We are celebrating signing up our 40th Nightstop at Practical Motorhome. Please welcome The Highlander Inn, a beautiful rural 300-year-old coaching inn, which you’ll find in Belsay, four miles north of Ponteland, on the A696, just five miles from Newcastle airport.

This marks an important landmark for the Nightstops scheme, the long running joint project between Practical Motorhome and The Motor Caravanners’ Club (MCC). We set up the scheme in 2008 to offer cheap or free camping overnight for motorhomes.

As we know, the advantage of owning a motorhome is that you have all you need on board and can stop anywhere for a brew or a sleep. But why sleep in a lorry park at a service station or beside a noisy A-road, when you could enjoy a stopover in a motorhome-friendly location every night instead?

We’re pleased that 40 Nightstops are now available to you and as a bonus, a great many of them are pubs that serve meals. With pubs closing at an alarming rate up and down the country, it’s good to support the survivors by buying their food and drink and enjoying their warm hospitality.

When landowners and pub owners apply to become one of our Nightstops, we check that they are suitable and if so our MCC partners have the power to issue a CL licence. This allows them legally to host up to five motorhomes on their land overnight.

Your stay is at the discretion of the licensee or landowner at each location and you not have to join any club to stay at one of the Practical Motorhome/MCC Nightstops. The MCC also has a larger network of CL campsites, which you can also use if you decide to join their club.

The Highlander Inn is the latest Nightstop to join us and we’re pleased to report that if you stay at this lovely coaching inn overnight in your motorhome you’re in for a treat. This pub is renowned for its excellent home cooking. Better still, if you decide to eat here you can stop overnight in the car park in your motorhome for free!

The Highlander offers its Nightstop guests fresh water, the use of its toilet and washroom during pub opening hours and rubbish bins. Dogs are allowed and there is an exercise area. It’s a wheelchair-friendly pub and vehicle access is through a 20ft wide gate.

Thanks to our Nightstop scheme partners at the Motor Caravanners’ Club (MCC) this new Nightstop is now licensed for up to five motorhomes staying overnight in the car park. The Highlander offers a flat car park, surfaced with Tarmac and gravel. Please ring William Newlove on 01661 881220 at The Highlander between 11am and 11pm to check availability before you roll up.

There are gardens at this pretty country pub for those who enjoy eating outside in the summer and a cosy lounge indoors with a log burner in winter. There’s also a separate restaurant and a room that can be hired for parties. The pub serves food from 11.30am to 9pm on weekdays and Saturdays, then from noon until 8pm on Sundays. Visit The Highlander’s website for full details.

The full address of The Highlander is Higham Dykes, Belsay, Newcastle NE20 0DN, and the pub’s phone number is 01661 881220. Please ring between 11am and 11pm – GPS 55.084451-1.809442.

You can see the full list of Practical Motorhome/MCC Nightstops in every issue of the magazine and also search for them online, right here on the Practical Motorhome website. 

Want to read more? There are news stories on the Practical Motorhome website, too. You can read all about The Tipple Inn Nightstop in Wiltshire and The Enmore Inn Nightstop in Somerset here. Another new Nightstop that we’ve just signed up for you is The Moody Cow in Harrogate, which you can read all about here. The Flying Bull in Hampshire and Banham Community Centre in Norfolk are two more recent additions to the scheme that will save you money on your motorhome holidays, as we report here.

You can see The Motor Caravanners’ Club’s Nightstops list on the club website. The MCC’s featured Nightstop story is about The Gloucester Old Spot Nightstop.

We hope you will enjoy using the motorhome Nightstops scheme from Practical Motorhome and our friends at The Motor Caravanners’ Club!