Scottish Highlands - Dunnet Head to Edinburgh

23 - 30 September

Going Home

Back in Scotland we spent the next two nights at Dunnet Bay.  A five mile journey along a narrow, twisting road brought us to Dunnet Head, where there were good views to Duncansby Head in the east and almost as far as Cape Wrath in the west.  It was also incredibly windy, making it hard to stand, let alone take photographs.

We then struck west towards Durness, and stopped at Sandside Bay.  

It was not particularly remarkable (other than the slightly alarming warning sign) despite being mentioned in North Coast 500, but we did strike up conversation with an elderly Scots gentleman walking his dog, who did not have a good opinion of the promotion of the route, due to the way it had pushed up prices, of hotels, for example.  He had had to pay an exorbitant price for a hotel in Inverness when his wife was in hospital.  We went our separate ways, but we thought we had inadvertently adopted a dog when it followed us back to the ‘van, with the owner nowhere to be seen.

  

Unfortunately things then went horribly wrong when Amelia had a close encounter with another motorhome, resulting in the loss of the driver’s wing mirror.  Given that there was no possibility of getting a repair in the north west of Scotland, we reluctantly turned around and headed back to Thurso, with some rear vision courtesy of a bicycle mirror and much gaffer tape!  On Monday morning we purchased a larger mirror and more gaffer tape in Thurso to improve the temporary fix and then drove to Inverness, the location of the nearest Fiat dealer.  The afternoon ended on a brighter note (literally!) when the sun shone and we sat outside for the first time.  The new mirror (thankfully in stock) was fitted first thing on Tuesday morning.

  

With stress levels returning to normal, we now needed a new plan.  Before leaving the Inverness area, we visited the site of the Battle of Culloden.  The visitor centre was very informative, telling the story of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion under Bonnie Prince Charlie through panels, audio and a very immersive 360-degree film of the battle. The battlefield itself, by contrast, was  peaceful, with flags marking the positions of the Government and Jacobite soldiers, and small stone memorials to the various clans.

Grantown on Spey was the next stop, where we got out the bikes to ride along the Speyside Way.  Between Grantown and Nethy Bridge it is really a path for walking rather than cycling and it was very hard going, so we didn’t get any further than Nethy Bridge for lunch and then opted to ride back along the roads.  Further south the path is a designated cycle way.

We had hoped to spend a night at Scone, near Perth, and to visit Scone Palace, but the site was fully booked.  There are obviously too many retired folks gallivanting about in their motorhomes and caravans at the moment!

Instead we travelled straight to Edinburgh, calling at Killiecrankie Pass on the way.  This is a National Trust site and the visitor centre provided historical, geological and nature information.  We walked to Soldier’s Leap, where a government soldier supposedly leapt to safety across the river away from his Jacobite pursuers, after the battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, during the first Jacobite uprising.  You can walk for miles beside the River Garry and it’s very peaceful  – except when RAF planes scream overhead on low level exercises.

We paused to watch three canoeists battle their way through the rough water before returning to Amelia and completing the journey to Edinburgh.

We had a cultural two days in Edinburgh visiting the National Trust for Scotland property "The Georgian House" (where the guides were eager to share their immense knowledge and would have kept you talking for ages), a small exhibition "Constable and McTaggart" at the Scottish National Gallery, explaining how the works of Constable had influenced the Scottish painter, an exhibition on Shackleton's ill-fated Antarctic expedition and finally an exhibition on the Rebus books by Ian Rankin.   Alongside this we had a lovely time with Louise and Steve, who always find a new cafe and/or restaurant to take us to and cook up delicious food at home.

The route home will include a detour to visit relatives in Filey, but otherwise we are done and dusted!

Orkney (2)

20 – 22 September

Farewell to Stromness

In the nick of time we saw the notice on the facilities block door saying that the exit from the site would be closed between 10 am and 2 pm while the road was resurfaced.  So our departure was a little more hurried than usual ….

The weather forecast remained unpromising, but we headed to the Brough of Birsay at the northwest tip of Orkney, where, at low tide, you can cross the causeway to see the lighthouse and various ruins.

It looked rather bleak so we settled for a photograph and walked instead to the Skiba Geo, a deep cleft in the rocks which was used as a harbour, with a fisherman’s hut and nousts (shallow depressions in the ground for boat storage) a little way up the bank.

After a leisurely lunch it was back south to Skara Brae, a magnificent village from the Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) which dates back to around 3000 BC.  It has survived so well partly because it was made of stone, and partly because it was semi-underground.  It wasn’t so much discovered, as emerged after a particularly bad storm in the 1950s.

We then headed to the site in Stromness; we missed a camping sign and found ourselves inching our way through the extremely (and I mean extremely) narrow roads of the heart of the town.  Lesson learned: always put the satnav on!

Next day included a brief explore in Stromness, a drive along the road along the south of the island and finally a pleasant walk from the campsite along the coast on a tarmac path overlooking the islands of Hoy and Graemsay.  While we were out we watched the evening ferry pass through the channel between these two islands and Orkney mainland*.  We even had some pale evening sunshine!

On Friday we had a few hours left before returning to Scotland on the ferry.  Ring of Brodgar, a Neolithic henge and stone circle, was still on the to do list.  It is generally believed to date from 2500 BC to 2000 BC and was probably used for ceremonial purposes.  Only about half of the sixty or so stones are still standing but it was very atmospheric and gave a feeling of the scale of the site.  Just a shame that as a result of ongoing drainage works, many of the stones were surrounded by fences!

The final outing on the Orkney itinerary was to Yesnaby, which is really wild coastline with steep sided inlets, sea stacks and arches resulting from erosion.

Then it was time to get the ferry back to Scotland*.  It was incredibly windy and the sea looked pretty rough, but, in actual fact, it was probably a smoother ride than on the outward journey.

*As Ian Banks has written in “Raw Spirit”: On Orkney never call Scotland ‘the mainland’. Orkney has its own Mainland; that’s the correct name for the big island that Kirkwall and Stromness are on.  Scotland is called Scotland.

Orkney (1)

17 – 19 September

A Day without Rain

The hour and a half sailing to Scrabster was reasonably calm (thank goodness) and we admired and photographed the sea stack “The Old Man of Hoy” as we passed by.

Before heading to our site in Kirkwall we stopped off at the Standing Stones at Stenness, one of the many historical sites on the islands.

We spent the next day in Kirkwall, visiting the magnificent St Magnus Cathedral in the morning. Nearly 900 years old, the “Viking Cathedral” dominates the skyline of the town; inside however, inside decoration is very simple, only the stained-glass windows and the banners, celebrating 900 years since the birth of St Magnus, adding colour.

In the afternoon, John insisted on a visit to the Highland Park distillery. The tour was informative, following the whole process through the maze of picturesque old buildings. Highland Park still uses some old techniques (for example, laying out the barley to dry on large malting floors) and is proud of its use of as many local ingredients as possible. The visit was rounded off with a tasting; I still prefer brandy, however!

If you ignore the light shower of rain around 8 am, we had our first “day without rain” on Tuesday, 19 September!  Not only that, the sun shone and the temperature reached the giddy heights of 17 degrees C in the afternoon.  More please!  On this remarkable day, we drove south, over the Churchill Barriers, which were constructed largely by Italian prisoners of war during World War II, to protect Scapa Flow from attack by German submarines.

Just beyond Churchill Barrier 1 is the Italian Chapel, also constructed by Italian prisoners of war.  Such a beautiful place, and created from two Nissen huts, assorted scrap and a lot of genius.

The fourth Churchill Barrier takes you onto the island of Ronaldsay, where we headed down a single-track road to Hoxa Head for a walk along the coast, overlooking the Flotta oil terminal on the south side of mainland Orkney.  We intended to support the Hoxa Tearoom, but it had sadly changed over to winter opening hours, which do not include Tuesdays.

The final port of call was to the Tomb of Eagles, dating from approximately 3000 BC.  The name comes from the many talons and claws of sea-eagles found among the burials.  John dared to venture inside!

Prior to reaching the tomb itself we had had interesting introductory talks and a walk to a mound from the Bronze Age, which is believed to have been a workshop.

On the way back to the site, we commented that we had put in an eight-hour day – hard life!

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.

Scottish Highlands - Moffat to Dornoch

7 -  13 September

The Mist-covered Mountains

The roads around the north coast of Scotland are by no means new, but now that they have been designated the North Coast 500 and received a great deal of publicity, they have been given a new lease of life.  So having seen a documentary on TV and read some magazine articles, we are off to see the sights for ourselves.

First stop: Moffat in the Scots Borders.  Louise came down from Edinburgh to visit us for the day and we spent the afternoon on a steep walk alongside the Grey Mare’s Tail waterfall, about 5 miles away. Deteriorating weather prevented us completing the walk as far as Loch Skeen, the source of the falls.

(I am the tiny blue speck on the path in the distance; John and Louise explored a bit further)

Walk along the GreyMare's Tail Falls

I think waterfalls are going to be a feature of this trip!  Next stop was at Killin, near Loch Tay, where a narrow stone bridge crosses the Falls of Dochert. A sunny afternoon meant that we unstrapped the bikes, following a route down to the falls, (rapids rather than falls, but quite impressive, as a result of the recent heavy rain) and a little way through woods above the town.

Falls of Dochert

Then on to Dingwall, via the Cairngorms, which remained invisible, shrouded in low cloud and rain.  Many of the grass pitches at the Camping and Caravanning Site were too muddy to use and instead we were instructed to park up on one of the access roads.  After that it was off to Ullapool (or Ullapul, if you are Scots!)  On the way, we stopped to view the Rogie Falls during a brief sunny interval, and I was very excited to see a salmon leap!

Rogie Falls

We made a further stop at Corrieshalloch Gorge and Falls of Measach, where there is a pleasant, short walk along the gorge, but sadly the bridge across the falls to the viewing platform is currently closed for maintenance.

Path leading down to the gorge; Ullapool in the distance

At this point we joined the NC500 proper, having chosen to miss out the leg around Applecross and Gairloch.

The site (Broomfield Holiday Park) at Ullapool is usually delightful, I’m sure. It has a lovely view over Loch Broom - but is also directly hit by any adverse weather from the north-west!  Sadly, this was our experience. We took our time selecting the least-sodden grass pitch (no hardstandings). After a broken night’s sleep due to the lashing rain and wind buffeting the ‘van, we checked the weather forecasts.  The weather on the eastern side of Scotland looked somewhat better, so we decided to jump ship, but required a tow from the site tractor to get us off the very wet ground.

We headed back towards Dingwall, calling at Blackwater Bridge and falls in Strathgarve, which we had missed on the outward journey.

Strathgarve

Then north to Dornoch, and what a delightful place that has turned out to be.  The site is just a ten minute walk from the small town, where the visitor centre, located in the Carnegie Courthouse, provides all the information you need, including walks and cycle rides.  And we can recommend the tea-room upstairs!  Improved weather enabled us to walk down to Dornoch Point, but we escaped a heavy shower by visiting the Historylinks Museum, which details just about anything to do with Dornoch and the surrounding area from times past to the present day - see www.historylinks.org.uk .   Did you know that Andrew Carnegie was a Scot, who later emigrated to America, but used some of his huge fortune to found libraries and centres for music and art? He bought Skibo Castle, about 4 miles from Dornoch, as a holiday home and to ensure that his daughter had a home in Scotland.