The first campsite we ever went to together was Blair Atholl, back in late November 2021 in a hired VW Transporter conversion.

It was bitterly cold, but we had a lot of fun and we returned in late February 2022 to one of their lodges and a week later we ordered our first campervan.

And so…we really wanted to see Blair Atholl during the warmer months and booked up in January!

Would it disappoint?

Thursday 12th June 2025

Unusually we took a long weekend and headed off on a Thursday evening to maximise our time in Highland Perthshire.

We managed to get away around 5:20pm, and as we sat at the lights waiting to turn onto the M74, it started raining - fortunately it didn’t come to much and we made great time and arrived around 7pm.

We pitched up on a very nice and level pitch 269, no levelling blocks required!

We were straight to “The Food in the Park” which is fortunately right across the road from the site and we ordered a pizza and chips and a couple of drinks - Aspalls and Belhaven Black.

We opted for a nice black pudding and caramelised onion pizza and the base was nice and crispy, but it had maybe a bit too much cheese.

We watched an old episode of Galavant to take us up to bedtime, it was warm and muggy and with it being mid June it didn’t get dark ’til very late.

Friday 13th June 2025

The only Friday-the-13th of 2025 and we got up around 7:30am, there was fairly heavy rain but it didn’t last long.

Wwe waited ‘til the Shieling (the onsite snack bar) - opened and got good rolls and sausage and potato scone and a roll and bacon for me.

Gayle had a roll with sausage and potato scone and a roll with egg and two black pudding slices - it looked very good.

We relaxed in the van with a bit of reading, the rain was on and off for most of the morning.

At around 12:15 we pulled on jackets and headed out, but the rain came on again and we didn’t get far before turning back

Into the shop and picked up some chocolate and pâté and dates, along with a can of apple juice

We had a relaxing seat in the van ‘til around 3pm when we decided it was dry enough to head out for a walk through Blair Atholl towards Wasted Degrees ahead of our visit on Saturday

After that we wandered down to the river Tilt and then back to the van for a spot of lunch and then and sat outside for a while reading with a couple of drinks, very relaxing

For dinner we had a tin of M&S curry and rice with a nan bread each, not too bad and a cheeky salted caramel gu dessert

We caught up on some YouTube ‘til bedtime

Saturday 14th June 2025

We were up around 7am and had a cup of tea and watched some TV.

It was pretty heavy rain outside, didn’t look fun for the tent folks.

Breakfast was some slices of toasted sourdough with butter, great start to the day.

During a break in the rain we managed to get a shower, pretty good facilities block, nice hot water and good sized cubicles.

We played a few rounds of top banana and then “more or less” which was fun and spent some time reading.

At around 12:00 the rain went off for a bit and blue skies started to appear so we started to get ready to head to Wasted Degrees.

The rain stayed off long enough for us to walk the half mile or so to the brewery, beer and cider and pizza were ordered and the pizza was fantastic, we had the weekly special prosciutto and mushroom and a pepperoni and honey, both were very nice.

At times the rain was chucking it down outside, and we thought we might be stuck there for a while.

I had a couple of pints of their own wheat beer which was nice and fruity while Gayle had a couple of pints of dry Perthshire Cider, not sure she was as keen on it as the Thistly Cross from Dunbar 😀

We bought some beer to take home, Blueberry Sour and Dark Cherry Stout.

Back to the van, it had really brightened up while we were in the brewery and so it was a nice walk back

Bit of relaxing time before starting to think about food around 7pm, it was dry so we headed over to the Atholl Arms

I started with their halloumi fries and chili jam which were really good, and we had a pint of Aspalls and a pint of Belhaven best.

Mains, Gayle chose sausages and mash which were nice, I picked their grostl and it was great, really nice carroway flavour and plenty of it. Really enjoyed it.

Dessert was ice cream for me, and pineapple and pear crumble for Gayle which was very nice, obviously I had to help.

Sunday 15th June 2025

We were up around 7am, and it had It had rained overnight, but it was bright sunshine outside which would help the tent folks get their tents dried a bit.

We forgot to bring yoghurt and so it was pancakes with cinnamon/maple butter which was really tasty for breakfast.

We headed off quite early in bright sunshine, but the weather was due to change again.

It is a beautiful drive down the A9/M9 with the “Perthshire Big Tree Country” definitely showing off the best of Perthshire.

We were back by around 11:30 and shortly after it rained pretty heavily so we got most of the best of the weather up north.

Next up…Coldstream!