From Lochinver to North Westerly Extremes and Thurso

 It’s going to be a long day, but hopefully a good one!

We got up at 6.45am, quickly showered (at least I did), packed and went to the conservatory for breakfast. As it was so early, we told Ballal not to worry about food, but he was determined to leave out some homemade granola, cookies and banana bread for us. Iain wrote ‘thanku’ in the butter… (I have no idea why?!)

Our first stop was East Keodale Jetty to see if we could get on the Cape Wrath tour. The tour is on a first come, first serve basis and is also weather dependent as well as MOD dependent! The weather was beautiful, and I had already checked the MOD website to see if there would be live-firing today or not (I’ll explain more later!).

We drove from Lochinver via the Kylesku bridge, Scourie and Kinlochbervie ; the weather was fantastic and it was the best day we had so far. Iain took tonnes of photos as I was driving as the mountains were stunning. The road was also reasonably good, although there was a lot of single-track road, but I could see pretty far ahead so there was no last minute braking.

We arrived at jetty around 8.50am, and everything looked good from a first come, first serve basis. We weren’t the first, but we were definitely getting on the minibus which took 16.

The minibus driver, who turned out to be called Stuart, showed up. He explained how things worked; we had to pay him (preferably by card) for the minibus, and it was £30 return for both of us. We also had to pay the “ferry-man” separately, but he only took cash and that was £20 return for us both. The ferryman has the superior business model.

So far so good!

We got on the little boat across the sea loch before jumping on the minibus. We had to wait for a few more people as the ferry, I say ferry in the loosest definition of the word, only took 10 people, whereas the minibus took 16.

The bus journey was 50 mins even though it was only 11miles to Cape Wrath Lighthouse. As I mentioned earlier, almost all the land is owned by the MOD and it is used for live firing. Thankfully, there was none today, but we did see some army soldiers on exercise. Stuart, the guide, also mentioned that NATO have firing exercises in the area twice a year and one of them is in September; this is the only place in the UK where they can drop 1,000lb bombs (eek!). I did wonder about craters and if they ever hit the road, apparently they have and had to repair it! The next picture is a crater and its less than 10ft from the road.

On a less serious note, we did pass some grey seals sunning themselves on the sand banks, red deer grazing up in the hills, and loads of sheep which has now become the norm.

Stuart, the bus driver, was your typical Scottish joker; I’ll pass over to Iain to relay what he can remember!  

- One time, he was driving a tour group and seen a regiment of soldiers marching his way. He rolled down the window and asked the commanding officer if this was the way to Dundee. Apparently a sense of humour was not forthcoming.
- Another time, when taking a tour, he told the group they were at the highest point on the journey, at 600ft. Someone at the back piped up and said it’s actually 606ft. The driver said ‘oh is it?’. ‘Yes’, the guy replied. The driver then said well, add up the distance from the ground to your seat and the device you are waving in the air and you will see it is really 600ft. He shut-up the rest of the tour.
- We also passed by some telegraph poles, but they had no wires. The driver said ‘You can see how advanced we are up here, phones are now wireless’.

Maybe you had to be there....

We eventually arrived at the lighthouse and as we did so, a helicopter was in to pick up rubbish. We were told that they are working on the lighthouse (adding solar panels, clearing out rubble) and the ship which is hugging the coast is there to transport the rubbish. It has a helipad, so the helicopter was flying back and forth; it was pretty cool the first few times.

We walked to the Lloyds of London Signal Station which has long since been abandoned; it was originally set up to give notice of vessels in distress and acquiring assistance, as well as the state of the wind and weather, and to provide information to passing vessels.

We took a few pictures and went to the Ozone Café which is run by a man and his daughter. It must be a pretty lonely existence. I went to the toilet while I was there, but there was no flushing, unless you needed to because of a shortage of water – how ironic given the sea was right there!

We spent 50 minutes at the sight then headed back on the bus. We stopped for a photo opportunity as there was a beautiful beach and stack, known as “Cathedral stack;” you can tell why!

We arrived back at the jetty and the ferryman was ready; we were taken back over the bay but the sea was now in and it was much rougher – both Iain and I got covered in lots of spray.

Our second planned stop of the day was Smoo caves, but we took a detour. I had read about Cocoa Mountain, so when I saw the sign, we drove the extra 2 miles. I had a hot chocolate chaser with 4 chocolates and Iain had a mocha chaser, again with 4 chocolates – we got to choose the chocolates from a display cabinet; it was bliss!

I had overdosed on chocolate though, and definitely needed the toilet. We went into a strange little art gallery – it had “No masks to be worn, because we want to see your smiling face.” The guy was a bit nuts but at least the toilet was clean (we had to pay £1 for it!). I looked at the art, which was made from various things he just picked up. There was a couple of bits and pieces which were not too bad, but Iain was taken with a picture of a scary looking guy in a curved bowl. Iain said it looked like ‘Jesus in a Frying Pan’. The owner then said that was the official name of the piece! I feel like they connected and needed to get Iain out of there before he spent £300 on a frying pan!

After this detour, we drove to Smoo caves. The car parking was terrible but we got lucky. It was a circuit walk which only took 20 minutes but it was really cool.

Our next stop was Castle Varrich in Tongue; we passed over numerous bridges, dodged numerous campervans but the sandy beaches were stunning. 

The walk started beside the Ben Loyal Hotel; it was pretty downhill on the way, until a steeper ascent. Obviously, we weren’t thinking about the return walk at this point. The castle overlooks both the Kyle of Tongue and the village of Tongue, but the precise origins and age are unknown. It was the ancient seat of the chief of the Clan Mackay, thought to be over one thousand years old, and there are said to be caves under the castle which were once inhabited by the Mackays.

We enjoyed the walk, but we were knackered afterwards. Instead of heading straight to Thurso, we went to the Ben Loyal bar for a drink and sat in beer garden; it was absolutely beautiful (you can tell by his squint ha ha!)

After the sun started to disappear, we got back in the car for the drive to Thurso. We drove through Bettyhill, passed Dounray nuclear power plant (don’t look up its history!) and then stopped in Scrabster for dinner. The Ferry Inn, recommended by my friend Lianne, was fully booked, but they managed to fit us in. The food was great, although I did not need the starter of scallops!

We waddled out of the restaurant and arrived at our hotel in Thurso 5 minutes later. We couldn’t get parked so had to park on the main street which was a bit worrying, but given there was a Ferrari, I don’t think anyone is going to touch my Astra (sorry Alfie!).

We were staying in a local hotel, The Station Hotel, so decided to take a walk around the town. I had read about St Peters church which is a ruin and closed for workshop, but it is quite spectacular, especially at night. 

We walked down the River Thurso and sauntered back to hotel as it didn’t seem like much was open. We stopped by the hotel bar which was bouncing. I had a gin from Rock Rose, which is a local distillery; it was Rock Rose, rub nose, then bed!