Sounds of Scotland

Jonathan Manning’s exploration of central and eastern Scotland inspires a playlist

Every holiday has its soundtrack, the music that instantly catapults the mind back to a specific time or place. Perhaps it’s a pop hit that played in every café during a golden summer, or a rock classic whose opening bars coincided with the first glimpse of a spellbinding mountain panorama.

More powerful than photos, music manipulates memory to such an extent that many of us can still bellow word-perfect renditions of songs we last listened to in our teenage years, yet struggle to remember what we watched on television last night.

So, one of the goals of this tour of south-east Scotland is to curate a local soundtrack, leaning on musicians linked one way or another to the region. Glasgow may be the hotbed of Scotland’s music scene, birthplace of Simple Minds, Texas and Travis – the latter responsible for the unofficial camping anthem, Why Does It Always Rain On Me? – but there are stars from the east of the country, too, responsible for many an ‘earworm’ (ie a song you can’t get out of your head).

This will not be the tour of an indie music geek but will, like Spinal Tap, turn it up to 11 when the opportunity arises.

Sunny Dunny

View near Drift Cafe, North Berwick

First stop is West Meikle Pinkerton Farmhouse Certificated Location (CL), which sits within a 400-acre farm, offering sweeping vistas from Doon Hill to Dunbar and the sea. Upon arrival, Kaye offers a warm welcome and highlights a week’s worth of attractions as varied as a distillery and nuclear power station. Eager to stretch my legs, I heed the irresistible call of the waves at Whitesands, where dazzling yellow gorse flanks the dunes.

Dunbar – or ‘sunny Dunny’ to the locals, as it has the sunniest weather in Scotland – is only two miles from the CL, and I make a beeline for the inspiring John Muir’s Birthplace. Muir, an 18th-century pioneer of conservationism, was responsible for Yosemite becoming a national park in the US. He was also a formidable naturalist and walker, hiking 1,000 miles from Kentucky to the Florida coast. Given that Charlie and Craig Reid of The Proclaimers would famously walk ‘500 miles’ and ‘500 more’, Muir’s trek has inadvertently inspired the first song on the tour’s soundtrack!

Sauntering around Dunbar’s streets, I arrive at the town’s ruined castle (briefly home to Mary, Queen of Scots), which overlooks the town’s harbour, where crab and lobster pots jostle for space with trawler nets.

Twenty minutes’ drive north, Tantallon Castle is in a much better state of affairs, its ramparts providing an excellent vantage point from which to admire the coastline. Acting on Kaye’s advice, I continue for a mile to Drift, a café converted from a pair of shipping containers that delivers spectacular views out to sea.

Even farther-reaching views await at the end of the thigh-burning yomp to the top of North Berwick Law, the dramatic volcanic hill that towers over the town. The Sunday Times has named North Berwick the ‘Best Place to Live in Scotland’ for 2025, and it’s easy to see why. Two sandy beaches, a large Victorian park, and a lively set of shops, cafés and pubs bring visitors and energy to its streets.

With the sky as blue as my Volkswagen California, I stop for a blueberry cobbler gelato at award-winning Alanda’s, before driving the final couple of miles to Yellowcraig Club Campsite.

The site revels in a dreamy beachside location, and is only an hour’s gentle seaside walk (or a few minutes on the regular bus service) from North Berwick. Live camera feeds in the Scottish Seabird Centre broadcast Springwatch-style images of puffins and gannets nesting on the Isle of May. Meanwhile, just a couple of kilometres out to sea, the top of Bass Rock – home to the world’s largest colony of northern gannets – looks as though it’s been dusted in icing sugar thanks to the bird guano.

For 10 days in August, North Berwick was also due to host Fringe by the Sea, a festival that has attracted a phenomenal array of speakers and performers, including Sir Chris Hoy, Rory ‘The Rest is Politics’ Stewart, the pop group Air and The Boomtown Rats. As I quite like Mondays, I decide to add Air’s biggest hit, Sexy Boy, to my playlist instead, and walk on with a spring in my step!

Sunshine on Leith

Take a tour of underground Edinburgh

Next, I point the campervan west towards Edinburgh Club Campsite, a brilliant base from which to explore the nation’s capital (the centre is just a 30-minute bus ride away). Grateful that the ‘chief’ has put ‘sunshine on Leith’ (copyright The Proclaimers once again), I drive to the Royal Yacht Britannia, one of the city’s star attractions.

A fact-packed audio tour details the history and ceremony of life aboard the famous vessel. Britannia sailed one million miles during her working life – roughly equivalent to circumnavigating the globe every year of her service – and even carried its own car on royal visits.

The Royal Family’s dining room and bedrooms appear remarkably modest compared to modern super yachts, but few vessels can rival Britannia’s illustrious guest list, which included Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan and Rajiv Ghandi. As for a musical link – Noël Coward played the baby grand piano in the State Drawing Room. Don’t miss out on the member 10% discount on admission, available via our Great Savings Guide.

I’m humming Mad Dogs and Englishmen as I hop on the tram from Leith (free parking) to the centre of Edinburgh. A little overwhelmed by the Royal Mile’s tartan-and-shortbread tourism, I dive underground for a fascinating tour of Mary King’s Close. This area was partially demolished and buried during the construction of the Royal Exchange in 1753, and although there’s not much to see in the remaining cellars and vaults, the tour is pure entertainment. No poo or pestilence joke is spurned, and it’s fascinating to see Dr George Rae’s 17th-century hazmat suit: a tightly sealed leather coat, gloves and a beaked mask filled with herbs and spices to ward off disease.

After an hour underground, I feel the need for a dose of fresh air and greenery, so I amble down into Princes Street Gardens and take a seat on a bench by the Ross Fountain, relishing the refreshing mist of its spray and the view up to Edinburgh Castle.

As I stand to leave, I notice the dedication on the bench is to Les McKeown, lead singer of the Bay City Rollers, Edinburgh’s 1970s supergroup. As I start the drive to Balbirnie Park Club Campsite, it’s Bye Bye Baby that joins the tour’s playlist.

Torch song

River Tay at Killin. Photo by member Roger McCowan

It takes 24 hours and a head-clearing walk along West Sands beach in St Andrews before I can say ‘baby goodbye’ to that particular earworm! It’s instantly replaced by the classic chords of Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire theme tune, this vast expanse of sand providing the scenery for the Olympic team’s training session in the Oscar-winning film. Golf and the university dominate St Andrews, but royal watchers should look out for the Northpoint Café on North Street, where the Prince and Princess of Wales apparently met for coffee while they were students.

St Andrews, about 40 minutes’ drive from Balbirnie Park, is just one of the many jewels in Fife’s crown. If Edinburgh offers a densely concentrated array of attractions, the Club site’s star bursts in all directions, from the Scottish Deer Centre to Falkland Palace, to Wemyss, where Pictish cave paintings date from 8,000 to 5,000 years ago.

A string of attractive fishing villages dots the coastline, and on the advice of Site Managers Andy and Susan I head to Crail, where the small harbour wraps its protective arm around a fishing fleet. Landlubbers will no doubt head for the hut that sells locally caught dressed crab. 

Pointing the California westwards, and cautious of the many 20mph speed limits, I divert into Auchtermuchty (‘Muchty’ to its mates), in search of traces of its famous sons, The Proclaimers. Instead I find a statue to Sir Jimmy Shand, who was famous for his accordion playing in the 1940s and ’50s.

The drive west becomes ever more striking as the scenery starts to match the images on the walls of Edinburgh’s shops. As the sunlight dances on Loch Earn, I pull over for a brew and take a few photos, before driving the last few miles to Clachan Killin Club Campsite.

The site is everything a self-sufficient camper could hope for (please note that there is no toilet block), nestled in woodland high above Loch Tay. Red squirrels compete with nuthatches for the peanut feeders, deer and even pine martens have been spotted, and walks and bike rides radiate in all directions. Plus, if this outdoorsy paradise is not enough to tempt you, June 2026 will see the return of the Killin Music Fest, a three-day celebration of Scottish culture, tradition and music. Your Scotland soundtrack is waiting to be discovered!