Scotland - Gairloch to Dornoch


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May 13th 2011
Published: May 13th 2011
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Spot the poppy!
Wednesday 11th May 2011 Gairloch to Lairg 111 miles....................
Scroll to bottom for more photos!
It was surprisingly sunny when we got up and although still a little bit windy, it didn’t seem too bad a day. A typical April showers sort of day with dramatic skies and rainbows!
We first drove to NTS Inverewe Gardens which overlooked Loch Ewe and spent a pleasant hour wandering the azalea and rhododendron paths, past the ponds and up to the viewpoints and finally the walled garden.
Onto NTS Corrieshalloch Falls, a quite spectacular gorge, carved millions of years ago by glacial erosion and with a torrent of water plunging 150ft over the Falls of Measach. We walked across the swaying suspension bridge to the viewpoint overhanging the gorge.
As the weather was quite good we decided not to camp at Ullapool but to drive onto Lairg, passing Knochan Crag on the way. This area of Scotland was formed in the ice age and the mountains are very unusual shapes. Knochan Crag is unusual in that the rock on the top is 500 million years older than the rock underneath it. This is because two tectonic plates collided, the older plate (Scotland) having drifted
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Blue poppies!
from the South pole, via the equator and North America, until colliding with England 100 million years ago! There was a very informative Visitor Centre and a waymarked path, so we had a walk up to ‘First Contact’ which is where the first plates collided.
Carried along the pretty main road, A837, single track with passing places and before stopping at the campsite went to see the Falls of Shin which was another waterfall!! Stopped at Dunroamin Campsite, Lairg which also had about 15 ducks running around the campsite begging for food from the Vans!

Thursday 12th May 2011 Lairg to John O Groats 116 miles...............
It rained quite a lot in the night and the campsite was pretty sodden when we got up! It didn’t seem to worry the ducks who were there to greet us as soon as we opened the door and were quite keen to get inside the van to see if we had any food!!
We left about 10.00am and drove across the brown moors (purple heather in September!) past a wonderful little place called Crask which consisted of a stone bridge, one house and one pub and then onto Tongue on the North
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Hankerchief Tree
Coast! Drove along to Thurso and then to Dunnet Head – the most northerly point in mainland Britain. The weather had brightened up by now and the sky was clearing so after seeing the outside of Mey Castle (Queen Mothers house in Scotland!) we pushed on to John O Groats.
John O Groats is named after the dutch founder Jan de Groot, who arrived in 1496 bearing instructions from King James IV to establish a ferry link from the mainland to the Orkneys. The De Groots prospered and after 50 years when there were eight of them, they quarrelled over who would sit at the head of the table. Jan solved the problem by building an octagonal house with an octagonal table. The house has since gone, a slight mound apparently remains where it was, but this is the reason that the now closed down hotel in John O graots has an octagonal tower.
After wandering around we did a wonderful walk from the campsite along the cliffs to the lighthouse and then down to the Stacks of Duncansby passing the cliff nesting sites of razorbills, fulmars and puffins. We were also lucky enough to see a few seals in the water and sight the Great Auk. A wonderful walk. Back to the campsite by about 7.00pm and a short walk to the hotel for a fabulous meal of freshly caught scallops and haddock, sat at a table overlooking the Orkneys! Chris had Deep fried camembert followed by chicken stuffed with haggis and sticky toffee pudding to finish. A bit less healthy!!!



Friday 13th May 2011 John O Groats to Dornoch 87 miles...............
A beautiful sunny morning as we started our journey south! Popped into Tesco in Wick for food supplies, tried to find the Castle of Old Wick and couldn’t and also were unable to find Whaligoe Steps or Hill o Many Stanes! Ah well!
Stopped for a coffee at the harbour in Lybster (spotted a seal swimming!) and then onwards to Helmsdale where we had a short walk along the salmon river hoping that we might see the salmon jumping – but didn’t! It was just after Helmsdale that the Van completed its first 100,000 miles!!
We did manage to find Dunrobin Castle, but as we had missed the falconry display we didn’t bother to go in but instead had a walk through the woods and got caught in a hailstorm! Back to the Van for a cup of tea and then decided to do the walk again down to the beach and took some pictures of the castle from the outside.
As we needed to get some laundry done, we stopped at Dornach campsite, near the golf course quite early. We were very lucky here as they had a wonderful laundry room with washers, tumble driers, ironing boards, clothes airers and even some magazines to read!


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