AYR CONDITIONING

Reviews editor Peter Baber is a hugely experienced caravanner who enjoys touring whenever he can

Everyone loves Scotland, don’t they? All those gorgeous glens and heavenly lochs - certainly worth putting up with the odd midge and spot of rain for.

But Scotland in winter? This year, January was the only time I could get away for such a visit. Well, the midges wouldn’t be there, of course, but I shuddered to think of the icy roads, bad weather and perhaps snowdrifts that I might have to encounter in the Highlands at that time of year. And everything would probably be closed.

But then I remembered that there was one part of Scotland, within easy reach of people travelling from the south like me, that tends to get forgotten about.

Sheltered in winter

I was thinking of the south-west: Dumfries & Galloway and Ayrshire. In summer, most caravanners probably buzz right past here on the A74(M), on their way to more archetypally Scottish landscapes.

But I reckoned that because this area is sheltered by the island of Ireland from the worst the Atlantic can throw at Scotland, it might be a calmer place to spend a few days in January.

And I needn’t worry about places being closed, either, at least as far as campsites were concerned: I would be staying at Camping and Caravanning Club CSs, around half of which remain open all year round.

My first stopping point for the night, in fact, was Thomaston Farm CS.

As this is halfway up a hill just off the coast road, it has a particularly fine view of what is, in effect, the southern end of the Highlands and Islands.

Island sunset

There’s the Isle of Arran, behind whose