Wagons west.................to Ullapool

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Monday 13th July
Wagons west.......to Ullapool
Of all the Scottish names of towns we have come across we cannot figure out how the name of Ullapool might have originated as it sounds rather unScottishlike.
However that was where we are heading for today on the Scottish West coast.
With no cooked breakfast included in our low overnight rate(we had found out that the rate for this hotel was usually GBP110!!!what a bargain we got at GBP39)we dined in on yogurt and toast.
First stop and attraction for today was the large and very impressive fort built by the British a year after they defeated the Scots of Bonnie Prince Charlie at nearby Culledon Moor in 1746.
Fort George was built on the coast on land that juts out into the Firth of Moray,the wide bay/inlet that ends at Inverness.It was not however built to defend from an attack from the sea but from the coastal plain.
Despite its age of over 260 years it has been fully preserved as it has and still does serve as an army base,although the main army installation is now nearby with the much of the Fort being open to the public.
The British decided to build the fort as a show of strength after their victory at Culloden in which over 5000 Scots died in a battle that lasted little more than an hour.
What strikes you immediately when you enter is the deep and wide defensive moat that an attacking force would have had to cross to reach the outer wall of the fort.Then inside that was an even wider moat of the same depth before the main part of the fort could be attacked.
It is little wonder therefore that the fort never came under any attack by the Scots.
Information boards inside the barrack rooms in the fort told stories of how soldiers who were posted here found the place to be so remote and desolate and having to live on less rations than their counterparts in more hospitable parts of the country where soldiers were stationed.
Eventually the Highlanders,who had been defeated at Culloden,joined the army as the idea of a separate Scottish state diminished and over the years various Highland regiments have occupied the fort.
Next was a short drive to Culloden Moor where the infamous battle with English troops commanded by the ‘butcher’Duke of Cumberland took place.
This site is run by the National Trust so our passes wouldn’t be accepted here and after taking a look at what there was to actually see we opted not to pay the 10quid each for entry to what was basically an open field with a couple of monuments and some flags which indicated the positions of the opposing armies at the time of the battle.
We did however stand on a lookout(which was free to do so)and read the inscription about the battle and took in the view over the relatively small field where one of history’s bloodiest battles took place.
We had been having problems connecting to the internet for the past 10 days or so each time requiring several attempts before achieving connection and on some occasions not being able to do so at all.We had rung Cormac,our usual expert who helps us out when things go wrong,but they were without power and couldn’t fire up the laptop to possibly mirror what our problem was.So it was time for advice on what might be wrong from a local computer techy,if we could find one in Inverness.
We didn’t have any luck in finding one so we thought we would just try a wifi connection available at a pub in the High Street while we had a coffee(yes coffee,it is the middle of the day after all and we have more driving to do to get to our destination).Well wouldn’t you know it we turned on the laptop and hit the connect option and hey presto!!we were back in business.
So we are unsure what the problem was but things now seem to be back on track which is a relief as we do rely upon the laptop not just for the blog and email but also for booking our accommodation as we go which has been giving us the best deals.
Back on the road again and the A835 heading for Ullapool.
Once we had cleared Inverness the countryside started to become hilly again although the rises and falls of the road was easily handled by RR even at 1300cc without changing down from 4th gear.The traffic volume dropped appreciably as well as we drove further west and the towns and villages came fewer and further between as we entered a part of the country that is fairly sparse in population.
We passed Loch Glencarroch, a relatively large loch in terms of its area,and noticed the dam at the eastern end and then as the loch came fully into view what can happen when the control of water used for the hydro power station drops too low leaving an unsightly shoreline.We hope we don’t see too many more like this one as the lochs we have driven past to date have been very picturesque with shorelines of trees right down to the water or open fields where the land has been cultivated.
Soon Loch Broom came into view.The loch is in fact open to the sea and this wasn’t something we had realised or considered in our understanding of what a loch actually was.We had thought that a loch was only a loch if it was like our lakes in NZ where they were landlocked.Perhaps these types of lochs in Scotland may have been cut off from the sea before the ice age and have retained their title rather than being called an inlet or sound as we would call them in NZ.
We discovered the name “Ullapool”was derived from a Viking name meaning Ullas’ Steading referring to the agricultural centre that the town grew under during Viking occupation.Today the town is the port for the ferry to the Western Isles and particulary the main town of Stornoway and has a thriving tourist industry going as well.
We had got a really good deal at GBP35 pn at the Glenfield Hotel which we found on the road north out of town.The hotel had only recently reopened for the summer and in fact hadn’t opened at all last summer.And the daily rate included a full Scottish breakfast.!!!(more black pud!!).
We joined a crowd of people enjoying the early evening sunshine at a pub on the foreshore with a view back up the loch and partook in a local brew that was cold enough but like many other UK beers too flat for our taste.It had been another full day as we effectively crossed from one side of the country to the other and also travelled a little further north meaning that the light would probably be in the northern sky all night and the curtains in our room had better be dark enough to keep it out.

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Comments

[Leebee]

What, you didnt go in at Culloden? The information center there was really, really interesting....but maybe you have more knowledge of the history than we did....we needed the explaination to understand the full significance of the place and what went on there. Nice to see it so green....it was barren and dreary when we were there!

[Rin]

Culloden
We had the added bonus of a bunch of weird Canadian role players at Culloden Moor on the day we visited, who brought the place to life a little bit by being dressed up as Highlanders and giving free talks about the battle and the events leading up to it. It was a blustery, bitterly cold grey day when we were there as well, which gave it a bit more of an ominous feeling!