Touring in the Scottish Highlands is always a joy, and travelling
the far-north of this wonderful destination is always an exercise in surprises.
The scenery is breathtaking, the communities are charming,
the food is memorable, accommodation delightful and the weather always a
subject of conversation. This trip was no exception, and having decided to
spend a few days in the South Of The North Of Scotland, with friends who dwell
in Ardgay, I suggested a two-day drive to the north coast.
The A838 - the busy northwestern highway! |
I had my reasons; in search of a series of Around Britain
driving programs, I needed to find some suitable accommodation and ideas for
this part of the country, and besides, I had taken the road from Ullapool
around the northwest cape to Durness once before, and it was truly one of themost spectacular roads it has been my privilege to drive.
The Northwest Scottish coast |
Oleshoremore Beach |
Now I drop these names for a reason or two. Firstly,
those of you heading to the northwest of Scotland should add them to your
must-see list; it is all too easy to pick communities at random, after all,
they all look the same on a map, but the cluster of communities at the Rubha na Leacaig (and no, I have no
clue what it means) are absolutely delightful. The beaches are superb, if a tad chilly,
the villages old and secure in the way that communities many hundreds of years
can be, and the atmosphere of the coastline epitomises the region.
It is difficult to quite grasp the lifestyle of sea
communities in the far north; obviously fishing and beachcombing are their
traditions, but living in such distant and climatically challenging villages
makes one perceive the world in a quite different way. I am a tad envious of
this perspective, and realising that I am, growing up in the centre of London,
as far from a Gaelic seafarer as one can be, look at their lives through
rose-tinted glasses. One forgets the danger of the oceans as romantic ideals of
the sea flood though one’s mind, and those gorgeous, white-painted cottages
that huddle together in the small villages evoke such images that the thought
of their heating bills, and drafty stonework rarely impede. In truth, the
reality of village life in the distant northwest of Scotland is one of
community, and while there are many leaving the region for the comforts and
work of the cities, there are many migrating the other way in search of a less
stressful existence; one can only hope that each find their own peace.
Oldmoreshore Beach |
Access to Cape Wrath, the most northwesterly point of the
UK is by ferry across the Kyle of Durness which operates somewhat
eccentrically. In the off-season, which is now, it operates according to the
weather, and only by going to the ferry point and reading the instructions can
one get an idea of the possibility of sailing. Yesterday, it simply said “No
Sailing Today”, so that was that. We returned to Durness for a sandwich and
continued along the coast to Tongue.
Pocan Smoo |
The road is truly extraordinary; one jumps hundreds of
millions of years at the turn of Loch Eriboll where we are informed that the
lands on either side of this waterway are from different millennia, and one can
see a dramatic change in the agriculture and features of the land. As we
continued from here, the land became flatter and intermittently there were more
cattle grazing, and more frequently huge stags peering at us from their vantage
points in the moorlands.
Sunset at Loch Hope |
And so we continued until dark, which came at precisely
4.11pm, a touch early, and an impediment to full-on sightseeing, but for us it
was ideal, and time to enjoy the hospitality of the Borgie Lodge, our
destination for the night.
It was, and probably still is a slightly unusual place; rated with four stars by the Scottish Tourist Board, two stars by the AA, and by us as a mixture of the spectrum of stars that we could imagine. More about The Lodge in due course.
Sunset from the causeway at Tongue |