Colorado Camping in Scotland

I poked my head out of the tent and gazed at Loch Doon (Lake Doon), the body of water sunk comfortably into rolling, shallow hills. A thick layer of grey clouds cloaked the sky as diffused sunlight illuminated groves of evergreen trees.

I crawled out of the tent, stretching out my arms while arching my back. In the distance, I could see the remains of Loch Doon Castle, constructed in the late 13th century — purportedly by the legendary rebellious badass himself, Robert the Bruce. My eyes closed as I took in a deep breath, allowing the fresh air to cool my throat. It truly felt like I was inside surrealist painting, camping along the shore of a lake in Scotland.

We all know traveling abroad can leave your checking account bleeding and unconscious on the floor. One way to abate the hemorrhaging (somewhat) is to camp, and there’s no place better place to camp than the north end of Great Britain.

“It’s Scotland,” as one local told me, standing next to his tent and motorcycle. “Just find a patch of grass and pitch your tent.”

You can camp almost anywhere, with only a few common-sense guidelines issued by the Scottish government. And if you’ve camped even once in Colorado, you’re already familiar with the rules: Pick up your rubbish. Don’t cut down or damage surrounding trees for campfires  Leave no trace you were there.  Essentially, don’t be an asshat.

There’s some planning involved. My friend and I brought with us a lightweight tent with a rainfly, along with rain gear and cold-weather sleeping bags. And my friend bought a stove that burns petrol instead of propane, making it easy to refuel at any gas station.

We saved money by renting a vehicle, essentially a mobile hotel room. The only caveat was training my brain to drive on the left side of the road. It’s an odd experience navigating a two-lane carriageway on the “wrong” side, watching cars approach and pass us on the right. And I made things a bit harder on myself by renting a standard, forcing myself to shift gears with my left hand while almost burning out the clutch.

But we made it out of Edinburg and camped in Galloway Forest Park. The area is one of only four dark sky parks in the western world for stargazing (when it’s not cloudy), and it’s the only dark sky park in the United Kingdom.

After we set up our tent, we drove our mobile hotel to the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory. There I had the opportunity to gaze through a telescope the jewel of our solar system, Saturn, with its signature rings burning bright against the black void of space.

The whole observatory seemed to shake as the telescoped moved to reveal the Ring Nebula and then the Hercules Cluster, the latter floating 500 million light years from Earth.

And that was just the first night of camping.

We later drove to the coast and dropped our tent wherever there was a patch of grass (while avoiding the copious piles of sheep sh*t), bathed in nearby streams (with Earth-friendly soaps of course), and ate canned beans next to a warm campfire near the crumbling walls of a medieval castle.

So, if you want to step into a surrealist painting, stare at the pantheon of stars that populate our Milky Way Galaxy, and you don’t mind the midges (Scottish mosquitos), I recommend packing your camping gear and heading to Scotland.