Durness – Coastal Road Trip

Day 23 – Durness to Bettyhill

We got up early today to catch the small passenger ferry across the Kyle of Durness, and then on to Cape Wrath via minibus. However, due to poor weather, the ferry was not operating today. So we’ll have to leave that adventure for another trip 😉 As we now had an extra half day on our hands, we decided to continue our journey to Bettyhill, arrive early and have a well deserved afternoon relaxing.

Photo of the day

Coastal Road Trip, The Moine, A’ Mhoine, Peat Bog, A838, Straight Empty Road — The empty A838 over the Moine.

Keoldale

Coastal Road Trip, Keoldale, Cape Wrath Ferry, Kyle of Durness — Well that’s where we were meant to be sailing on the ferry to the other side of the Kyle of Durness. You can just about make out the ferry landing through the rain… if not, use your imagination.

Coastal Road Trip, Keoldale, Cape Wrath Ferry, Kyle of Durness, Julian, Jarno — Not sure why we are looking so happy, actually we were a bit gutted that we couldn’t visit Cape Wrath today.

Sango Beach

Coastal Road Trip, Durness, Sango Bay, Sango Sands — The beaches were again remarkable, fine sand, clear waters, just a shame it was a bit cold and wet for August!

Ceannabeinne Beach

Coastal Road Trip, Durness, Ceannabeinne Beach — And just a minute or two east of Sango Beach we arrived at Ceannabeinne Beach, equally beautiful (and rainy).

Loch Eriboll

Coastal Road Trip, Loch Eriboll, Telephone box, Jarno — Photo of Jarno filming a phone box… OK, so there wasn’t so much to see.

Coastal Road Trip, Loch Eriboll, Ard Neakie — A great view looking down on Ard Neakie in Loch Eriboll, connected to the mainland by a sand spit.

The Moine

Coastal Road Trip, The Moine, A’ Mhoine, Peat Bog, A838, Straight Empty Road — As we drove across the Moine along the A838 the land became quite flat all of a sudden. If you look carefully you can see some coloured bags to the left of the road. It turns out this was a peat bog, and peat was being dug and bagged.

Talmine Bay

Coastal Road Trip, Talmine Bay, Melness Coast, Kyle of Tongue, Shipwreck — A shipwreck along the Melness Coast at Talmine Bay. The Kyle of Tongue and the Rabbit Islands in the background.

Coastal Road Trip, Talmine Bay, Melness Coast, Kyle of Tongue, Beach, Cow — And yet another beach cow… this is getting weird. She didn’t look too impressed to see us.

Tongue

Coastal Road Trip, Kyle of Tongue, Tongue. Castle Varrich — Across on the east side of the Kyle of Tongue we tried to find our way to Castle Varrich, but without a detailed map, and no mobile reception we struggled. As we’d already had our fair share of castles over the last few weeks, we decided to move on.

Bettyhill

Coastal Road Trip, Bettyhill, Bay, Beach — Yay! Suns out again as we reached Bettyhill and Torrisdale Bay.

Coastal Road Trip, Bettyhill, Strathnaver Museum — Just east of Bettyhill we found the Strathnaver Museum, housed in the old parish church. A great little place full of local artifacts and explanations about the clearances, with friendly helpful volunteers on hand.

Coastal Road Trip, Bettyhill, Bay, Sunset — And the view from our Bettyhill hotel as the sun set over Torrisdale Bay.

Daily video

Day 22 – Ullapool to Durness

Today we are driving up to Durness, as far northwest as you can get by car on the British mainland, and we’re probably going to some of the most remote areas of our road trip so far.

Photo of the day

Coastal Road Trip, Locha Chairn Bhain, Eddrachillis Bay, Road — Heading past Locha Chairn Bhain on the scenic B869.

Knockan Crag

Coastal Road Trip, Knockan Crag, Globe, Joe Smith, Julian, Jarno — The intriguing Globe rock sculpture by Joe Smith at Knockan Crag. Just down the path behind us there was also an excellent information hut explaining about the geology and history of the area.

Ardvreck Castle

Coastal Road Trip, Ardvrek Castle, Julian, Jarno — Jarno managing a straight selfie photo… finally 😉 Behind us the ruins Ardvrek Castle on Loch Assynt, originally the 15th century seat of the MacLeods of Assynt.

Lochinver

Coastal Road Trip, Lochinver, Truck, Painting, Dragon, Fishermen — How cool is this?! Can’t imagine there are many fish delivery trucks painted like this.

Rhicarn

Coastal Road Trip, Rhicarn, Red House — A cute little red house near Rhicarn.

Clachtoll

Coastal Road Trip, Clachtoll Beach — One big surprise as we drove north were the beautiful clean white beaches, with crystal clear waters. Clachtoll Beach was typical of the many beautiful beaches we saw.

Coastal Road Trip, Clachtoll Beach, Fin Whale, Jaw, Skull, ,Car Park, Jarno — In the beach car park the jaw and skull of a Fin Whale that had got stranded on Raffin Beach in 2007.

Stoer

Coastal Road Trip, Stoer, Cows in road — There maybe trouble ahead.

Coastal Road Trip, Stoer, Cows in road — I’m not sure who was more concerned, us or the cows, anyway the road ended up being (just) wide enough for all of us.

Coastal Road Trip, Stoer Lighthouse — Stoer Lighthouse, and it was for sale! Interesting…

Coastal Road Trip, Stoer Lighthouse, Views — The steep cliffs below Stoer Lighthouse.

Locha Chairn Bhain

Coastal Road Trip, Locha Chairn Bhain, Eddrachillis Bay — The craggy coast around Locha Chairn Bhain and Eddrachillis Bay was stunning.

Coastal Road Trip, Locha Chairn Bhain, Eddrachillis Bay, Road — The snaking road continued alongside Locha Chairn Bhain then on to Unapool.

Unapool

Coastal Road Trip, Unapool, Bench — ..and we did just that, on this bench by the road just above Unapool.

Kylesku

Coastal Road Trip, Kylesku, Loch Gleann Dubh — Bright green grass on these mini islands on Gleann Dubh near Kylesku.

Assynt

Coastal Road Trip, Assynt, Quinag, Sail Ghorm, Rocky Ridge — Magnificent views back over the Assynt region (Norse for rocky ridge) to Quinag and Sail Ghorm.

Cranstackie

Coastal Road Trip, Cranstackie, A838 — The final stretch north to Durness as we passed Cranstackie. Despite the A838 being an ‘A’ road it was single track most of the way, reminding us that we really were in a remote location.

Kyle of Durness

Coastal Road Trip, Kyle of Durness, Keoldale — Looking back along the Kyle of Durness from Keoldale.

Coastal Road Trip, Kyle of Durness, Keoldale, Cape Wrath, Ferry Crossing — At Keoldale we decided to stop and check out the ferry times to cross to Cape Wrath the following morning. But the ferry didn’t run today due to the weather, so we’ll be back in the morning to check if it is crossing then…

Balnakeil Bay

Coastal Road Trip, Balnakeil Bay, Beach — We carried on to Balnakeil Bay, and wow what a beach. Again we hadn’t imagined that the beaches would be so perfect or the water so clear, but it kind of makes sense seeing there are so few people to pollute them.

Smoo Cave

Coastal Road Trip, Smoo Cave, Bay — Then before stopping in Durness for the night we continued a little further east to Smoo Cave.

Coastal Road Trip, Smoo Cave, Tours — Inside Smoo Cave there was this little stand where tours could be arranged, but not today, again due to the weather.

Coastal Road Trip, Smoo Cave, Entrance — However, despite no one being around, you could still enter the walkway into the first chamber…

Coastal Road Trip, Smoo Cave, Waterfall — … to view the Smoo Cave Waterfall. A nice little surprise to finish the day.

Daily video