The next morning, after a hearty
breakfast, we set out for Poolewe. We
thought about going to Ullapool but decided against it. The scenery was quite amazing on the drive to
Poolewe. We drove beside Black Water for quite a while. At times, it seemed
like we were driving past paintings. We
passed Glascarnoch Dam, which is located near the A835 road between Inverness
and Ullapool. Loch Glascarnoch is a man-made
reservoir, created in the 1950s when the dam was built. Water from Loch Vaich and Loch Droma is taken
to Loch Glascarnoch from where a 5 mile tunnel transports the water to Mossford
power station. The dam is 28m or 92 feet
high and 510 m or 1,673 feet in length.
We stopped to walk the Corrieshalloch
Gorge from the Kissing Gates to the suspension bridge overlooking the Falls of
Measach and then over to the viewing platform.
It was a nice little walk and from there, we drove to Dundonnell and
then along Little Loch Broom, a sea loch which is separated from Loch Broom by
a peninsula occupied by Scoraig, a settlement known for its remoteness,
somewhat ‘alternative’ atmosphere, organic food production and pioneering use
of wind power. Along the way, we stopped
to admire Little Gruinard Beach, which has fragile sand dunes where were being
restored. The sheltered sandy bays and
headlands are good places for sea watching.
Sightings at the beach included common and white-beaked dolphins, minke
whale, harbour porpoise and occasionally basking shark and killer whale. While most of the listed wildlife could be
seen all year or between May and October, we, sadly, did not see any.
We got into Poolewe around lunch
time. We stopped at Inverewe Gardens,
famous for its exotic and magical garden, bought our tickets for the garden and
then had a light lunch at the café.
There was a warning about it been the midge season, and forewarned, we
went back to our parked car and sprayed ourselves with bug repellent before
setting out for our walk in the garden.
The bug spray worked fairly well for most part. The garden is situated it the north of
Scotland, in a rocky, windswept headland on the shores of Loch Ewe. Plants from
all over the world thrive there. There
were plants native to South Africa growing there. We saw palm trees and all manner of tropic
plants. The rhododendrons and azaleas
were in bloom and they were magnificent.
The view of the coast was beautiful.
We enjoyed the garden and our walk even though it got a bit warm and the
bugs were swarming over our heads.
Inverewe Garden Lodge, the final home of the founder of Inverewe Garden,
is available for holiday let (1 double and 2 twin bedded rooms, satellite TV,
wood burning stove and other amenities) and comes with 24 hour access to the
garden. That might be a fun place to
stay in if we come back to the area. The
inverewe Estate covers about 2,000 acres of moorland, coastline and woodland in
addition to the 54 acre garden. It is home to otters, pine martens, red and roe
deer and a resident seal colony. One
could spend days in Inverewe, walking its various trails and trying to spot
wildlife from the Wildlife Hide. We,
unfortunately, only had a couple of hours to spend in the garden.
Lunch; Inverewe garden; http://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/inverewe-garden-and-estate-p255481
From Poolewe, we drove to
Gairloch. The most interesting part of
getting there was the scenery as we drove along the road, which sometimes
became single tracked. We did not encounter
a lot of traffic, but we could imagine that the road must be a zoo in high
season. Drivers were polite and pulled
into passing spots depending on who was closer to one. There was a lot of lights being flicked and
hands waved in acknowledgement when passing by each car. We passed the Bad Na Sgalaig Dam.
Beinn Eighe, Britain’s first National Nature Reserve, is a complex
mountain massif located between Loch Maree and Glen Torridon. The upper reaches are white quartzite and the
flanks are scree-covered. Two of the
Beinn Eighe’s summits are classified as Munros (a Scottish mountain with a
height of more than 914.4m or 3,000 feet).
Mountains or hills of at least 150m or 492 ft, regardless of absolute
height or other merit, are called Marilyns.
The name was coined as punning contrast to the designation of Munro (ala
Marilyn Munroe). There are 2,009
Marilyns identified in the UK, Ireland and Isle of Man. With 1,215 of them in
Scotland, it is no wonder that we seemed to be surrounded by Marilyns during
our drive in Scotland. The northern side
side of Beinn Eighe looks out across a rough triangular wilderness of rock,
peat and heather that stretches almost to the south west shore of Loch Maree.
The road to Kinlochewe was
most quite scenic, with views of the Beinn Eighe Marilyns.
The road from Kinlochewe to Torridon
was mostly single track and meandered along hillsides. On the road between
Kinlochewe and Torridon, Ben Eighe appears to be a steep and imposing rock wall
that takes off where Liathach leaves off, with few features breaking up the
southern face. The easiest access to the
mountain is from the mountain trail from the Beinn Eighe Nature Reserve visitor
centre on the A832 about 3 miles north west of Kinlochewe.
Along our spectacular drive to Torridon, we saw a heron and a herd of
deer.
We decided to skip Plockton as it was
getting late and it would mean doubling back on the road.. From Torridon, we headed straight for Eilean
Donan, one of the most photographed castles in Scotland. Apparently, the castle was best admired from
afar so we had no plans to visit it. We
went into the parking lot of the Dornie town hall and took a bunch of photos of
the castle from there. It is quite
dramatic. After that, we drove over to
the parking lot of the visitors’ centre for the castle to see the castle from
another angle. I would say that the castle looked great from all angles.
From Eilean Donan, we drove to the Isle
of Skye. There were mountains
everywhere. Where they were no
mountains, we could see the sea. Skye has
been linked to the mainland by the controversial Skye Bridge since October
1995. Some claim that Skye was no longer
an island because of the permanent link to the mainland. The bridge passes over
Eilean Ban (White Island), which is a six acre island with a wealth of heritage
managed by the Eilean Ban Trust. We
drove from the bridge on the A87, which followed the coast and and passed
Broadford, Sconser (with its ferry port for the Isle of Raasay) and Sligachan
befoe going inland for the drive to Portree. We drove past Portree on the road
to our b&b, Cruinn Beinn in Kensalare.
We decided to go into Portree for
dinner. Portree, the largest town on
Skye, has a harbour fringed by cliffs and a pier designed by Thomas
Telford. There are a few colourful
houses interspersed amongst whitewashed buildings. The harbour continues to be used by fishing
and pleasure which can be seen bobbing up and down in the water. Our hostess,
Marina, had recommended a couple of restaurants in town and we went to check
them out after driving into Portree. Those
restaurants were fully booked and unable to accommodate us so we walked around to
find another place. The many places that
we went in to were also fully booked and we thought we might be reduced to
eating greasy fish and chips from a place by the harbour. For a large tourist centre, the choices for
dining were quite limited.
We were lucky enough to get 2 separate
tables in a pub that we found. After
placing our order, the diners at the table next to Petros and Florine left and
Irene and I were able to move and we ended up having dinner together. We enjoyed our meals of scallops, mussels, strawberry
Eton mess and fruit cake.
We drove back to our b&b and went
for a walk in the neighbourhood. From
the b&b, we could look across Loch Snizort Beag to the Waternish
peninsula. Kensalare is on the
Trotternish peninsula. We saw a red Highland,
which looks a bit like a hippy because of the long wavy coats, rabbits and
sheep. A group of Highlands is known as
a fold. Highland are a hardy breed with their hair providing protection during
cold winters and their skill in looking for food allowing them to survive in
steep mountain area. They both graze and
browse and eat plants that other cattle avoid.
Fortunately, the midges stayed away from us – must be the foreign
repellent that we were using. We walked to the end of the road before turning
back. We met a jogger and his dog on the
way back and spent some time showering attention on the dog. I guess it was compensating for missing our
own dogs.
Where we stayed: Cruinn Bheinn, 4 Eyre,
Kensaleyre, Portree, Isle of Skye, IV51 9XB; 44 01470 532459; Peter & Marina
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