Our First CAMPRA Aire

10/10/24

CAMPRA – the Campaign for Real Aires – is a non profit organisation which has been campaigning for better, all year round, motorhome parking and facilities in the UK. They have done this through various avenues, one of which is becoming an exempted organisation so that they can licence 5 van sites, a bit like CLs (certified locations) and CSs (certified sites) with the major clubs. By doing this they are operating within the UKs rather outdated regulatory framework for camping (which covers everything from tents to motorhomes). A vast network of small sites would be a boon to motorhome travellers like us who like to travel in the off season.

Our trip hadn’t intersected with one of these sites yet, but this was to be the day that changed. We were heading up to Fraserburgh in the north east corner of Aberdeenshire and decided to stop off at Glenbuchty Motorhome Stopover.

Glenbuchty Motorhome Aire

We turned up in the morning without booking, expecting things to be rather quiet, but we arrived at the same time as two other motorhomes, the bin lorry and a bus. For a few minutes we were all mixed up in a chaotic muddle, but the bin lorry departed, the bus got past and the three vans all parked up. A little more discussion to check who needed electricity, a bit of jiggling to ensure we were well spaced (CAMPRA have a 3m rule for their certified sites) and we were all settled.

That night we caught a glimpse of the aurora borealis, sadly it clouded over later.

Cecilia and Greg gave us a run down of the facilities, the local area and possible stops we might want to make as we worked our way north. Greg and I discovered we had both worked in IT of a certain era, a conversation that saw Paul retreat to Bertie before he fell asleep.

This experience of a CAMPRA aire didn’t really feel like an aire to me, not like the motorhome parking areas we are used to on the continent. But that’s not a criticism, a no-frills place to stop at a reasonable cost is the important thing.

Fraserburgh

We walked into Fraserburgh from the stopover. It was around a 15 minute walk to the nearest edge of town, starting along the road but then wriggling between the coast path and terraced streets. The town felt very empty and lifeless. Perhaps it was the wrong weather (very windy) or we had just visited at the wrong time. The vast beach to the south is very attractive but no one really likes to walk into a scouring blizzard of sand, particularly not those of us who wear contact lenses.

Fraserburgh Beach – we saw one intrepid surfer in the waves

The harbour was more interesting, boasting some huge fishing vessels. We have never seen quite so many large ships in harbour at any one time. Even so, it wasn’t a bustling place given its status as one of the largest fishing ports in the UK. It felt as though everything was just waiting. Maybe for the wind to die down, although I imagine a lot of the ships we saw would sail no matter what the weather.

We struggled to find an open cafe but eventually spied the cosy, old fashioned, ‘Nooks and Crannies’ where we had almost too much cake to choose from. Fortified, we were onto the main event of the day.

The Scottish Lighthouse Museum

Our main reason for being in Fraserburgh was the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses. The Museum is housed in a modern building and a visit includes a tour of Kinnaird Head lighthouse. This was the first official lighthouse on the Scottish mainland and started life as a light on top of the tower of Kinnaird Head Castle. The famous Stevenson family decided that this needed to be upgraded and the more traditional lighthouse design, including a spiral staircase, was built inside the castle.

Unplanned, we managed to arrive just before a tour was due to leave and were just about as lucky as we could be. On our tour was an ex-lighthouse keeper who had worked all round Scotland and been an assistant keeper at Kinnaird Head lighthouse.

This made the tour, already an interesting experience, a delight. We were treated to reminiscences of his time at the lighthouse as a young man and as a married father. Changes that he saw introduced, some of which failed (such as the move away from Sperm Whale Oil – which he did keep calling Spermicidal Oil, whether this was in jest I don’t know – to an artificial lubricant, which caused the mechanism to move too quickly).

We got to see the lighthouse keeper’s accommodation preserved as it would have been in the 70s with it’s ancient TV narrow bed and freestanding oven. There was other accommodation in buildings around the lighthouse for keeper’s families, plus gardens for growing veg to supplement meals. We saw the engine room for the enormous fog horn which was added in 1903. Hearing the sound of the foghorn blasting every 90 seconds must have been something to try the patience of the keepers and probably most of the population of the town.

The tour also included a demonstration of the mechanism used for rotating the lenses. The clockwork is still in perfect order, we saw it being wound up and set in motion. A chain and weight kept it rotating. The keepers would take four hour shifts monitoring the light to ensure that it flashed at the correct tempo, each light having a different speed that would allow ships to recognise where they were. During their shifts, the keepers would be expected to maintain focus without any external distractions, winding the mechanism every so often and topping up the oil for the lamp. When they weren’t on their overnight shifts they were also expected to maintain the lighthouse, keeping everything in working order, painting and decorating and topping up their supplies. It was definitely a lifestyle as well as a job.

Clockwork mechanism

After our tour we visited the museum with it’s displays of history and engineering and a great photography exhibition. We didn’t have far to go back to Bertie for our night on our first CAMPRA aire.

Exhibition of lenses in the museum