Moffat in the Van

31st January 2023

We can make the journey from London to Oban, and vise versa, in one hit, but only if we leave at 06:00 prompt. I had to go up to the boat in Dunstaffnage (near Oban) to do one specific job. I would have stayed on longer to tinker but after I finished the essential task the weather turned really foul. We decided to scarper!

Being near to lunch time, we needed to find somewhere to spend the night on route, and the only campsite we could find was at Moffat in Dumfriesshire . So that’s not a great advert for the place, being the only campsite open in winter, but sometimes these random stopovers can be a pleasant surprise, which Moffat was!

The site was one of the Camping and Caravanning Club Sites. It’s a bit like mooring in an MDL Marina or visiting a Costa Coffee. You know what you will get, and to be truthful, for an overnight stop you don’t want anything too whacky like composting toilets and washing machine drum fire boxes.

What you get is:

A friendly welcome
Immaculately clean showers and loos
A level hardstanding for the van with power
Spotless bin storage!
and normally a gate leading to a dog walking place but this one was closed for repairs. How do you repair a dog walk?

*There are a few lessons local councils could learn from this immaculate bin storage area!*

The campsite was right next to the town, so, as time was tight, rather than going on a country walk we just had a mini tour of the town.

*The town was the centre of the wool trade as well as being a spa town. It is also the burial place of John McAdam, the Scottish engineer and road-builder.*

*Luckily the out of town super stores haven’t arrived, so the place was full of lovely*
*independent shops like this splendid butcher*

*And it even had a rare independent Hardware Shop*. Sadly there was no time to explore.

*Last shop, I promise, but isn’t it wonderful?*

*There were lots of narrow lanes to explore*

And some distinctive architecture. I’m only guessing, but I reckon there are probably a couple of long established family builders in the town. Over the years I speculate that they have come up with their own style of building which is so much superior to the identikit homes that the likes of
*Barretts churn out nowadays.*

Sorry no pictures of the beautiful surrounding countryside. I think we need to visit again and stay for a few days. I would highly recommend it as an excellent stopover place, and probably worth staying a few days.

Technical Stuff

It cost just £21.00 for the van, two adults and a dog including power and hardstanding.

Moffat is about 60 miles south east of Glasgow

Details of the site can be found here

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