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Published: November 10th 2023
Even though we are approaching deepest winter with autumn gales kicking in, and campsites closing. We are amazed to see so many visitors from abroad, either in their own vans or hiring them.
Following an early morning walk along Dunnet Beach we head west towards the other major town in Caithness, Thurso. It seems to fair better than Wick does. We just had a drive around the town, also a glimpse of the most northerly railway station. (Just two trains a day) then had a look at delightfully named place Scrabster you can catch a ferry to the Orkneys. We hope to do this sometime in the future.
On this northern coast we are more protected from the easterly winds that have been buffeting us so far.
We pass the Castle of Mey, a fortified house that the Queen Mother used to get away from it all. I can quite understand it, we are getting more and more into remote Scotland. Making early starts, we are trying make the most of the short days.
Heading further west the low-lying ground is replace by rugged mountainous country. The two-way roads are replaced by very narrow single tracks with
passing places. Fortunately, there are plenty of these, so it is not a problem. One incident happened although neither of us were going particularly fast, approaching a blind bend, two motorcyclists coming from the opposite, were startled by my large white camper suddenly in view. Unfortunately, one braked overbalanced and went into the boggy gully. Me and Alison went to assist help pull him out, no damage done, thankfully to biker and bike.
Passing a town named Betty Hill we popped into Strathnaver Museum. This museum not only told stories about the horrific clearances, where landowners cleared tenants from their home to fish on the coast, but also this is Clan Mackay territory, and many prominent Mackays are mentioned in this museum. One is a Virgin Galactic Astronaut born in nearby Helmsdale. One of the museum volunteers was a teacher who with her husband had moved twenty years ago from Kent. Although me and Alison could understand the rugged beauty and tranquillity of the area. We couldn’t imagine being so far away from family, theatre, and love or hate them - a city.
We are aiming to stay for a night in the strangely named Tongue. We prefer
campsites, we can plug in electricity and have facilities, but campsites are shutting down this time of year. We hope for a campsite possibility in nearby Talmine a delightful bay-it had closed, but every cloud has a silver lining and thanks to friendly villagers we were directed to a lovely cosy spot by the harbour wall. We had hoped to see whales and dolphins from this idyllic spot to no avail, but it was a wonderful sunrise.
Durness our next destination is a relatively short hop away. On the way we stop at the Smoo Caves, on the last day of their season, caves divers were running a trip into the caves and described how they were formed and how they were exploring new caves for future visitors. (they show us the entrance to the new working, it was two feet high!)
Our next stop was the wonderful Balnakeil Beach before a hot chocolate at Cocoa Mountain, also on their last day of then season. We would have liked to tick off the wonderfully named Cape Wrath the furthest North East land. It is a Naval and RAF target range but you have to get a ferry there,
but they are closed for the year-again thwarted!
Our stop for the night is Sango bay with views looking north over the sea before heading on.
The next section of the NC500 is a bit of a challenge, the steep and winding narrow roads, rain was coming in (we’d been lucky so far on this Scotland trip), but the rewards were great, fantastic views of the island and lochs. We passed the villages of Scourie, Drumbeg finally settling in Lochinver. Our camp spot for the night was the car park of the leisure centre for was a very reasonable £10, and a a shower for £3. This was right next to the fishing harbour. We felt we deserved a good meal and the local restaurant had good reviews so we thought a good fish dish would be a nice treat.
Heading south again we again hogged the coast, the weather was beautiful, stopped for lunch at Ullapool a lovely inlet where you can watch the Calmac ferries leave for the Hebrides. This is usually buzzing but it is the closed season, so we moved on.
On to Cornshalloch Gorge and nature reserve. This has been a
tourist attraction since Victorian times with a bridge over the falls (only six people allowed-worrying)! and a viewing platform.
Back on the road we again follow the coast. The next stopover is Gairloch. The only room at the inn was the harbour car park. We were sharing it with boats that had been hauled out of the water for the winter. Wandering up to quayside we were curious of tankers, reversing up the extremely narrow causeway and waiting. We were told these were waiting for salmon to be unloaded from ships coming from the salmon farms. Also, on the quayside surprisingly the Ukrainian navy were training on an ex Royal Navy Minesweeper that had been donated by the British Government.
Next morning, we head south-east on the A832 overlooking Loch Maree. We are coming to the end of our tour of the North Coast 500 and are close to the destination of a much over due visit to the Isle of Skye.
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