Tuesday 26 August 2025
Nido's parked up in the car park at Grey Mare's Tail Nature Reserve in the Moffat Hills in Lanarkshire, with three other vans for company. It's a National Trust for Scotland site and costs £5 per day to park, but as we're NTS members, we get to stay for free. Top tip: NTS membership is cheaper than the equivalent England and Wales NT, especially if you're over 60 but not yet 65. A reciprocal arrangement exists whereby NTS membership can also be used for free enty to England and Wales NT properties and sites (and vice versa). In fact the reciprocal arrangements applies to similar NT organisations all over the world.
There's a steep walk up the hillside to a view over the waterfall and up to Loch Skeen, but after a long journey we did a shorter lowland route, which still provided us with a view of the the waterfall at least. We left home this morning and drove up through warm sunshine, stopping once for lunch and a leg stretch.
We've had a few short trips away this year (South Wales, Montgomeryshire, Derbyshire and East Anglia) and I've not blogged all of them, but this is our 'big' trip. We decided to take a break from visiting the EU but still wanted a bit of an adventure. So we're spending a week making our way north before catching a ferry next Monday from Ullapool to Stornoway, on the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis. We'll be spending a fortnight in the Outer Hebrides, starting with Lewis and Harris then heading south to the Uists and Barra (via two short ferry crossings) before returning via a ferry to Oban on the mainland. The rough plan then is to follow the west coast down into Dumfries and Galloway. The weather will now doubt be changeable (to say the least!) but we've packed clothes and coats for all weather and, after a long hot summer, we're not too concerned about the approaching autumn.
So for tonight, we've eaten and are having a cup of tea in this very quiet car park surrounded by heather-covered hills and sheep. Tomorrow we'll continue our journey north, albeit at a more leisurely pace.
