Home -> Europe -> Scotland -> Travelogue 2003 -> Monday 17 March

To the north, Loch Shin

Like the days before, the sun is shining bright in a clear blue sky and it is pretty warm. After a quiet breakfast we leave the hotel to go north, in the direction of Loch Shin.

In the mountains we have to pass through 2 dense clouds and for a moment we fear we won't see the sun again. The view is 50 meters at most, but when we descend we leave the clouds behind. In mountainous areas clouds often have the tendency to hang on the mountains.

Near Loch Shin we look for the famous new Harrods owned by Mohamed Al Fayed. Iain told us there is a new Scottish establishment, but we don't find it. Of course, we do see a nice estate hidden in the waste Highlands.
Later, we find out that Harrods is established in the visitor centre of the Falls of Shin, where we accidentally passed by without noticing it. Well, now we have a reason to come back here, a next time.

After a 50 kilometers long single road track and only a few oncoming cars, we reach the broad coastal road which leads to Durness in northern direction. We go south and visit a small and very desolate peninsula with a few small villages, Tarbet being one of them.

The hills are sometimes extremely steep (one even 25%!) and often we cannot see in which direction the road will go after the next slope. Fortunately, we don't come across any other traffic.
The sceneries are phenomenal, sometimes it looks like a landscape on the moon, then we have a view on the sea or a hidden loch. We see many places where we would like to build a house...

But, of course, the weather can be very bad here, and especially with heavy storms or snow it won't be that enjoyable. But we can always dream about living on remote places like here, we would love it.

At Loch Asynth we pass Ardvreck Castle, a ruin from the end of the 16th century. Although it is a ruin, it is possible to wed here.

In Ullapool, the most important town of the northwest, we finally find a restaurant that is open, to have a drink. It is a fairly modern town, founded in 1788 with a regular street plan. One can see it is constructed and not grown throughout the centuries. It is a good place to start for exploring the northern Highlands.

On the way back we stop at Corrieshalloch Gorge, a narrow gorge of 60 meters height. A wobbling footbridge (at most 5 persons at the same time are admitted) goes over the gorge and the Falls of Measach.

We spend the night in the pub, talking with Iain and Cathy and some old acquitances. Teije tries to connect a new projector that Iain bought, to the tv, video and dvd-player, but we don't have the right cables; we get only tv in black and white on the walls. But at least we have got an image on the wall, so that calls for a pint to celebrate. The cosiness in the pub is the reason that we go off to bed quite late, but we can sleep as late as we want here. One of the people we talk to is a German who arrived here in the eighties and immediately decided to stay.
We would like to do that, too, but because of the money we now earn in Holland we have the possibility to see so many more places of the world. So this dream will have to wait a bit longer.

Travel through Europe and Africa

with Elisabeth and Teije