The Brydons, from Blakelaw, Newcastle, love a camping holiday. Mum Jemma (40), her partner, Paul (43) who works in electrical maintenance, and daughters Alyssa-Rose (8) and Elana-Grace (7), like nothing more than packing their tent in the car and heading off to find a campsite.

During the summer half-term, the family combined a stay in a caravan at Parkdean’s Grannie’s Heilan’ Hame holiday park, near Dornoch, with seven nights camping on the NC500, in Achmelvich, on the North West coast, and Applecross, overlooking the Isle of Skye.

Jemma said: “I sometimes struggle with my mental health so I don’t like being around large crowds of people. That means airports, planes and foreign travel aren’t really an option for us, but it hasn’t stopped us from having amazing holidays. We love Scotland, and the girls are really adventurous and love the outdoors, so we do a lot of camping. We don’t worry about anything too flashy – our tent’s pretty small, and we have a little stove and a fire kit, and some camping chairs. That’s all we need.

“Achmelvich is our favourite place in the world, and we started our holiday with three nights in a tent there. We got a lot of steps in, climbing up mountains and exploring the beach, before moving on to Grannie’s for four nights, where the girls had the best time with all the activities and entertainment on offer. While we were there we got a message from the girls’ school saying that they had some problems with the roof so they would be closed for a week, so we decided to book another three nights’ camping at Achmelvich. Then, as we were driving home, we saw a sign for the NC500 and decided on the spur of the moment to follow the road and see where it took us. We ended up on the most amazing drive to a place called Applecross, where we’d never been before, and found a campsite there where we stayed for one more night.

“Money’s always quite tight for us, but we’d never want the girls to miss out on a summer holiday. Your family holiday is the one thing you never want to give up, it’s such a special time when we can all be together, and we never feel like we’re missing out by not being able to go abroad. There are so many beautiful places in the UK that lots of people have never even heard of. It’s really special discovering these hidden gems, and we’re creating memories that you just don’t get on an all-inclusive holiday just sitting by the pool.”