NC500 campsites and stopovers we actually stayed at
No wishlist, no roundup of places we have never seen. This is every campsite, free stop and wild camp from our own 2025 Orkney Road Trip, in the order we actually drove them.
The short answer
Scourie Caravan Park is our pick for the best proper campsite on the NC500 itself, and Point of Ness Caravan & Camping Site was our base for the week once we reached Orkney. Both are real stops from our own map, listed in full below.
These are not the famous viewpoints everyone photographs. They are the places we actually parked up, from a free service point in the Highlands to a harbour-edge pitch in Orkney. Every one of them is a pin on our own map, with the video from that leg of the trip attached.
NC500 stops, south to north
From Loch Lomond to the top of the mainland
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A lovely small campsite near Loch Lomond, free for vanlifers, with wonderful views. Dru was a fantastic host, and the neighbouring Glengoyne Distillery is worth a look while you are there.
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Public toilets in the Highlands with a free motorhome service point attached. Not glamorous, but exactly the kind of stop that keeps a long trip running.
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Steve's favourite campsite on the entire NC500. He got a very warm welcome from the owner, Vicky, and it is the one stop on this list we would go out of our way to repeat.
Orkney and Papa Westray
Once you are across the Pentland Firth
The Scrabster to Stromness ferry gets your motorhome onto Orkney’s mainland. From there, these are the stops that anchored our week, plus the hostel that housed us on the overnight trip out to Papa Westray. For the ferry detail itself, see our Orkney ferry guide.
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A central car park in Kirkwall, free for 24 hours. We stayed here more than once on our Orkney trip when we needed to be close to the town.
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A wonderful wild camping spot right on the beach, on our Orkney map.
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A lovely campsite that became our base for the whole week in Orkney, with our pitch right on the edge of the harbour.
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A wonderful spot for a cup of tea and a Tunnock’s teacake, and you can wild camp here too, on South Ronaldsay.
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A really lovely hostel and the perfect location for our one night on Papa Westray, before flying the short hop to Westray the next day.
The way home
Back down through the Highlands
The drive home is not an afterthought. We picked up one more wild camp on the way, in a spot pretty enough to be worth planning your own return journey around.
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A stunning spot on the drive home from Orkney, where Steve wild camped with friends before the long run south.
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A truckstop on the way home, the sort of unglamorous but reliable overnight stop every long trip needs.
For the full 35-stop itinerary, including everything we have not room to cover here, see our Orkney Road Trip page. For the legal side of wild camping in Scotland, read our rules guide.
Campsite questions we get asked
What are the best campsites on the NC500 for motorhomes?
Scourie Caravan Park was Steve's favourite on the whole route, with a warm welcome from the owner Vicky. Kinlochewe Community Toilets is worth knowing about purely for the free motorhome service point.
What are the best campsites in Orkney for motorhomes?
Point of Ness Caravan & Camping Site was our base for the week, with a pitch right on the harbour edge. Scapa Beach and Sands of Wright are both wild camping spots on our Orkney map.
Are there free motorhome stops on the NC500?
Yes. Kinlochewe Community Toilets has a free service point, and Great Western Road in Kirkwall is a free 24-hour car park we used more than once. Neither is a campsite in the traditional sense, but both are genuinely useful free stops.
Written by Steve and Lyndsay Radford. Every stop named here is a real pin from our own 2025 Orkney Road Trip. Roaming Radfords is a trading name of Yowzer Limited.