I had joined the happy band organised by *** for his Highland Tour and we all met up for lunch at Port Appin and again in the evening for dinner at Kyle of Lochalsh.
The weather looked promising for the Sunday and several of the group were keen to see a bit of Skye. I've toured this area a fair bit, so I decided to leave the *** group and head further north for a run up the coast from Kinlochewe to Ullapool. I ended up going as far north as Scourie and looped back down via Lairg to Inverness for the night. Next day I headed over to Nairn, then took road to Tomintoul and Braemar, going over the Lecht ski area then via Perth back home to Edinburgh.
In the style of an *** 'Touring' thread', I've taken a few pictures of the roads to give you some indication of the country in what I believe is least populated area of Europe. As with most big landscapes, they don't always transfer well to the small screen (or not with my level of photographic ability they don't)
Plockton is a small village just along the coast from Kyle, so I nipped along and took a couple of shots there before meeting *** and the rest of the crew on the Sunday morning.
Having said cheerio to the *** group, I went south from Kyle and then headed over towards Strathcarron.
From there, I wanted to follow a route I'd previously taken many years ago on my motorcycle. So, it was over to Kinlochewe and then north to Loch Maree. The roads are just excellent with fast sweeping bends and great sight lines.
At the risk of sounding like someone from the Scottish Tourist Board, I didn't stop to take photos of all the great scenery because you tend to find that just round the corner, there's an even better view.
Up at the Gairloch now..
From Gairloch heading for Gruinard Bay
Gruinard 'Anthrax Island' - where germ warfare experiments were carried out in WW2.
If you ignore the nastiness of Gruinard Island, the Bay itself is very attractive. As usual, the inclines on these roads are much steeper than they appear in the photos.
There were some great views on the road to Ullapool, but they tended to coincide with some great driving too, so I don't have any of the 'standard' tourist shots from this area. I stopped for lunch at Ullapool and watched this fast boat taking visitors out for a high speed trip round the bay....
Leaving Ullapool, you start to notice the scenery is starting to get a lot more harsh - no trees and quite barren rocks.
Unapool was the next waypoint - again a very steep descent which is not too obvious in the photo.
I went as far north as Scourie then headed down the side of Loch More. This (A road) is single track road with passing places, but you can generally see four or five passing places ahead so can still maintain close to the national speed limit!
It was then on down past Loch Shin
Stopped at Laird to take a few more photos - lovely little village.
From Lairg, down to Bonar Bridge
I got in to Inverness about 18:30 after a really excellent day's driving. I did take some more pics today on the way from Inverness back down to Edinburgh and if folks aren't bored out of their minds by my ramblings, I'll try to post them tomorrow!
The weather looked promising for the Sunday and several of the group were keen to see a bit of Skye. I've toured this area a fair bit, so I decided to leave the *** group and head further north for a run up the coast from Kinlochewe to Ullapool. I ended up going as far north as Scourie and looped back down via Lairg to Inverness for the night. Next day I headed over to Nairn, then took road to Tomintoul and Braemar, going over the Lecht ski area then via Perth back home to Edinburgh.
In the style of an *** 'Touring' thread', I've taken a few pictures of the roads to give you some indication of the country in what I believe is least populated area of Europe. As with most big landscapes, they don't always transfer well to the small screen (or not with my level of photographic ability they don't)
Plockton is a small village just along the coast from Kyle, so I nipped along and took a couple of shots there before meeting *** and the rest of the crew on the Sunday morning.
Having said cheerio to the *** group, I went south from Kyle and then headed over towards Strathcarron.
From there, I wanted to follow a route I'd previously taken many years ago on my motorcycle. So, it was over to Kinlochewe and then north to Loch Maree. The roads are just excellent with fast sweeping bends and great sight lines.
At the risk of sounding like someone from the Scottish Tourist Board, I didn't stop to take photos of all the great scenery because you tend to find that just round the corner, there's an even better view.
Up at the Gairloch now..
From Gairloch heading for Gruinard Bay
Gruinard 'Anthrax Island' - where germ warfare experiments were carried out in WW2.
If you ignore the nastiness of Gruinard Island, the Bay itself is very attractive. As usual, the inclines on these roads are much steeper than they appear in the photos.
There were some great views on the road to Ullapool, but they tended to coincide with some great driving too, so I don't have any of the 'standard' tourist shots from this area. I stopped for lunch at Ullapool and watched this fast boat taking visitors out for a high speed trip round the bay....
Leaving Ullapool, you start to notice the scenery is starting to get a lot more harsh - no trees and quite barren rocks.
Unapool was the next waypoint - again a very steep descent which is not too obvious in the photo.
I went as far north as Scourie then headed down the side of Loch More. This (A road) is single track road with passing places, but you can generally see four or five passing places ahead so can still maintain close to the national speed limit!
It was then on down past Loch Shin
Stopped at Laird to take a few more photos - lovely little village.
From Lairg, down to Bonar Bridge
I got in to Inverness about 18:30 after a really excellent day's driving. I did take some more pics today on the way from Inverness back down to Edinburgh and if folks aren't bored out of their minds by my ramblings, I'll try to post them tomorrow!
Last edited: