Bivvy+tarp in Scotland

[Brains]

I've not forgotten back in the late 1980's camping in an empty site on the windy side of Skye.
Suddenly over the period of 20 minutes the site went from empty to full Glastonbury levels, people unpacking cars with half cooked meals and putting up tents with the sleeping bags already on the inside.

Apparently the other campsite on the windless side of the island had received a full carpet bombing by the midges, which had resulted in every tent needing to be cleared out of the site within a ten minute period and the entire site moving across the island.

With only a tarp you would not have stood a hope.

 

[rualexander]

This map might be useful

Complete fiction.
I was outside for about five minutes this evening in west central Scotland (supposedly midgie free according to that map) and got at least three bites.
Plenty midgies in the central Scottish Borders over the weekend too.

 

[Ajax Bay]

This map might be useful

Quoting from the link "The Scottish Midge Forecast is created using data collected from biting midge traps and mini-weather stations across Scotland. This is extended nationally using weather forecast data. During midge season around 100 voluntary midge-watchers add their own local midge information each week."
@Yellow Saddle there is a gap for you as a voluntary midge-watcher as the Kintyre peninsula appears to be a midge forecast desert.

in west central Scotland (supposedly midgie free according to that map) and got at least three bites.

Three bites only = midge-free, in the scheme of things.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Quoting from the link "The Scottish Midge Forecast is created using data collected from biting midge traps and mini-weather stations across Scotland. This is extended nationally using weather forecast data. During midge season around 100 voluntary midge-watchers add their own local midge information each week."
@Yellow Saddle there is a gap for you as a voluntary midge-watcher as the Kintyre peninsula appears to be a midge forecast desert.

Three bites only = midge-free, in the scheme of things.

Hmmph! Forecasting midges in Scotland is as simple as forecasting weather in Scotland.

Weather: It rains three times per day (admittedly the individual periods of rain vary between 3 hours and 8 hours).
Midges: You will be attacked between 8 May and 1 October. How much you get attacked simply depends on how delicious you are.

What's there to forecast? But I'll apply anyway. Passive income and all that.

Having said that, I've just returned from a 10-day bicycle trip around the islands and only got attacked in Lochranza on Arran. The rest of the time it was so windy and rainy the midges couldn't take off.

 

[Andy_R]

contains sweary word!

 

[Cycleops]

At least you can be thankful they don't give you malaria, not like here.

 

[GilesM]

Take a tent, if the wee blood sucking nasties appear in a big group, life in a tarp will be hell. We're off camping this weekend, close to Lochearnhead, I know there will be water and trees, I hope the wind is blowing, or that a few of the group have taken up smoking a pipe.

 

[snorri]

My local contact assures me so ....

'local contact? Not a friend then with any particular concern for your welfare or comfort?

I would seriously question his/her motives, Harris and Lewis is classic midgie territory, with much standing water.
A calm evening in rural Lewis and Harris could be sheer misery. You could be lucky, but it would be unwise to go unprepared.

 

[GilesM]

'local contact? Not a friend then with any particular concern for your welfare or comfort?

I would seriously question his/her motives, Harris and Lewis is classic midgie territory, with much standing water.
A calm evening in rural Lewis and Harris could be sheer misery. You could be lucky, but it would be unwise to go unprepared.

When was the last time anybody saw one of those?

 

[Fab Foodie]

'local contact? Not a friend then with any particular concern for your welfare or comfort?

I would seriously question his/her motives, Harris and Lewis is classic midgie territory, with much standing water.
A calm evening in rural Lewis and Harris could be sheer misery. You could be lucky, but it would be unwise to go unprepared.

Am prepared!

 

[Andy_R]

Take a tent, if the wee blood sucking nasties appear in a big group, life in a tarp will be hell. We're off camping this weekend, close to Lochearnhead, I know there will be water and trees, I hope the wind is blowing, or that a few of the group have taken up smoking a pipe.

You're all doomed....doomed I tell you......

 

[Andy_R]

At least you can be thankful they don't give you malaria, not like here.

No..but you can end up in hospital with a skin infection that requires IV antibiotics....

 

[Old Steve]

I have toured the highlands dozens of time on a motorcycle Whilst camping wild... I would definitely say a tent... I have seen a few really bad midge days especially around Glen Coe... Have a look on the midge forecast..
I must say I have been using skin so soft and then when it became more difficult to get I used Jungle formula and I always burn Mosi coils outside my tent... Oh yeah I have only been once between May and August ( once bitten twice shy )for obvious reasons..

 

[Fab Foodie]

I'm sure there must be a specialist website for people who like lying around in sweaty sleeping bags, eating Marmite and being tortured by tiny unpleasant insects. Takes all sorts.

Now there's an opportunity ....

 

[Fab Foodie]

Day 1. Uig to Tarbert then pedal onwards to Ravenspoint on Lewis. Now in hostel.
Rain. Windy. Midge count 0