The day dawned bright and sunny (and early) to make up for yesterday. After another leisurely breakfast, we headed off west on the road to Invercassley and Ullapool. As we approached the west coast, the countryside steadily became more rugged and majestic. At Knockan Crag Geopark (near Elphin) we found an explanation of the reason why. Apparently, around 500 million years ago this part of Scotland was part of Antarctica and what we are looking at today is the result of the two bits crashing together.
After climbing a little way up the hill to take some amazing photos, we returned to our car and continued on to Ullapool. This is a rather pretty town on Loch Broom and its main claim for existence is as the port for the Ferry to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. After a short stroll around town, we set off north. Initially we retraced our travels as far as Drumrunie and then turned off for the coast on the usual single track road. Passing by Loch Lurgainn, Loch Bad A Ghaill and Loch Osgaig, we eventually arrived at Achiltibuie where we had lunch in a cafe in the local pipe band hall. It was a little bit like a cafe being run at a school fete but that was OK as the locals were earning themselves a share of the tourist Pounds.
After lunch we continued on our way, this time along another single track road to Lochinver on, you guessed it, Loch Inver. Mind you, this was a special single track road - it was that narrow and twisty that trucks, buses, campervans and caravans were banned from using it. From Lochinver we continued up the coast to Stoer where we made our way out to the Stoer Head Lighthouse.
By now it was getting on in the afternoon so we headed back to the main road. I should point out here that in this part a Scotland, a main road can be identified as only being single track part of the time instead of all of the time. Anyway, once on the main road, we headed for Durness, our target destination for the day. Well, we did make it and it was only 6 o'clock when we got there...
It was time to make our way back to Lairg and we chose to head east across the top of Scotland until when reached Tongue. Here we turned south, driving alongside Loch Loyal until we reached Altnaharra and joined up with the road we drove down yesterday. About 10 miles before Lairg, out in the middle of nowhere is the Crask Inn. As it was a recommended dining spot by the B&B, we thought we would have dinner there as we were passing. To our surprise, they couldn't accommodate us because they were too busy... So we pressed on to the Lairg Highland Hotel instead.
At Polbain looking out over the Summer Isles
The view south from Stoer Head Lighthouse
The B869 through Drumberg
Loch Glencoul and Loch Glendhu merge at Kylesku
On the road to Scourie
The beach at Durness - complete with swimmers
The main road east from Durness
No comments:
Post a Comment