Part 3 Scotland

Our stay at Dingwall on Friday was very pleasant, we again topped up with water etc and had nice hot showers. The next morning it was drizzly and cold, we thought it was a good day to be traveling, so off we set heading North to Ullapool and part of the North Coast 500 route. The further we headed north the more empty the landscape became, Heather with its faded mauve blossoms and Bracken gone rusty brown with the cold, dominate. Lochs would appear and disappear, rivers and creeks gorged with water from the recent rain would flash past as we drove on toward Ullapool. Ullapool is a smaller village on Loch Broom, there is a ferry service from here to the Isle of Lewis, plus a well established port. We had a walk around the town, but it was blowing and still drizzly, the information centre was a mine of information about the route we were going to take. After lunch we set off for Durness in Sutherland, our stop for the night.

The scenery up here is stunning, the sea Lochs appear on the left hand side, playing hide and seek as we swoop round the twisting single lane road, the stark mountains appear on the right. Heather and bracken again are in dominance giving an autumnal hue to the landscape.The mountains are bare near the tops, just scree and massive rocks, then further down the Heather and Bracken. Sometimes there will be a plantation of trees, looking like a neatly applied patch on the skirt of the mountain. Streams come cascading down the sides and into the hundreds of little lakes and bogs scattered over the land. The road twists and turns and over every hill a new scene strikes the eye, forlorn abandoned stone cottages, crumbling stone Castles, majestic cruel rock formations, grey cold Lochs and high moorlands stretching as far as you can see. 

We had a gorgeous if a little bit hairy drive on the single track road, these roads have passing bays every 300 metres or so, so you need to keep your eyes peeled for oncoming vehicles, then scoot into a passing bay or they scoot into one. Unfortunately it all turned a bit sour just as we reached Durness our stopping point for the night. The road had widened to two lanes, quite narrow lanes admittedly and as we were approaching a corner an oncoming Motorhome came around a bit sharp and took out our Drivers side wing mirror. Details were exchanged, but it really threw me into a spin. We parked up at the camp ground and I proceeded to have a meltdown. The mirrors on a wide vehicle (2.31m) like this are very important as they help you to judge your position on the road, and when the road is very narrow, as it had been and was going to continue to be, they are essential. Luckily my superhero Paul coped with the meltdown and was able to rig up the smashed casing so that the smaller bottom mirror was usable, using string and some Duck tape kindly given to us by another camper, think MacGyver. Anyway a Whiskey or two were had and we settled down to a cold, blowy, drizzly Saturday night by the sea cliff.

The next morning things were brighter, a beautiful blue sky and an amazing sunrise gave the day a zing. So we packed up again and headed out early in the hope of getting through the remaining single lane road before traffic got to busy. We had to stop off at the Smoo Cave though, which was just down the road from the campsite. This is a sea cave that had been found to have Norse and Iron Age artefacts, leading Archeologists to believe that the Vikings used it to repair their Long Boats. After a walk through history we headed out again to find some more. Today's target was Dunnet Head Lighthouse, the most northerly point of the UK mainland. Again we swooped and soared through the high moorland countryside, the sun made the landscape glow in its autumn cloak. We passed Castles, and bridges, Cottages and walls all built from the rugged stone of the landscape. At Knockan Crag which we had visited the day before, we learnt that the rock here is the oldest in the UK, and fascinating Geologically as it was thrust up from the depths by the force of two continents colliding. 

Eventually we returned to the two lanes, and this is when I realised I had lost my nerve, any oncoming truck, motorhome or van with big mirrors had me braking and sidling over to the left as far as I dared, with my heart thumping. You may be wondering why I did not get Paul to take over the driving? When we hired our Motorhome we had to have a designated Driver, and if we wanted another Driver added it was going to cost an extra £200 approx. We decided that as I had the HT licence I would drive, I also enjoy driving where as Paul does not. Anyway I manned up and we arrived in Thurso in Caithness for lunch and a walk around, we discovered a old church that had been turned into a cemetery, with graves within the walls of the crumbling ruin, in fact they were everywhere, you were actually stepping on a grave as you entered the churchyard, quite spooky. Then Paul spotted a Castle on the other side of the river, so off we went to explore Thurso Castle. A rather impressive walled structure with Crows or Ravens circling the eroded turret, and crenelated walls overlooking the River entrance. We tried to find an entrance to the inner walled garden but it was private land... We were not the only ones seeking entrance, a young German Girl was also exploring as we were, we got talking, she has spent 5 months exploring Scotland, experiencing the stories and history of this amazing land. She told us of her travels, she seemed so young to be doing it alone, the Mother in me came out, but I held it at bay, the young need to experience the world without us mollycoddling them, I have had to do this with Xavier, my son. But it is so hard, you want to protect them from the world at large, but now my Son has probably seen more of the world than I have, the tables are probably turned and He wants to protect me...

We left Thurso for Dunnet Head, arriving at about 4pm and had a look around the Lighthouse grounds, I went back to the camper while Paul continued the exploration up to the lookout. It was simply spectacular, the moorland sweeping out to the sheer cliffs that plummet down to the North Sea. In summer this is a great place for Puffin spotting, as they nest on the cliffs, but alas for us there was not a Puffin in sight, in fact it was unnaturally devoid of bird life. We spent the night in the car park listening to the wind whistling over the moors, knowing that the Dunnet Head light was flashing its signal out to any passing ships. In the morning light you could see on the moors the lines and patches where the peat had been cut, they still use peat as a heating source up this way. As you drive over the moor you will come across black scars in the Heather and mounds of peat squares stacked nearby to dry. I would love to experience a real peat fire, and life in a stone cottage, we are hoping to get both in Ireland, but that is another 5 weeks away.

Monday morning we left Dunnet Head on our next leg to John O Groats, this is the commercial most northerly point in Scotland. It was a sleepy little tourists den of iniquity, ready to catch the unwary tourist. A little bit disappointed we started our journey south down the Eastern coast of Northern Scotland. 

The coastline started out with steep to cliffs and wind blown moorland, ruined castles were studded along the coast on the high cliffs, but as we progressed south the moors faded into fertile green farm land. We had lunch in Wick, with chips down at the Harbour, overlooking the breakwaters. The wind was from the east today, the onshore swell was smashing against the breakwater and shooting spouts of foam into the sky. Wick was once the busiest Herring Fishing Port on the world with upward of 1,100 in the fishing fleet. The Gutter Lassies, who processed the herring, could gut and sort 40 herring a minute. One of the largest catches saw 3000 Lassies processing 24 million herring in one day. No more herring are caught from Wick, as the fishery collapsed understandably.

After Paul had his fill of taking photos of the wharf we continued on south, stopping at the Grey Cairns of Camster. This is the sight of two stone chambers out in the middle of a bog area, they are thought to be over 5000 years old, but there is some controversy over the actual restorations that have been done to the sight. Was very interesting to see something that old, and you could actually go inside the bigger chamber. We ended up having to do a six point turn on the road to get the motorhome facing the way we wanted (another single track road). We then found the sight of a clearances settlement called Badbea on the windswept cliffs near Brora. In the early 1800's the crofter's who leased their cottages and land off "Landlords" in more sheltered glens, where driven off there crofts so the Land owners could farm sheep more intensively. They were made to move to Coastal areas like Badbea, exposed, rocky non fertile land. This has been dubbed the clearances as was a major cause of discord. Many of the cottages we had seen abandoned in Caithness and Sutherland where probably from the time of the clearances back in the 1800's. The village of Badbea is now very hard to see, with an overgrowth of Gorse and Bracken hiding the stone remains. A very poignant reminder of mans inhumanity to man. 

We needed to find a stop for the night, and when a parking place beside a Loch showed up we pulled in. Turned out to be a lovely spot, with a sluice gate to control the flow of the salt water to a small fresh water lake, and a lovely view. 

Cheers Wendy