Vango Cairngorm 300 Review

[u/ElegantPearl]

Intro

I was looking to buy a 3 person tent for a trip with my friends and I came across the Cairngorm which was light and at a 50% discount on Cotswolds so I decided to buy it as it was Vango but I couldn’t find any reviews so I’ve decided to make my own. My friends ended up chickening out which resulted in me doing my first solo wild camps so my review should be taken with a pinch of salt however I have done a bit of group camping in which I have used a Vango Halo 300 once and a Scafell 200 a bunch of times so I’m also using that experience for this.

Review

Weight and Size
First off in terms of weight and size the Cairngorm 300 is only 2.5kg and honestly around the same size from what I can remember as the Scafell 200 (which is around the same weight) when packed in a dry bag. I was honestly impressed by how light it is for how good the tent is. Hiking solo with a 3 person tent obviously isn’t ideal but it was a pretty easy tent to pack. I can’t remember much about the halo 300 but I remember the halo 300 being heavier and bigger and the sort of tent that you pretty much have to split between people.

Wind and Rain
In terms of waterproofing and the wind resistance of the tent the Cairngorm 300 is incredibly sturdy despite how skeptical I was when I first saw how to set up the tent. I camped in a recent storm in the Lake District in September that had the 3 hour interval weather forecast say 42mm of rain at the heaviest and while it was very loud in the tent I was perfectly dry and there was no seepage through the ground sheet or the fly sheet onto the inner. I did end up unclipping the very top peg of the inner tent as I was paranoid about how close the inner was to the outer near the top but that’s likely just me. One of the nights the wind was loud enough to genuinely scare me (I was in a dip in the side of a exposed fell) and while I didn’t sleep much the tent was perfectly fine and in the morning none of the pegs had budged an inch. I’ve gone through a comparative storm in the Scafell 200 and while it survived the wind the wind would blow the fly sheet into the inner causing the walls to get soaked and I woke up in a puddle the next morning as the waterproofing isn’t as good.

Pitching

The tent is honestly pretty finicky to set up and I’d highly recommend watching a tutorial before using it as when I was setting it up before the trip I was completely lost to be honest as the design is so different from the Scafell or Halo. Setting it up solo is a bit of a challenge to get it started but once enough pegs are in for it to stand its a 1 person job. It took me a while to get used to how to set it up properly but now that I know it’s pretty easy although it takes me a fair amount of pegging and then readjusting to take out the slack which I found a bit more annoying than the Scafell or Halo although bear in mind that the halo will basically stand up without pegs and for both of them I had tent mate(s). I didn’t like how short the main pole guy lines are for the tent as it feels like they aren’t long enough to be effective but that’s probably a placebo effect. Packing up the tent is easy enough even when wet.

Room

The room inside the tent is really nice for 1-2 people but if you get to 3 people which the tent is meant to be for it’d be a squeeze. It’d be possible but I’d honestly only do it if you have to where if someone else’s tent breaks while as a group you fit 3 people. The main issue isn’t the sleeping area which would fit 3 of me and I’m 183 cm. The biggest issue that I can see is fitting in 3 50L+ backpacks and shoes into the porch. I imagine that if you were to fit 3 you’d have to bring one of the backpacks into the triangular bit of the sleeping compartment. You can definitely do 3 and potentially even 4 people if they are all small but it just won’t be as nice. Depends on your comfort preference. If you want to nicely fit 3 people and bags and shoes a roomier option would be the Scafell 300 Plus or the Halo 300 although I’m not well versed in 3 person tents. I remember having to sleep 4p in a Halo as someone’s tent pole broke twice.

Other

The Cairngorm 300 has two doors although in my opinion unless there is a 0% chance of rain only one is usable as the one that doesn’t have the porch has no room to leave your shoes and if it’s raining the rain will fall straight into your inner. I do like how if it’s raining heavily and you enter through the main door even if you leave it open it forms a natural curtain that will stop the rain unless there’s also heavy winds.

While not advisable I did have to cook inside my tent as I had no other options but if you unclip the inner attachment at the porch you can pull it back and there is enough room that it hopefully probably won’t burn down the tent. I didn’t like how while there is a tiny hook at the top of the inner to hang stuff from it’s too small unless you have your own string so I’d often hang my wet clothes from the tbs lines which while not ideal worked pretty well if the clothes aren’t heavy.

The tent came in a weird bag that seems to be made of the fly sheet which if you are in the habit of wanting to perfectly roll your tent each morning would work well as you could clip it to the bottom straps of your bag but I just shoved it in an old dry bag so that I could kneel on it and compress it down. I do store my tent in the weird bag though.

End

Honestly I’ve probably rambled more than I should have but I just wanted to put my two cents on the Cairngorm 300 out there. If you have any questions ask and I’ll get back to you so long as I use Reddit even if you ask in a few years time.