Applecross to Ardmair Point 122 Miles Total: 212 Miles
It was still raining a little when Poppy and I were out for our early morning constitutional, but the wind had dropped, the clouds seemed to be lifting and things looked a bit more positive.
The burn beside the campsite was in spate, little wonder after the rain there had been over night.
What would we do today? In the end we decided to go on and to tackle the coastal road, It was only constructed in the 1970s. Before that the only land route to Applecross was over the Bealach na Ba. No wonder the area was described as the most remote parish in Scotland. As it turned out, the coastal road, though much longer, is a fine road, with a good surface and plenty of passing places.
Before we finally said farewell to Applecross we paid a quick visit to the old church and graveyard at Clachan. This was the site of the original settlement by the Irish monk, Maelrubha in 671AD. He declared that his monastery and the area round it was a place of sanctuary. The Gaelic name for Applecross is A’ Chomraich which means ‘The Sanctuary’. Corruptions of Maelrubha’s name can be found in Loch Maree further north and strangely, in St Rufus in Keith in Banffshire. It is said that St Maelruhba is buried here in the graveyard at Carnach. Sadly the nearby Heritage Centre did not open until the afternoon so a visit here will have to await another visit.
It was a pleasant drive along the coast, with improving weather and fine views of Raasay emerging from the mist.
The next stop on the way north was Torridon, our first visit here, a dramatic and spectacular area with the high mountains erupting from the loch. Just time for a quick lunch at the shop/post office/café and a short dog walk along the shore of Loch Torridon before we pointed our noses north again.
It seemed wrong to just keep driving through all this beautiful countryside but our eyes were set further north and we had visited this area before: Loch Maree, Gairloch, Poolewe and Ullapool.
It was while fuelling up at Ullapool that I heard how bad the weather had been here the previous day with the Stornoway ferry cancelled. But the weather was fair now, with just some occasional showers. So on we went the few miles to our overnight stopping place, Ardmair Point. This was a quiet, friendly place and we parked our van pointing out to the view over Loch Broom.
The sun came out and gave us a spectacular sunset. All the campers seemed to be out on the beach, clutching cameras, phones, iPads, recording the orange colours.
Earlier we had watched the Lewis Ferry making its way to Ullapool – a day late perhaps?
There are more pictures of our road trip along the NC 500 on my Flickr page