Badrallach Campsite

How does it feel to get to the end of a track that’s eight miles from the nearest main road, in a remote corner of north-west Scotland? That’s a question that Badrallach’s owners, Owen and Bo, have put a great deal of thought and effort into answering.

To start with, if you’ve come this far, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be aiming to get away from it all – including other people. So there are individual camping pitches hidden away between bushes and rowan thicket. A web of little paths and bridges that will have younger campers playing hide-and-seek for hours allows you to navigate between them, while firepits – the best places to sit, rest and simply gaze at the amazing scenery – are duly provided at almost every pitch. Then there's the loo block, which may be in an old farm building, but is still one of the brightest and most welcoming washing facilities we’ve seen. Around the campsite, mountains rise into the north and east while not-so-little Little Loch Broom stretches out to the west. Venture out and you may well return wet/muddy/sweaty/all three in the course of a day, so you want showers that do more than tickle and tease. Badrallach has you covered.

Nature has also laid on a smorgasbord of adventures for you to savour. Sit at Badrallach for any length of time and you’ll become fascinated by mighty An Teallach, the mountain that sits across the loch, hunching its shoulders and glowering. If you do climb this splendid hill, remember it is one of the most precipitous ridges of any mountain in Britain and you should be fully prepared (in mind as well as body). If you fancy a more casual wander, there are paths running directly from the campsite along the foreshore and up to Beinn Ghobhlach, the hill behind the site.

Since this part of the world is the haunt of the mischievous highland midge, the campsite can be forgiven for locating itself a safe hundred metres or so from the waters edge – it also offers yet more encouragement to light that evening campfire. The loch can still be reached via a short path, though, and site warden Chris – a Highlander who’s been scouring this coast his whole life – is happy to lend advice if you’ve laden your car with fishing tackle. A little further along the coast is Scoraig, one of the most remote communities in Britain, which is only accessible by boat or a five-mile walk. It may take a while to trek there but then, out here, you'll have plenty of time on your hands. There's never a need to rush.

Indeed a slower pace of life is just the appeal of this part of Scotland. It’s certainly something that Owen loves about the place. A qualified botanist, herbalist and wilderness therapist, he has recently begun running nature-oriented workshops at the campsite, incorporating herbal medicine, stress-management and creative approaches such as music, art and writing. And, whether you come here to partake in soothing stress-relief or simply want a loch-side tent pitch, once you’ve been at Badrallach for a few days you, too, will settle into a new rhythm of existing. Time drifts here and pulls you along with it. So when you’re finally packing up, you’ll find yourself asking a very different question – how will it feel when you return to the world at the end of the road eight miles away?