Castaway Weekend on a Remote Scottish Island
Get marooned on an uninhabited Scottish island, build a camp on the shore and learn what it really takes to survive
Trip Ref #9688
Castaway Weekend on a Remote Scottish Island
Get marooned on an uninhabited Scottish island, build a camp on the shore and learn what it really takes to survive
DURATION
2 nights
LOCATION
United Kingdom
ANNUAL LEAVE
1 day off work
SEASON
Apr-Sep
GROUP SIZE
Up to 8 people
MEETING POINT
Largs Marina, Scotland
ACCOMMODATION
Wild camping
DIFFICULTY
Moderate
Anyone interested in survival skills and bushcraft training. You need to be in good health but no previous experience is required.
Step aboard a 43ft yacht and sail up the west coast of Scotland while learning survival and seamanship skills on our Primal Castaway course.
Visit uninhabited islands and forage for food and wild herbs to use in dinner
Sleep under the stars or spend a night in your own castle and enjoy the thrill of speeding back to port on a high-power speedboat!
Day 1
Take to the water
Meet your host at Largs Marina and hop aboard their 43-foot yacht. After a quick safety briefing, set sail up the Kyles of Bute to a wild and remote island – your base for the next few days. On the journey, you’ll learn sailing skills and work on your knot game, as well as enjoy some of the best coastal scenery in Scotland. There’s also a good chance of spotting charismatic marine mammals. Hop ashore on your island and spend the rest of the day exploring, building a camp on the shoreline and learning essential survival skills.
Day 2
Coastal survival training
After a seaside breakfast, get stuck into your survival training alongside your expert guide. Channel your inner Bear Grylls as you learn a range of essential skills, like foraging, building fires, finding fresh water, creating a shelter, fishing, setting traps and cooking over an open fire. Put your new found skills to the test as you search for dinner ingredients, prepare them over the campfire and end the day swopping stories and gazing up at the stars.
Day 3
Take the fast way home
Wake to the sound of lapping waves and take a moment to appreciate the sea air and awesome coastal views. Enjoy a last seaside breakfast, break camp and then simulate a real-life survival situation by building a signal fire and keeping watch for rescue. Help comes in the form of a high-speed rib boat, which will whisk you back to Largs Marina where you’ll say goodbye to your guides and fellow travellers before heading back home.
Included
Guides
Experienced local guide
Accommodation
2 nights wild camping
Meals
Munch on tasty food throughout
Not Included
Travel to and from the start point
Travel insurance
Personal expenses
Day 1
Wild camping · Bivvy
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Day 2
Wild camping · Bivvy
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Day 3
Departure day
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
What is the food like?
Food consists of high energy items such as crackers, pate, nutty bars. Freshly foraged items such as mussels, fish, etc are also included if you are fortunate enough to catch anything!
All dietary requirements including vegetarian and vegan can be accomodated: just let your host know.
What is the accommodation like?
On The Island
You'll wild camp on the beach of a remote Scottish island. Waking up to the fresh sea breeze and the sound of the lapping waves is a memorable experience. Tarpaulin shelters will be built on day 1 as part of the survival course and there will also be a compost toilet in keeping with leaving no trace principles designed to keep this special place wild and clean. There is the option of sleeping in a hammock for those who prefer one.
The Area
Logistics
Starts
Largs Marina
10:00 on Day 1
Ends
Largs Marina
14:00 on Day 3
Transfers
Your host will meet you at Largs Marina.
Travel options
There are regular trains to Largs from stations across the UK, or if you prefer your host can pick you up from Largs Train Station at 09:30 upon request. If you’re driving, the postcode is KA30 8EZ. There is space to park at the Marina.
Enjoy 12.5% Off Outdoor Gear
In need of a few more items? All bookings receive a 12.5% discount to use at Cotswold Outdoor, Snow + Rock and Runner's Need.
What do I need to bring?
- Waterproof jacket and trousers
- Layered outdoor clothing
- Warm hat and gloves
- Sleeping bag
- Waterproof bivvy bag
- Sleeping mat
- Camping cutlery
- Camping plate, bowl and cup
- Water bottle
- Headtorch with spare batteries
- Camera
- Compass
- Whistle
- Personal washkit
- Tea or coffee and whitener
- Small first aid kit
- 24-hour emergency rations
- Notebook and pen
No optional extras are available for this trip.
I’m just back from an amazing weekend in Scotland and experienced the whole Castaway and Survival experience. What an incredible time, I didn’t want to leave, building our signal fire to call the Rib boat to take us home was bittersweet!
As a female wannabe solo wild camper I needed this badly to give me the confidence and the ability to be safe, knowledgable and and brave!
Matt & Luke had everything covered, food & kit, you need to bring minimal items with you. We can now make shelter, staying dry and safe, we can build fires from using what’s around us, forage and identify trees, shrubs and food sources, find water and safely filter it. I loved the knife & axe skills session!
On the last night I had the opportunity to truly wild-camp with just my sleeping bag for company on the roof of a 16th Century castle, the sun rise was spectacular!
Thank you both, wonderful food, fantastic company, lots of laughs and for sharing your expert knowledge.
Probably the best weekend break I’ve ever had. Thoroughly interesting and enjoyable, with excellent hosts. It was well planned and adapted to suit people’s needs. I’d do it again in a heartbeat
Absolutely amazing trip, 10/10. Matt, Andy and Luke were amazing guides. I feel as though I learned an awful lot about survival. Really enjoyed everything from the sailing, to the swimming and making fire
Scenery, wildlife, learning, sailing were great.
Overall the trip was a great experience and the host was extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
We've crunched the numbers to work out the total carbon footprint of this trip, and plant enough trees to suck 2x as much back out the atmosphere.
What's the number?
It works out on average at 28kg of CO2 emissions per person, including all local transport, accommodation, food, activities, guides, staff and office operations.
The only thing it doesn’t include right now is flights and travel to the destination. We do make an overall estimate across all our customers separately, but as we don’t book flights, have customers from all corners of the world, and no way of reliably knowing their travel plans, we simply can’t include an individual number in the figure on display here. We’ve got a goal for 2023 to fix that, so that when you book, there is a way to measure and mitigate the carbon emitted by your flight too.
But what does the number mean?
Yep, hard to picture eh? To give you an idea:
- Driving 1000miles/1609km would be approx. 281kg of CO2 in an average car (or 140.5kg per person if there was 2 of you in it).
- A return economy class flight London - New York would be approx. 1,619kg (1.66 tonnes) per person.
- 10 trees in a temperate forest are estimated to remove approx. 250kg of CO2 from the air in a period of 5-10 years.
What are we doing about it?
Our trips are relatively low-carbon by design, and we're working with all our hosts to develop long term carbon reduction plans. For every person booked with us since 2016 we’re planting enough trees to suck at least 2x more carbon out the atmosphere than is emitted by their trips. All native trees, as part of amazing projects that are re-foresting degraded land, tackling the biodiversity crisis and supporting local communities at the same time. We go further than that too, also funding re-wilding projects worldwide to help protect important keystone species from extinction. See the reforestation and re-wilding schemes we support. See our carbon action plan.
Want to know more?
Amazingly, no international travel company has ever publicly published their carbon measurements before, as far as we know. We believe that must change, quickly. So we’re openly sharing the method we used in the hope that other companies will be able to more easily follow suit and build on what we've done so far. You'll find it all here.
Anyone interested in survival skills and bushcraft training. You need to be in good health but no previous experience is required.
Sure can! Over 50% of our travellers travel solo, it’s a great way to meet like-minded people.
Your host can store any excess luggage in their office for the duration of the trip.
Our recommended travel insurance provider is Campbell Irvine.
Travel insurance is compulsory for all of our adventures and you are required to provide your policy information before departing.
Your insurance should include adequate protection for overseas medical treatment, evacuation/repatriation, your baggage and equipment and the specific activities involved on your adventure. We also strongly recommend it includes cancellation and curtailment insurance, should you be unable to join your trip for specific reasons such as illness.
We fully endorse Campbell Irvine as their insurance offers all of the above, so get in touch with them or call on 020 7938 1734 to get your insurance sorted. We suggest that you book travel insurance as soon as you book your adventure, just to cover you for any last-minute life changes. We know you’re an active lot and injuries do happen!
We automatically convert prices from the local currency that a host receives to your chosen currency. We update our exchange rates on a daily basis so this does mean that prices displayed on the site are subject to currency fluctuations, which is why you may see them change over time.
If you wish to change the currency you pay in, head to the bottom of the page.
All of our group adventures are specially designed for adults to enjoy (18+) as we want these adventures to bring together outdoorsy people who are truly like-minded. Children can be accommodated on some private departures.
You're in good company. Our adventures are typically made up of a mix of solo travellers and small groups of two or three friends who simply love adventure, pushing themselves and meeting awesome like-minded people. See here for more info about our lovely bunch of Much Better Adventurers.
Want to book a private trip? Just tap ‘Private Group’ in the dates and prices tab.
Your trip is led by carefully curated local hosts and expert guides. See here for more info about the guides we work with.
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