Inverness is a trunk road built for lorries and handles the largest motorhomes and caravans, and the A96 to Nairn and Aberdeen is fine too. Watch the average-speed cameras on the A9. The one place to take real care is the A82 down the west side of Loch Ness, which is scenic but narrow and twisty, and the single-track roads into Glen Affric and the smaller glens, where you must use the passing places and give way with patience. Inverness city centre gets tight for anything over seven metres, so we park the van at the site and travel in by bus or on foot rather than threading the old streets.

Plenty within a short drive. Loch Ness and the ruined Urquhart Castle sit just south-west on the A82, and Culloden Battlefield with the neighbouring Clava Cairns lies a few minutes east, both packed with Highland history. In the city there are the Ness Islands riverside walks, Inverness Castle viewpoint and the Victorian Market. Further out you have the Cairngorms for mountains and wildlife, Glen Affric for ancient pinewood, and the whole North Coast 500 starting on your doorstep. The Moray Firth dolphins can often be seen from Chanonry Point near Fortrose. It is an easy area to fill a week or two without long towing days, which is exactly what you want from a Highland base.

On the caravan parks. Every licensed park around Inverness has a chemical disposal point, sometimes called an Elsan point or motorhome service point, where you empty the toilet cassette, tip grey water and refill fresh water. The Bught site lists chemical disposal and gas exchange among its facilities. Never empty a cassette or grey tank into a roadside drain, a burn or a field, since that pollutes and is illegal, and the issue is taken seriously along the busy NC500. If you are heading down Loch Ness or into the glens for a night, empty and refill in the city first because service points are scarce out there. Plan your route to pass a park when the tanks are full.

Generally yes. Most parks around Inverness are dog-friendly and this is excellent walking country, with forest trails, quiet beaches and riverside paths that suit a dog well. Loch Ness Shores even has a designated dog walk on site. Parks usually ask you to keep dogs on a lead around the pitches and to clean up, and some limit the number per pitch, so check when you book. The glens and the Cairngorms are great for dogs, though keep them under close control near livestock and ground-nesting birds in spring and early summer. The Beauly Firth shore near Bunchrew gives a good stretch of the legs. Always carry water on warmer summer days.

Inverness is fair value for the Highlands, though the North Coast 500 has firmed up prices. Expect around £24 to £38 a night for a serviced touring pitch with electric hook-up for two adults and one caravan or motorhome, with lochside spots and peak July and August dates near the top of the band. Hardstanding and fully serviced pitches cost a little more than grass. Club sites such as Loch Ness Shores can be cheaper for members, so the annual membership pays back on a longer tour. Shoulder-season rates in May, September and October fall noticeably and weekly deals can beat nightly prices, so if you are staying a while it pays to ask the park about a longer booking.

Absolutely, that is one of its main jobs. Inverness is the official start and finish of the North Coast 500, so from a park here you can stock up, service the van and either launch onto the loop or recover at the end of it. The A9 north over the Kessock Bridge takes you toward the Black Isle and the east coast leg, while the west coast return brings you back down through the glens. Because Inverness has the last big supermarkets, fuel and repair options before the remote north, we always start and end here. Book your city pitches for those nights well ahead in summer, since the NC500 makes Inverness the busiest point on the whole route.

Some are, though the season is shorter than in milder parts of the country. Loch Ness Shores at Foyers is open all year, which makes off-season Highland trips feasible, while the Bught site runs Easter to the end of September and Bunchrew March to November. Winter here is cold, wet and dark rather than mild, with frost and the odd snowfall, so a hardstanding pitch with electric hook-up is the sensible choice to stay off soft ground and keep the van warm. Daylight is very short from November to January this far north, so plan shorter drives and earlier stops. Always ring ahead in winter to confirm the park is open and the facilities block is running.