Campsites are usually quite easy to pigeonhole: busy, quiet, handy for town, quirky, friendly, run by Mr and Mrs Grumpy, good for cycling, great for walking…
But the quality that we spend most of our time looking for is one that can't really be explained – because it's more of a feeling or experience – of simply being in a place that makes you feel good, giving off a vibe that everything is right with the world, even if it isn't. And this is what it feels like at Ardnamurchan Campsite. No matter how desperate things have become in the real world, there is a feeling here that it can't touch you. A McShangri-La by the sea if you like, an alternative world where crime, pollution, population problems and clubcard points are of no significance.
It could be that all this is just romanticised rubbish, of course, and that the simple thing that makes Ardnamurchan so special is that it is so wonderfully physically remote from real life – being the westernmost campsite in mainland Britain and reached only by a journey along the very worst strip of tarmac imaginable; really, it's terrible. So that by the time the campsite is gratefully in sight, you're just thankful to find somewhere to pitch up and put your head down.
But Ardnamurchan turns out to be a combination of all that's best about camping: a very small site, in a spectacular location, offering Stunning Views over a loch. It also has that eccentric appearance that suggests a real person did all this for the love of it. We know this to be true because Trevor Potts, the man who created the campsite, did it all himself: it was he who single-handedly dug out the terraces; he who built the ablutional stuff with all the recycled materials he could, it was even he who built the replica of Shackleton's remarkable little boat that stands next to the campsite. There is nothing fancy or arty about what Trevor has done here, but he did it all himself, and everything fits in neatly with the surroundings. It feels like you're camping on a genuine working highland croft – which is what this site used to be. So, what else does the Ardnamurchan Peninsula have to tempt campers? Well, some of the loveliest beaches on the planet can be found around the campsite's edges, as well as a remarkable remnant of a volcano (unlike any other in Britain) nearby.. A fairly unique experience, it may just pique your interest in all things geological.
Ardnamurchan is a place of geographical wonder and scenic superlatives, but the blinding beaches and Stunning Views can't fully explain why this place grips your spirit so tightly and entices you to make the journey back. If we were to find a pigeonhole for this place, it would simply have to be the ‘inexplicably special' one.
