Caravan club sites in Argyll

Argyll has more coastline than France and a road network that has to work around every inch of it. Journeys here are measured by loch head. A route that looks like an hour on the map is often two with a caravan behind you.

Where the sites are

Oban and Loch Awe form the main cluster, with sites at Barcaldine, Taynuilt and along the loch shore. Arrochar and the head of Loch Long hold a second group at the Argyll end of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Kintyre has sites around Tarbert, Carradale and Machrihanish, and the Cowal peninsula near Dunoon carries a further scatter.

Getting there

Everything funnels through the A82 and then the A83 or the A85. The A83 crosses the Rest and Be Thankful, which is the county's known problem: repeated landslides from the hillside above have closed it for weeks at a time, with traffic diverted onto the Old Military Road in the valley below under convoy control. Transport Scotland publishes the current status. Check it on the morning you travel, because the alternative — round by Loch Lomond, Crianlarich and Inveraray — adds well over an hour.

The A85 through Tyndrum to Oban is the easier road and worth defaulting to when the A83 looks uncertain.

Local notes

Kintyre is longer than people expect. Tarbert to Campbeltown on the A83 is another hour and a quarter of single carriageway hugging the coast, with sharp bends and few overtaking chances.

Ferries need booking. CalMac sails Oban to Mull, Coll, Tiree and Colonsay, and Kennacraig to Islay. Vehicle reservations are essential in summer and you must declare the combined length of car and caravan when you book — under-declaring means being turned away at the ramp. Island sites are small, so confirm the pitch before you commit to a sailing.

The season runs late March to October, and midges are at their worst on the west-facing lochs in July and August.