The Best UK Motorhoming Destinations

For most people, the idea of taking a motorhome around Europe is little more than a pipe dream. It’s a very ‘doable’ exercise, of course, as our continental cousins are a mere 31 miles away via the Channel Tunnel so the countries of France, Spain, Italy etc. are all relatively easily accessible. However, remaining in the UK is most often a British motorhomer’s favoured option.

In this edition of our blog we’re going to focus on one or two key places in each of the four individual UK countries. Hopefully this will offer a handful of ‘starting points’ for when you are planning your next road trip. From spectacular scenery to must-see visitor attraction, this is our latest guide to the best UK motorhoming destinations.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland remains one of the most beautiful parts of the UK to visit. The most common routes of entry for motorhome holidays in Northern Ireland are into Belfast (through Liverpool, or through the ferry port of Cairnryan, a couple of miles from Stranraer on the west coast of Scotland). Belfast itself is a remarkable city, and there is certainly plenty of history and culture to encounter in and around it – but there are also many other gems to explore across this 5-and-a-half-thousand square mile country. We will showcase one tourist attraction in Belfast and one elsewhere…

Titanic, Belfast:

There are several facts about Belfast which could draw in a history buff, but perhaps one of the most culturally significant is that it is where the infamous Titanic was built. Down on the slipways of the city’s former Harland & Wolff shipyard (in an area now dubbed the Titanic Quarter) there are several tributes including a huge visitor attraction which has been open to the public since 2012 (the hundredth anniversary of the ship’s sinking).

The main building is designed to look like a ship’s angular prow and sits in the spot where the ill-fated vessel was originally built. It stands 126 feet high, the same height as Titanic’s hull, so gives an imposing representation of its scale. Eight floors of galleries and exhibition space cover the design and planning, building, launch, sinking, immediate aftermath and legacy of Titanic – in vivid fashion. A reproduction of the original grand staircase, made iconic by the James Cameron film Titanic in 1997, is located in a private conference centre.

Outside of the main building there are plenty of other interesting spots to visit – chief amongst them the disused headquarters and drawing offices of Harland & Wolff and, in its own dry dock, the last remaining White Star Line vessel, the SS Nomadic. This ship was launched in 1911 and, though much smaller, it is in a remarkable enough state of exterior and interior preservation to give clear indications of what it would have been like aboard the Titanic.

All in all, Titanic Belfast is a remarkable achievement. It is a hugely interesting and enjoyable ‘day out’ which deals with a world-famous tragedy but somehow manages to never minimise it or cross over into being trite.

The Giant’s Causeway:

Legend has it that a giant (the excellently named Finn McCool) constructed the Causeway as a path he could walk from Ireland to Scotland to take part in a fight. The distinctive columns of Giant’s Causeway don’t quite bridge the two countries and it’s not recorded how Finn McCool fared! In reality, the Causeway is formed of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, which protruded from the Earth due to an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a fantastic visitor centre explains the legends, the geology and the history of the site. Walking around it can take a couple of hours – but you will be rewarded with some of the best photos imaginable for your Instagram!

Scotland

Although it is dangerous to generalise in life and it is cheap to fall back on cliché, once you have spent time ‘over the border’ it is difficult to imagine that anyone out there would be able to resist falling in love when they take motorhome holidays in Scotland. Much like Yorkshire, Scotland has its own distinctive feel and almost its own pace, which are likely to intoxicate. Whether in an increasingly modernising and vibrant city like Glasgow, or a historic one like Edinburgh, or out on the coast in some remote spot, or anywhere in between, Scotland seems to share an ambience and have something special to offer. In common with all other countries in the edition of our blog, we’ve picked two sites which we think offer tremendous holiday reward.

Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh:

There are plenty of motorhome parks close to Edinburgh to base yourself, meaning you can take a bus and venture right into the heart of this wonderful city to experience the history and culture up close – including the Royal Botanic Garden.

The garden was originally established in the grounds of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in 1670 as a medicinal garden. Its current 70-acre location, in the area of Inverleith, is the fourth Edinburgh site in its history, and it is now a world-famous scientific centre for the study of plants, diversity and conservation as well as being an enduringly popular tourist attraction. There are upwards of 14,000 different species of plant on show, and it is a pastoral pleasure to walk between the various themed gardens (including the Rock Garden, the Chinese Hillside Garden and the Alpine Garden) and through the impressive glasshouses to see as many of them as you can in a day. Entry is always free, though donations are welcomed and encouraged.

Glencoe:

If you’re venturing off into Scotland in your motorhome as an ‘outdoor type’ then it’s a safe bet that Glencoe will be somewhere on your list, if not at the top. There are plenty of campsites and motorhome parks in the vicinity. This remarkable area of Glencoe is known as the home of Scottish mountaineering and has proved popular with hillwalkers and climbers for centuries. As almost a bonus, the legendary Ben Nevis is a mere half hour away.

The glen also has a dark history. In 1692, in the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising three years previously, almost forty men from Clan MacDonald were killed by government forces for the ‘crime’ of not pledging allegiance to the new monarchs. This incident became known as the Massacre of Glencoe, and there are monuments to it still standing. It is also still commemorated in an annual ceremony. If you want to, for a while, feel absolutely steeped in some raw Scottish social history from the last 500 years then Glencoe may very well be one of the best sites for it – certainly one of the most profoundly breathtaking locations.

Wales

On the west coast of the UK is Wales, the third of our countries to be highlighted here. Simultaneously a mystical and magical yet modern place, you will find much of worth when you go on a motorhome holiday in Wales. The city of Cardiff has been up-and-coming for a couple of decades, and has seen huge advances in terms of infrastructure, culture and tourism, yet there are other parts of Wales which remain almost untouched, unspoiled. We’re going to recommend one alongside a very British sci-fi draw in the capital city itself.

Cardiff:

This winter is a celebration of sixty years since the very first episode of the BBC’s science-fiction series Doctor Who was broadcast on TV. Since 2005 the show has been made in Cardiff and it seems only fitting, then, to talk about places in the Welsh capital that are connected to it. Obviously it’s not feasible to drive your motorhome around a city centre, but if you stay at one of the campsites outside of the city and get the bus in, you will find plenty to keep you occupied for a day or two. There are studios where Doctor Who interiors are filmed, and these are located down at Cardiff Bay but are not accessible to the public – however, there are a vast number of other terrific locations around the city.

The city centre itself has often been used as a double for London under alien attack, with the shopping precinct featuring several times (including in one of this year’s special anniversary episodes starring David Tennant). Off the city centre are various streets, alleyways, parks, playgrounds, museums, hospitals and galleries which have been used too, as well as the hugely impressive Millennium Centre down at Cardiff Bay. You can do your research at fact-packed Doctor Who websites to plan your route around all of the sites you’d like to visit. There’s no doubting that if you are a fan of British sci-fi television then Cardiff is a bucket-list location – and you will find lots of Instagram-worthy spots for a snap, putting yourself right into the heart of your favourite episodes!

Pembrokeshire:

This stunning area of Wales is packed with wonderful coastal roads, sandy beaches, stunning bays, villages with great gastro pubs – and plenty of campsites. Pembrokeshire is possibly the best part of Wales to take a motorhome or campervan trip and there are stunning views just about everywhere you look. It’s a really rewarding part of the UK to visit if you want to completely ‘decompress’ from the pressures and the noise of urban life.

It’s very important for us to point out, though, that if you plan to visit Pembrokeshire then it is absolutely vital to do some research in advance. Single track roads are common, and this is likely to mean there are times you will have to stop and reverse to accommodate oncoming traffic. You should also make sure that you never block any roads, entrances or exits to land or illegally camp in Pembrokeshire. Doing so can cause serious issues for locals and emergency services.

England

The green and pleasant motherland, the heart of the UK. Now that you are back from exploring Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, spend a little time hitting the road in Blighty. A UK staycation really can be one of the most rewarding trips you’ll take. Interesting things and beautiful places are close enough to ‘do’ in a long weekend, and there’s enough to explore for much longer breaks too. This time round we’re going to focus on just one fantastic spot which we think is deserving of some of your fuel money and road time.

We very briefly made reference to Yorkshire in the piece above (about Scotland) and so, as a writer’s arc that is almost as handsome as the motorhomes we sell at Spinney, we’ll return to this particularly special northern region for our closing section. Yorkshire is the largest county in the UK (by geographic size not population) and has a rich and varied culture. This picturesque place is a hard-working region and the people within it are often referred to as ‘salt of the earth’, with an underlying ethos of honesty and ‘steady away’ – and, as such, Yorkshire could be thought of as the heartbeat of England. The cities within it are vibrant, and include the historically important York and the industrially important Sheffield.

York:

There is much in York to remind you of its history, and it is fascinating to leave your motorhome behind at one of the campsites outside the city, and travel in for the day.

York was founded in approximately 71AD, when 5,000 men of the Roman Ninth Legion marched from Lincoln (a distance of about 80 miles) and set up camp on what historians believe was little more than meadowland at the strategically advantageous spot where the river Foss joins the river Ouse. Men and supplies could easily be transported from the North Sea to the settlement. Eboracum, as the Romans called it, was established and within a few generations is had become ‘the capital of the north’. Around 410AD, Eboracum was largely abandoned by the Romans, who returned to Italy to defend Rome. There are fantastic exhibitions available to visit at the Yorkshire Museum (in York) which will give you a fuller picture of the Romans’ importance to the city’s history and, therefore, to the history of the whole of Yorkshire – and, therefore, to the whole of the UK!

Though they established it, it wasn’t just the Romans who had a huge social impact on the city. The Viking invasion of Eboracum took place in 866 AD and it was renamed Jorvik. Despite the perceived characteristics of Norsemen, those who settled in Jorvik were a relatively peaceful bunch – craftsmen, traders, artists, engineers and ship builders. The Jorvik exhibition beneath a part of the city centre tells their story in truly compelling fashion, and you even get to travel through a Jorvik-era street.

The periods of history which followed the Romans and the Vikings have all left their mark on the city of York. The Capital of the North exhibition at the aforementioned Yorkshire Museum is a terrific exploration of how York became England’s second city and how the Crown and the Church had a bearing on its development. It is without doubt, though, that the Roman and Viking cast the longest shadows – and the modern city does more than enough to make sure interested parties can find out more.

The rest of Yorkshire:

This wonderful place – God’s Own County, as some locals would prefer you to call it – is rich and rewarding to explore, from the art town vibe of Saltaire to the splendour of the Dales, and from the urban buzz of Leeds to the Bronte land of Howarth – and so much more.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have so much of worth to offer, and our four home nations can provide a truly fulfilling on the road holiday rich with experience.