Scottish Highlands - Dornoch to Scrabster

14 – 17 September

The Rocks and The Water

So we are now covering the NC500 in an anticlockwise direction …

Loch Fleet is only a few miles along the A9 from Dornoch. This was our first venture onto “single track roads with passing places”, very scary. However, there was very little traffic and the passing places were frequent, so it was easy (says the one who wasn't driving!)  There are car parks at the nature reserve or at Littleferry further on, from which you can walk across the Ferry Links.  We saw oystercatchers and osprey (we think!).

Dunrobin Castle looked interesting, but we felt we had insufficient time to justify the admission charge. A little further on Carn Liath, an ancient dwelling from the Iron Age (broch) turned out to be an interesting stop.

One thing we are finding is that places of interest are sometimes not well signed.  We had hoped to take a peek at the beach at Brora, but didn’t see a road leading to it.  The Ord of Caithness later on was similarly elusive.  However, there was plenty of parking for motorhomes at the harbour of Helmsdale and we took refuge from the rain in the Thyme and Plaice teashop/restaurant mentioned in “Wild Scotland” before completing the leg to Dunbeath, which is on the very last page of our road atlas!

Another day of unsettled weather followed as we made our way to Lybster, one of many herring stations developed in the 19^th century, with its exceptionally wide main street.  However, the rain gave no incentive for us to stop here.  We did find the Whaligoe Steps at the second attempt, where 300 steps lead down to a large geo with deep water, which was used to land and ship herring and other fish.  The weather put paid to any thoughts of going down the steps.  However, the old curing house is now a café, where we hid from the rain – highly recommended, but it is only open Thursday to Sunday.

We had only thought to stop at Wick for a visit to Tesco’s, but we were enticed by the Mackay’s Hotel’s No 1 Bistro, located on the world’s shortest street, Ebenezer Place (2.06m - the width of the building!) where we had a delicious lunch.

Then quite by chance we then came across the Telford Trail, an informative guided walk on the south side of the town.

The last stop of the day was at Ness Point (at the end of another single track road) to view the remains of Castle Girnigoe and Sinclair.  It was still raining, but had dried up by the time we reached John O’Groats for a night halt.

The next morning we drove the two miles to Duncansby Head (single track road ending in a large car park) and then walked a short way to the spectacular Duncansby Stacks to take some photographs. Sunshine and heavy showers were the order of the morning.  

After lunch in the ‘van we headed west to visit the Castle of Mey, the late Queen Mother’s residence.  This is a delightful place, very homely and would appear to be very much as it was when she was alive. There was a guided tour which was extremely interesting.

We spent the night at a site on the edge of Thurso, which is just a couple of miles from Scrabster, handy for the ferry to Stromness on Orkney next morning.