- Highlands
- (63)
-
Loch Ness is well known and visited by thousands, but when you've tired of Nessie tartan gonks, there is a more beautiful and less visited landscape to the north.
Glen Affric has been referred to by those in the know as Scotland's most beautiful glen. It stretches for many miles upriver from the village of Cannich, becoming progressively wilder and more desolate. There are beautiful lochs, mountains and waterfalls, but it is the pinewoods that make this glen so special. You might think you've seen one forest, you've seen them all - but this is different. It is one of the largest remnants of the original ancient Caledonian Forest that once covered Scotland, and walking amongst the trees, it has a really special atmosphere and beauty. Look out for plentiful, incredibly cute red squirrels, pine martens and other wildlife.
This website features walks and accommodation.
www.walkhighlands.co.uk/lochness/glenaffric.shtml
Torridon is one of the most dramatic areas on Scotland's west coast. The mountains here are not the rolling ridges seen elsewhere in Britain - these are completely separate and individual, gaunt, bare and incredibly steep and imposing peaks. The first time I arrived to camp, a herd of red deer swam across the deep river. The landscape is so otherworldly that I wouldn't have been suprised if dinosaurs came roaming round the corner. What a place.
At the foot of the glen is Loch Torridon, a great fjord, where the landscape is softened by ancient pinewoods.
This website has walking routes and accommodation options.
www.walkhighlands.co.uk/torridon/
Catch this white sand beach on a sunny day, with a school of dolphins in the turquoise sea and the extraordinary mountains of Assynt in the background. Take a photograph. Then try and convince your friends you really were in Scotland.
Near Lochinver
Also known as Monster Midge beach because of a huge midge painted on a rock on the road to the beach. Lovely collection of little bays so that even in mid summer you can often have your own private beach with views to Rum and Eigg.
Drive through Acharacle, turn left at the church, drive through Kentra and keep going to the end of the road. 50p in the letter box in the shed gets you parking all day.
Simply the place to get the most fantastic fresh fish and seafood, Malliag is a proper fishing port rather than a tourist destination. Most people arrive there and stay only briefly on their way to Skye, Rhum or Knoydart but the excellence of the food, served in a harbourside setting, is such that it is worth organising an overnight stop on your way to these places. The service is helpful, friendly and unpretentious and the helpings more than generous.
Right on the harbour near the ferry terminal.
I did the Great Glen Way (a five-day walk) a couple of years ago and had a memorable meal at a place we discovered on the way. Basically, it's a barge moored at Laggan Locks, the end of day two of the walk. Having been told about it the previous night in Gairlochy we called to book, told the bloke what food we liked and arrived to the most ridiculous oversized feast of local seafood and other nice stuff, all for a pitifully small sum. The whole experience was totally, if pleasingly, bonkers – a man, his dog, only two customers, a barge full of odd historical memorabilia and a lot of good food.
The walk, by the way, was pretty good but frustratingly, a lot of the walking route followed the same path as the cycle route and I felt that we wouldn't have lost much, and would have got to Inverness a lot quicker, if we'd been on bikes.
Eagle Barge
Laggan Locks
Spean Bridge
South Laggan PH34 9EA
f: 01320 340210
m: 07789858567
Four-star self-catering cottage ten miles from Ullapool overlooking Loch Broom.
Superb accommodation with magnificent views. A perfect base for touring the magnificent northern Highlands of Scotland. Even a sauna to unwind in after a day out walking, cycling, fishing, climbing, sailing or just relaxing in the tranquility of this wonderful spot.
Taigh a' Bhraoin is in Letter on Loch Broom about 10 miles from the pubs, restaurants and shops of Ullapool. Mrs McKenzie will be delighted to arrange your accommodation +44(0)1560 484003
www.visitullapool.com
The Landmark Trust (landmarktrust.org.uk) has loads of terrific properties in the highlands. Avoid Christmas and the summer school holidays and they're a bargain.
We stayed in baronial splendour in Gargunnock House for £70 per head a night, lived like a Laird and enjoyed trips out to the Trossachs. It's Highlands-lite but great fun.
Six miles west of Stirling
Golden sand and turquoise water - you could be in the Caribbean when the sun is shining. Stunning views across to the Summer Isles, Suilven, the Coigach mountains and An Teallach make this beach magical.
From the A832 turn left at Laide to Mellon Udrigle.
Probably the best beach in the Highlands with beautiful dunes at the far end. Walk up there and climb to the top of them and, in the summer, you are in a Puffin colony and you can just lay down and have them come and look at you.
Add the drive from Ullapool by Loch Assynt and it's the best day trip in Scotland.
By Durness and Balnakiel Craft village
If you go to the beach at Gruinard Bay, a glorious drive south from Ullapool past Corrieshalloch Gorge and the mighty Falls of Measach, take a stroll up the wee hill to the south: you get a glorious view of the entire bay, gently ringed by pebbles, grass and rock, with mighty mountains all around.
I stood there and thought if I’m ever going to get married I’m doing it round here. I did.
If you’re in Ullapool, drive north to Cape Adventure for some seakayaking around some delightful coastal bays ringed by knuckles of rock, all in the shadow of Ben Stack – said to be the inspiration for Tolkien’s Mountain of Doom. Driving there through Sutherland is staggering.
Great climb just north of Ullapool, short and pretty easy. It’s an extraordinary hill, all spiky and eroded, offering fabulous views right up Assynt, with its shapely lochs hemmed in by gorgeous mountains.
The most thrilling way to do Knoydart, Britain’s last wilderness and unreachable by road, is to take a speedboat (seafari.co.uk) from Mallaig into Loch Hourn (Loch Hell!). It can’t dock anywhere so you just leap off onto shoreline rocks. Hike up Ladhar Bheinn, arguably the finest mountain on the mainland, with staggering views over the “rough bounds”. Descend southwards to Inverie and hit the legendary and often riotous Old Forge for a heather ale and a smokehouse platter. Anyone who sneers at Scottish food hasn’t eaten here. Had one of the best weekends of my life here. Dorms at the nearby Bunkhouse, £14 per person.
The Aonoch Eagach in Glen Coe is one of the world’s finest ridge walks. Do it before you die. If you’re fit, good with heights and aren’t put off by a stretch called the Crazy Pinnacles, you’ll be fine. There’s some climbing but you don’t need ropes.
We did it on a clear summer’s night and stood speechless on a peak, able to see up past Ben Nevis and right out to the Hebrides, mountains everywhere and us above them. A pint in the Clachaig Inn afterwards is compulsory.
A beautiful village in Sleat, the garden of Skye, boasting an art gallery, a lively pub, a whisky shop, and a lighthouse that seems to have been painted on by Monet.
We took a boat to Eigg and got followed by a whale that stuck its head out of the water to see us better. The next day we caught 12 mackerel while boating in the sound and had them with mussels bought from a local fisherman. Just ask in the pub.
Also: you must go roamin’ in the gloamin’ on the Old Man of Storr, further north.
The Longhouse at Tokavaig on Skye was pretty quickly like home from home, only we felt a million miles from anywhere, which was exactly what we were hoping for.
The decking, set to look out over Loch Slapin, is perfect for lounging about and admiring the
Cuillin mountain range - what an outlook, especially with a dram or two.
The walk to the shore is recommended. We saw an otter and, to the delight of our teenage girls, you can actually get a signal on your mobile if you scramble to the top of the castle ruins!
The Applecross Inn, with views to Raasay and Skye is fantastic.
Applecross, Wester Ross IV54 8LR
Tel: 01520 744262
www.applecross.uk.com/inn/index.htm
Achmelvich beach, a few miles north-west of Lochinver is stunning.
Take the three-mile single track road from Lochinver.
Remote Croick Church, designed by the engineer Thomas Telford, ten miles outside the village of Ardgay provides a valuable history lesson, being the site of a particularly sad episode during the Highland Clearances. In 1845 18 families evicted from Glencalvie and unable to find alternative accommodation took refuge in the churchyard. The story was reported in the Times and the refugees' messages on the east windows of the church can still be seen today. The church itself is open throughout the year and annually attracts between two and three thousand visitors. The remains of an iron age pictish broch can also be seen from the churchyard. A picturesque setting with a poignant history.
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
Search Been there
