Highlands mum becomes overnight TikTok sensation by posting solo camping adventures

After spending two decades working in civil service admin, raising three children and going through the menopause Fiona MacBain – who grew up in Glen Nevis – thought life was passing her by.

She longed for an adventure – and long walks were just not quite cutting it any more.

Following her 52nd birthday in 2023 – and despite her lifelong fear of the dark and bugs – she bought herself some camping gear and set off on her first camping adventure, along Loch Ness.

She describes it as an “epiphany moment”.

As she sat alone in the middle of the night looking out at the loch she felt a new surge of energy.

A few months later Fiona was camping at Slaggan Bay, near Aultbea but with no phone signal she found herself twiddling her thumbs and in an attempt to fill the time created a video in which she chatted about her boredom.

She posted it to TikTok – and saw it receive more than 100,000 views in just 24 hours.

“It was completely astonishing,” she said of the reaction.

And so the online account “Fiona in the wild” was born.

By May last year Fiona had amassed 10,000 followers and by August was earning more than £1,000 a month from her wild camping adventures – enough to take her two teenage sons on holiday to Sicily.

Astonished as she was by her posts’ success, she said their popularity left her family “bemused” and joked about the role reversal that saw her children often telling her to get off her phone.

“Fiona in the wild” now has more than 135,000 followers on TikTok who have variously watched her spill pancake mix in her tent, helped her to get a gas canister working in sub zero temperatures and been fascinated by her “spicy egg” recipe, a “cheat” shakshuka (a popular North African and Middle Eastern breakfast staple) that she picked up from her Tunisian ex-husband.

The video of her sharing the recipe gained 1.3 million views.

Ironically one of her favourite destinations is the Isle of Eigg – “a fantastic little place” – and, she says, she always has eggs to hand on her adventures, claiming never to have broken one yet – even when she used her backpack as a chair.

Fiona admits that filming yourself sleeping in the middle of nowhere and getting attacked by mosquitoes, for others to “enjoy”, is not everyone’s cup of tea, but believes “everybody should get the chance to do what they want at some point in life.

“It got me out of a rut,” she said – and boosted her confidence in ways she hadn’t expected.

Fiona, now living in Inverness, still has her day job doing admin for the civil service and likes the security it offers, but also enjoys the second, online, string to her bow.

She will often camp at night then head in to the office in the morning, or spend her weekends going on longer trips.

She taught herself how to film and edit and after self publishing several novels, some of which are set in the Highlands, now prefers telling her stories though TikTok.

Fiona is living proof that life doesn’t end at 50 – “Just go for it,” she tells people.