Some of the pitches and tents 18.5.2013
Nest
Rag
Tag
2012
and Bobtail
Also the start of a new pitch or two
by rotivating and raking an area
that has had new drainage put in over the winter.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Camp workers - Meet some of the oddjobbers
Yvonne - now the camp photographer
Chris the dead tree wincher
Yvonne the power drill roof repairer
Chris the rotivator
Chris the Roofer
Arthur the hammock tester
Marie thetransport tester
Chris the pitch shower (the wig blew off 40 years later)
Plants in woodland. Ancient woodland
Calendar of what's happening in nature
10.5.13 21:00hrs
Wild whitecurrants
Emerging Ferns
Primroses at shack
Leopardsbane
Bluebells
Forget me not (mysotis)
Lesser celandines 
Ferns
comfrey
Apparently there are a few ways to tell if woodland is ancient,:-
1. If it is shown on early maps,
2.If it is irregular shape and not a rectangle as with modern tree planting because it is easier to fence.
3.Woodland on slopes was not easy to clear or farm, so it got left where it was.
4.Native primroses are paler yellow and native bluebells hang to one side.
5. Existence of ancient hollow way (an old track pasing through the middle of the wood.)
All of the above are evident in the valley of what is called "Hidden valley" on old local maps.
Forget me not (mysotis)Lesser celandines Ferns
comfreyApparently there are a few ways to tell if woodland is ancient,:-
1. If it is shown on early maps,
2.If it is irregular shape and not a rectangle as with modern tree planting because it is easier to fence.
3.Woodland on slopes was not easy to clear or farm, so it got left where it was.
4.Native primroses are paler yellow and native bluebells hang to one side.
5. Existence of ancient hollow way (an old track pasing through the middle of the wood.)
All of the above are evident in the valley of what is called "Hidden valley" on old local maps.
yellow archangel
scarlet pimpernel
Orange hawkweed near "Aero"
3 kinds of orchid:-
Early spotted, common spotted pyramid?
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Reviews Cool Camping, Independent magazine and the Guardian
May 2013
New Cool Camping Britain
(No longer split into Scotland, England etc.)
Page 298 may interest some of you!
Write up by Kevin McKelvie.
2010 Cool Camping Scotland.
Monday 24.8.09, the "Cool Camping" guide photographer and editor of Punk publishing,
Keith Didcock, took photos to include in the spring edition of their book.
Cool Camping - Home
http://www.coolcamping.co.uk/campsite/gimme-shelter
http://www.punkpublishing.co.uk/
http://www.coolcamping.co.uk/
1.3.2010 edition of the Cool camping Scotland by punk publishing,
can be bought from W.h. Smith, Waterstones, Amazon (top 50 bestsellers), or from our gallery.
It is well written, researched and informed,
with stunning photographs
(some of our camp, page 44 and 47, by Keith Didcote whose photos appear in the Guardian, etc.),
amusing play on song titles on the last paragraph of page 46.
Mentions in 5 categories pages 11-15 and page 5/6.
http://www.woodlandcampingimmeshelter.com/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/campingholidays/7934358/UK-campsites-with-fires.html
Camping Fife 9.8.2010.
Will Self
Will Self: PsychoGeography
Saturday, 22 September 2007
My friend Marc believes that all that happens when you buy carbon credits is that a man rushes into a remote African village shouting: "Turn off de generator! Big man taking a flight!" But then he's a hopeless cynic – or is he? Marc's view encapsulates the reality of a lot of environmentalists' practice, which is that wealthy Western consciences can be salved by token gestures. Carbon trading schemes are absolute bunk in my opinion, a get-out-of-this frying pan card for arch-capitalists that will dunk us straight back in the fire.
"So, what's your solution then, smarty-pants?" I hear you growl from deep in your Saturday muesli; and the answer is: "I don't have one." I think the real objection to plane travel is more aesthetic than ethical: there's something increasingly vulgar about contrails, the vaporous bling looped across the wrinkled bosom of our ageing sky. It could be my own ageing – it could be the practice of too much psychogeography, but I also find the very experience of international – and especially intercontinental – jetting, far more disorientating.
Like some bolshie alien, resisting Scottie's ministrations, as he tries to beam me up to the USS Enterprise, it takes me days after the arrival to feel as if all my molecules have joined me, and I'm not simply a fizzing column of a man. Consequently, when I return home I don't even feel as if I've been anywhere. All of which is by way of a mea culpa, because the fact is that if plane travel is bling, I'm a top gangsta in the ghetto. This last year has been the worst carbon-emitting period of my life. I've been to South America – twice! The USA – same again! And been shuttled back and forth to the continent so many times I feel like a baby in a shopping trolley that's been stolen by a speed freak.
I'm not going to try to claim any of these trips were essential – they truly weren't. Things just ... sort of ... turned out that way. And nor can I promise to be a better stay-at-home next year – plans are already afoot. But what makes it seem all the more senseless, galling and shaming, is that the place I've most enjoyed visiting this year, is the woodland camping site of Chris and Yvonne Barley, at Inverkeithing, just north of Edinburgh.
"We're old hippies, you see," Chris explained when the boys and I pitched up to pitch – and I instantly felt right at home. "We moved up here 30-odd years ago from the Leeds area. We bought the cottage and woodland about 10 years ago, and began working on it."
The work they've done is to turn this little spinney – perhaps 15 acres in all – into a kind of sylvan boutique hotel for weary urbanites. Looked at one way, the woodland isn't anything special: a tangle of brambles, a stand of birch, some alders, sessile oaks and ashes. And in among them, grassy glades half-contrived, half-natural. A deeply rutted old Holloway, its banks twisting with tree roots, led up the slight gradient past an ancient mound. On the far side of our camping glade, Sweet Meadow, the land dipped down a steep muddy incline to a stream.
But there is artifice here – the woodland is subtly managed: the camping glades are connected by mown pathways; the underwood is half-cleared, leaving plenty of dead boughs ready to be gathered for camp fires, while the campfire circles themselves are artfully sited by rough-hewn cooking tables. There's a composting toilet-cum-washing up station built out of logs, and a tumbledown hovel full of straw bales for badger-watching. All in all, the Barley's 15 acres give you the easiest, calmest way of sliding gently into nature that I've ever encountered.
At night, you can hear the traffic swishing past on the M9, heading for the cultural asperity of Edinburgh, but far from violating the spinney's peace, for me, it only enhanced it. Once the boys had glutted themselves on toasted marshmallows and cocoa, and tumbled, smoke-blackened into their sleeping bags, I strolled the margins of the wood, looking across the wheat stubble fields to where halogen lights marched beneath the moon.
I love an interzone, a place that defies the easy certainties of place to present you with a realer confusion of rus and urb – the Barleys' campsite was a perfect example of this. And so what if the burning logs on the fire looked at me with sorrowful, blame-filled eyes, admonishing me for my long year of shameless jet travel? Like the Barleys, I too am an old hippie. And though I may have sworn off major hallucinogens for many a year now, it's at times like these, alone in a Scots wood, in the middle of the night, that I begin to believe in the existence of flashbacks
To find out more about Chris and Yvonne Barley's campsite, visit www.ukcampsite.co.uk or http://www.woodlandcottages.co.uk/
Will Self: PsychoGeography
Saturday, 22 September 2007
My friend Marc believes that all that happens when you buy carbon credits is that a man rushes into a remote African village shouting: "Turn off de generator! Big man taking a flight!" But then he's a hopeless cynic – or is he? Marc's view encapsulates the reality of a lot of environmentalists' practice, which is that wealthy Western consciences can be salved by token gestures. Carbon trading schemes are absolute bunk in my opinion, a get-out-of-this frying pan card for arch-capitalists that will dunk us straight back in the fire.
"So, what's your solution then, smarty-pants?" I hear you growl from deep in your Saturday muesli; and the answer is: "I don't have one." I think the real objection to plane travel is more aesthetic than ethical: there's something increasingly vulgar about contrails, the vaporous bling looped across the wrinkled bosom of our ageing sky. It could be my own ageing – it could be the practice of too much psychogeography, but I also find the very experience of international – and especially intercontinental – jetting, far more disorientating.
Like some bolshie alien, resisting Scottie's ministrations, as he tries to beam me up to the USS Enterprise, it takes me days after the arrival to feel as if all my molecules have joined me, and I'm not simply a fizzing column of a man. Consequently, when I return home I don't even feel as if I've been anywhere. All of which is by way of a mea culpa, because the fact is that if plane travel is bling, I'm a top gangsta in the ghetto. This last year has been the worst carbon-emitting period of my life. I've been to South America – twice! The USA – same again! And been shuttled back and forth to the continent so many times I feel like a baby in a shopping trolley that's been stolen by a speed freak.
I'm not going to try to claim any of these trips were essential – they truly weren't. Things just ... sort of ... turned out that way. And nor can I promise to be a better stay-at-home next year – plans are already afoot. But what makes it seem all the more senseless, galling and shaming, is that the place I've most enjoyed visiting this year, is the woodland camping site of Chris and Yvonne Barley, at Inverkeithing, just north of Edinburgh.
"We're old hippies, you see," Chris explained when the boys and I pitched up to pitch – and I instantly felt right at home. "We moved up here 30-odd years ago from the Leeds area. We bought the cottage and woodland about 10 years ago, and began working on it."
The work they've done is to turn this little spinney – perhaps 15 acres in all – into a kind of sylvan boutique hotel for weary urbanites. Looked at one way, the woodland isn't anything special: a tangle of brambles, a stand of birch, some alders, sessile oaks and ashes. And in among them, grassy glades half-contrived, half-natural. A deeply rutted old Holloway, its banks twisting with tree roots, led up the slight gradient past an ancient mound. On the far side of our camping glade, Sweet Meadow, the land dipped down a steep muddy incline to a stream.
But there is artifice here – the woodland is subtly managed: the camping glades are connected by mown pathways; the underwood is half-cleared, leaving plenty of dead boughs ready to be gathered for camp fires, while the campfire circles themselves are artfully sited by rough-hewn cooking tables. There's a composting toilet-cum-washing up station built out of logs, and a tumbledown hovel full of straw bales for badger-watching. All in all, the Barley's 15 acres give you the easiest, calmest way of sliding gently into nature that I've ever encountered.
At night, you can hear the traffic swishing past on the M9, heading for the cultural asperity of Edinburgh, but far from violating the spinney's peace, for me, it only enhanced it. Once the boys had glutted themselves on toasted marshmallows and cocoa, and tumbled, smoke-blackened into their sleeping bags, I strolled the margins of the wood, looking across the wheat stubble fields to where halogen lights marched beneath the moon.
I love an interzone, a place that defies the easy certainties of place to present you with a realer confusion of rus and urb – the Barleys' campsite was a perfect example of this. And so what if the burning logs on the fire looked at me with sorrowful, blame-filled eyes, admonishing me for my long year of shameless jet travel? Like the Barleys, I too am an old hippie. And though I may have sworn off major hallucinogens for many a year now, it's at times like these, alone in a Scots wood, in the middle of the night, that I begin to believe in the existence of flashbacks
To find out more about Chris and Yvonne Barley's campsite, visit www.ukcampsite.co.uk or http://www.woodlandcottages.co.uk/
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Activities.Some free. Sports. Knockhill racing. Cycling. Fishing. Swimming. Showers. Skateboarding
Free activities:-
Feeding the ducks - Moorhen, Coot, mallard, swan....
Otterston loch (No.1 on the map.)
stargazing
http://www.maidoftheforth.co.uk/index.shtml.
Boat ride nearby from South Queensferry
Also "Forth Tours cruises".
http://www.forthtours.com/
Did you know you can camp at this rustic campsite and a mile or two up the road you can get showers at the Duloch leisure centre -Leisure centre showers
showers from £1.25 Jnr low season - £1.85 - £2.60 Adult high season.
Duloch leisure centre, just behind Duloch Tesco.
Also at Dalgety Bay Leisure centre.
Carnegie baths/Turkish/aerotone/needlespray, etc. in Dunfermline.
http://www.fifeleisure.org.uk/leisurecentres/carnegie/carnegie.html
See alternatives to Carnegie Leisure Centre http://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/roundup/articles/2011/01/28/409595-carnegie-leisure-centre-to-be-hit-by-further-delays/
Please visit http://www.fifeleisure.org.uk/ for information on alternative venues within Fife i.e.
http://www.blogger.com/www.fifee.org.ukisurle Boat launch
Knockhill racing calendar for 2011 http://www.whatson-scotland.co.uk/venue-listing/1763
Cycling -cycle path approx. 100 metres from here. See fuller info on post "Cycle..."
Fishing here and see suggestions below. You can then search the internet for more detail.
Lochore Meadows, windsurfing, fishing and more. Activities nearby:- http://www.knockhill.com/ racing.
Swimming bath with flumes - Burntisland Beacon leisure centre. http://www.thecourier.co.uk/News/Fife/article/7622/burntisland-s-beacon-centre-to-close-for-repairs.html
http://guide.visitscotland.com/vs/guide/5,en,SCH1/objectId,SPF58921Svs,curr,GBP,season,at1,selectedEntry,home/home.html 10 miles east. Swimming pool with outside feature - Perth. Swimming baths & gym Cowdenbeath, 5 miles north. Sports centre Dalgety Bay.
Local taxi 01383 410088
http://www.fifefishingguide.co.uk/
http://www.fifefishingguide.co.uk/swsalt.php
Fishing ( a local fisherman recommends
Stenhouse Loch, Loch Leven but not re-stocking.)
Also Kirkcaldy Raith Lake and Lochore.
North Queensferry sea fishing.
Dysart pier fishing.
Coastal fishing- Maggies croft Cumbernauld.
Orchil. Deanswood Livingston.
Horse riding Falconry
Boat trips. Loch Leven. Maid of the Forth.
Fife Leisure park, bowling, crazy golf, cinema, several eating places, Pizza, mexican, etc. lots of walks.
Skateboarding Burntisland, Dalgety Bay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXHhGQ7vaZ8
Feeding the ducks - Moorhen, Coot, mallard, swan....
Otterston loch (No.1 on the map.)
stargazing
http://www.maidoftheforth.co.uk/index.shtml.
Boat ride nearby from South Queensferry
Also "Forth Tours cruises".
http://www.forthtours.com/
Did you know you can camp at this rustic campsite and a mile or two up the road you can get showers at the Duloch leisure centre -Leisure centre showers
showers from £1.25 Jnr low season - £1.85 - £2.60 Adult high season.
Duloch leisure centre, just behind Duloch Tesco.
Also at Dalgety Bay Leisure centre.
Carnegie baths/Turkish/aerotone/needlespray, etc. in Dunfermline.
http://www.fifeleisure.org.uk/leisurecentres/carnegie/carnegie.html
See alternatives to Carnegie Leisure Centre http://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/roundup/articles/2011/01/28/409595-carnegie-leisure-centre-to-be-hit-by-further-delays/
Please visit http://www.fifeleisure.org.uk/ for information on alternative venues within Fife i.e.
http://www.blogger.com/www.fifee.org.ukisurle Boat launch
Knockhill racing calendar for 2011 http://www.whatson-scotland.co.uk/venue-listing/1763
Cycling -cycle path approx. 100 metres from here. See fuller info on post "Cycle..."
Fishing here and see suggestions below. You can then search the internet for more detail.
Lochore Meadows, windsurfing, fishing and more. Activities nearby:- http://www.knockhill.com/ racing.
Swimming bath with flumes - Burntisland Beacon leisure centre. http://www.thecourier.co.uk/News/Fife/article/7622/burntisland-s-beacon-centre-to-close-for-repairs.html
http://guide.visitscotland.com/vs/guide/5,en,SCH1/objectId,SPF58921Svs,curr,GBP,season,at1,selectedEntry,home/home.html 10 miles east. Swimming pool with outside feature - Perth. Swimming baths & gym Cowdenbeath, 5 miles north. Sports centre Dalgety Bay.
Local taxi 01383 410088
http://www.fifefishingguide.co.uk/
http://www.fifefishingguide.co.uk/swsalt.php
Fishing ( a local fisherman recommends
Stenhouse Loch, Loch Leven but not re-stocking.)
Also Kirkcaldy Raith Lake and Lochore.
North Queensferry sea fishing.
Dysart pier fishing.
Coastal fishing- Maggies croft Cumbernauld.
Orchil. Deanswood Livingston.
Horse riding Falconry
Boat trips. Loch Leven. Maid of the Forth.
Fife Leisure park, bowling, crazy golf, cinema, several eating places, Pizza, mexican, etc. lots of walks.
Skateboarding Burntisland, Dalgety Bay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXHhGQ7vaZ8
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Suitability:- types of campers.
Will it suit you?
nature, wild flowers, animals, listening to the birds.
Also appealing to a couple, a single person, a family, a cyclist.
If you are a novice or hesitant camper, single woman, etc.
you can always register for special consideration, give us your mobile number,
ask for a pitch nearby families or our base.
We could give you a shout when we are on our service rounds, to see if you're okay.
Rustic camping - Duloch hamlet ( Gimme Shelter) 10 miles north of Edinburgh.
Relaxing; natural atmosphere. Tents only, we cannot take caravans or pets.
Limited facilities:-
Cold water. (No showers - nearest 2 miles at Duloch Leisure centre.)
Environmentally friendly composting sawdust toilet. (No flushing toilets, see blog post "Toilet".).Cold water. (No showers - nearest 2 miles at Duloch Leisure centre.)
Rubbish recycling.
Campfires.
Because it has rustic charm and is a "one off" out of the ordinary, individual place,
it also appeals to people with a wide variety of hobbies:-
actors.dunfermlinepress
inventors practicing bushcraft or metal craft as below. 
People preparing for Duke of Edinburgh award. Mandolin players; other gentle musicians.The kind of people who like recycled shacks, sheds, dens and unusual things.
Loads of resident wild animals, badgers, buzzards, roe deer, peregrine falcons, bullfinch.
Normal camp requirements of respectful noise levels during the day and quiet by 10p.m.
Antisocial behaviour not tolerated.
please phone us. 01383 417681.
See Shop/Gallery blogpost
For items available
For items available
Fridge freezer. Microwave. Kettle (adult use.)
Wi-Fi in the lane/ at the gallery.
There is a little table and chairs for adults to sit and e mail or read
the guide and reference books or have a coffee or snack.
the guide and reference books or have a coffee or snack.
Tub trugs
£5 Campfire starter kit contains:- logs, kindling, paper, firelighter.
If you buy a tub of wood, you may forage for a little bit (i.e. a tub )
of dead wood lying on the ground.
Please leave any dead wood which is still atttched to a tree.
of dead wood lying on the ground.
Please leave any dead wood which is still atttched to a tree.
Reception hours:-
9.30a.m. - 6.30p.m.
Saturday - Midday to 6.30p.m
Mon - Friday
Sunday - 3.30 - 6.30p.m.
or phone 01383 417681
or 07957 264 805
Just e mail chris.barley@virgin.net to enquire/book or register interest.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Facilities. Water
Camp Water tap
mounted on a reclaimed "Harrow tine"
Situated in driveaway on the right, just before the steps to the Shack on the left.
There is also collected rainwater for washing at three toilet areas.
Plus gallons of water for drinking,
you can refil these from the water tap.
The "Sweet Meadow" toilet area has tap water.
There are also gallons of bottled water for sale in the shop.
Reception has free gallons of bottled water.
Caravan has running cold water.
The Camping shack has a 55 gallon rainwater collecting barrel
and is near to the "Sweet Meadow" running water.
Situated in driveaway on the right, just before the steps to the Shack on the left.
There is also collected rainwater for washing at three toilet areas.
Plus gallons of water for drinking,
you can refil these from the water tap.
The "Sweet Meadow" toilet area has tap water.
There are also gallons of bottled water for sale in the shop.
Reception has free gallons of bottled water.
Caravan has running cold water.
The Camping shack has a 55 gallon rainwater collecting barrel
and is near to the "Sweet Meadow" running water.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
caravan in woodland. 2 Videos
Video 25.3.2013
Stove in extension and caravan interior.
Refurbished, using more reclaimed oak and stockholm tar/linseed oil finish
"Wildo" Woodburning stove in caravan extension.
Winter and Spring camping 2012 to 2013
11.4.13
6 panniers of "Pitch" grass cuttings.
Nice dry pitches, all waiting for you.
30.3.13
Sun all day.
Ramsons garlic and Lovage to "Campers' herb garden.
29.3.2013
That's sun on the clock!
Last campers in 2012
First campers of 2013
Or there is the shack or caravan
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