Where can you go camping if you fancy spending half your time ruining your body in the name of physical exertion, and the other half trying to improve your mind? Is there a campsite whose philosophy embraces both fast and slow lanes? A campsite where you can do extreme exercise one day, then an art course the next? It surely can’t exist, can it? But it does, here at Resipole Farm, out on the western edge of the Highlands next to the shining shores of Loch Sunart.
Knowing that Resipole is a place frequented by the outdoorsy active-types, we sent members of the Hipcamp (muddy) biking team to inspect the site, hoping to get their (mucky) single-track minds improved in the process, as nothing is said to be utterly impossible.
What they found was an unmistakable ‘activity aura’ enveloping the whole site, with canoes and sailing boats being hauled to and from the loch, mountain bikers returning from a long day in the saddle in wonderfully filthy states, as well as plenty of folk who only want to get out there sometimes, but are happy to spend the rest of their holidays exertion-free.
Although this is a big campsite, which gets pretty busy in midsummer, the effect as a whole (thanks to big pitches and careful landscaping) results in a pleasant environment that never feels too hectic, or full. If it does get full, though, and you show up on your bike or on foot, it’s guaranteed that room will be found for you.
What really matters here, though, is not how big the pitches are, nor how superb the facilities, but what you can do to your body (and mind) in the world surrounding Resipole Farm. The boating potential has already been floated, but there is also a slipway for launching small powered craft into Loch Sunart, which is big enough for everyone to take advantage of.
For those whose concerns aren’t as focused on all things outdoors, the campsite’s cycle-friendly owners (bless ‘em) run the Resipole Studios, which provide a hefty heap of culture to balance out all that adventure. Here campers can not only check out the various summer exhibitions and indulge their wallets on varying forms of art to stick on the walls back home, but they can even have a dabble at creating some artistic masterpieces of their own.
But enough of that art malarkey, and back to the important matter of biking, because this area is about as good as it gets for rampant cyclists, with the quiet lochside road giving velocipedic access to rides as far as your legs will take you. Pedalling to the ruins of Castle Tioram makes a pleasant day out, Kentra Bay is amazing and Ardnamurchan Point – there and back – is about 55 miles of pleasure and pain. With Ben Resipole peeping up out of the scenery just behind the site, it ain’t half bad for walkers here either. Or landscape painters, for that matter.