Campsites in Colonsay
Wild camp on solitary beaches, wild swim, or bird-watch for corncrakes on green Colonsay.
Campsites in Colonsay guide
Where to go
Kiloran & Kiloran Bay
Take the B8487 road north from ferry port Scalasaig and you’ll soon reach the stunning Kiloran area. Kiloran hamlet is known for the Colonsay House and Gardens, providing shelter for many unusual trees and shrubs, but campers should carry on to the blonde, sandy curve of Kiloran Bay. This is Colonsay’s best beach and a hit with surfers and wild swimmers. To the north, the island is only accessed by track, so it’s a very peaceful camping place.
Northern Colonsay
Continuing north past Kiloran Bay, the truly adventurous can follow a track that bends around another tiny bay on the west shore before swerving via Balnahard Farm, an important birdwatching area for choughs and corncrakes, to reach Balnahard Beach. At this strip of white-gold sand, you can pitch on the machair (grass- and flower-topped dunes) or higher up on the beach to look out across to the mountainous spines of Jura and Mull.
Southwest Colonsay
A series of striking beaches hemmed by skerries and reefs run south of the golf course at Machrins. Here, a path winds around with the coast, leading to exceptional wild camping locations. The path eventually links with the southern end of the B8085 road, from where you can walk across to Oronsay at low tide. Wild swim, wildlife-watch for grey seals, or roam to several prehistoric sites, including two standing stones.
Oronsay
Connected to Colonsay only at low tide, tiny Oronsay is a land apart even by Colonsay’s remote standards. With a population of under 10, most human activity is around the working farm and adjacent ruined 14th-century priory—otherwise, solitude-lovers will find some fine wild camping. Grassy, low-lying, and surrounded by sand on much of its three sides, Colonsay has plentiful pitching places. And wildlife is rich: grey seals, barnacle geese, and some of Scotland’s only corncrake and chough populations live here.