Wild overnight parking- Scotland

I was on a club site and an overseas family were quite surprised when they checked the day before travelling in their motorhome that all the sites in Edinburgh were full (in summer!). But don't worry they had noticed that there were parking spaces at an area called Fettes so would be able to overnight there! Fettes happens to be the location of the police headquarters in Edinburgh!

Apparently it is not the done thing to book a site in advance.

When we camped abroad we never booked.  Just turn up at a site. We only book in this country (UK)

No, it is very different "over there" , much less formal, loads of MH aires where you can just turn up, and for example, in Norway, Sweden and Finland, the right to overnight as long as it is not on private ground, so in Norway we see lots of MHs parked off road, by the shore, for example.  I have not heard of any dumping of waste inconsiderately.

However there is good provision made for emptying waste water and toilets either at petrol stations, car parks, supermarkets, lay-bys with toilets, or community provided facilities.

This is the sort of thing that should have been provided along, for example the NC 500 route, before  Visit Scotland tried to attract tourists.  There are relatively few campsites along the route, with the advertising  campaign attracting hoards,  and no provision made for dumping waste, what did they think would happen?

There is not even sufficient provision of public toilets for those travelling solo.

Seems to me that nobody with any experience of tourists, and particularly MHs and their requirements was consulted!

I would add however that the lack of public toilets for solo travellers is a problem in Norway too, especially in the Lofoten Islands, which have also experienced a similar boom in tourism

Nail on head KjellNN.  

Fallacy

In Scotland so called "wild camping" with a motorhome is not permitted,

Indeed (the) Land Reform(Scotland) Act 2003 which creates what can be called a right to roam and allows camping (subject to various provisions and an access code) expressly prohibits "being on or crossing land with a motorised vehicle. 

As with so many rules and regulations what happens in practice may be different and a landowner may grant consent for or tolerate "wild camping" but far from granting permission for motorised camping the Act actually made it clear that it was not permitted. 

I think we're very lucky to live in a country where we have such freedom to say & do as we please, as long as it's within the law. If someone wants to pop a tent on their back and go off yomping then good luck to them as long as they have permission to pitch up. I'm not so sure being plotted up in a warm cosy MH, waiting for the roast to cook whilst watching satellite tv can really be called wild camping though!

Personally I wouldn't sleep very well parking up just anywhere, more & more incidences of campers being attacked or vandalised. Sorry but that lark ain't for me.

Its like anything, sooner or later a Government will clamp down on it.

As Kjell points out, there are other countries (just south of here) where one is positively welcomed to visit and park overnight. Councils go out of their way to create areas for campers to make full use of contributing to the local community, often including water and waste facilities. Never felt anything other than totally safe.

agreed, it's not really wild camping (although there are many, many, many places where we have stopped 'in the wild') it's just a different approach that doesn't try to force those who are self sufficient to stay on sites which provide what they've already got.

we might live in a 'democracy' but the motor car (and motor caravan) are certainly on the list for extinction at some point in the future...  make the most of yours while you can.

I really never worry about what other countries do or don't do, I live in dear old blighty. I'm sure the said countries have a raft of foibles that the same people wouldn't like either - lets be honest... if they we're that good people could always go and live there (don't mention Brexit ).

I suppose the bottom line is everyone else has to pay for where they sleep, by virtue of owning a van with a sink and a bed should they suddenly become exempt? Good luck to anyone that wants to head off into the sunset and follow a dream, but the reality is it all costs money, those that aren't paying their share will always cheese off those that do.

As for the future of road transport, yes your right, fossil fuels are becoming a thing of the past. I've no doubt there'll be a mass solution, there's to much money involved for there not to be.

I live in dear old Blighty, too...but that doesn't mean I can't have a good look around and enjoy lots of different flavours of life, a good deal of it in a van...

 We stayed here on a recent trip to France...the community provided the (free) stop over (and 9 others in the region) and we took advantage and stayed the night after a wonderful dinner in the village restaurant.

we certainly felt it was a fair exchange and we 'paid our way', as we do in the places we rest our weary bones.

id very gladly do the same in Scotland (or England, or Spain or...) if the opportunity allowed.👍