We have spent the last two nights in a stone croft cottage at Kirtomy, 3 miles west of Bettyhill. Tomorrow we travel to Ullapool as we begin our journey down the West Coast. After arriving on a fairly bleak evening, to a cold cottage after a long drive on single lane roads we were perhaps not in the finest of moods. Luckily we didn’t have to do much more than heat some soup for dinner and fall into bed. On Saturday we drove east to John O’Groats. It was fairly underwhelming after we had stood near the sign with the other tourists to take photos. There is a decent modern cafe for lunch (luckily as the chip van looked quite unappealing). We ate our quiche of the day with a great view of the ocean in the warmth. Then we went for a little stroll past the old hotel and the new beach houses. We also marvelled at the tatty souvenir shop and had no desire to go in. We started back westward and travelled through tiny seaside dots on the map, as well as Thurso (which has a tescos). We also went past the entrance to the Castle of Mey which looked delightful, was once owned by the Queen Mother, but, is only open to the public for a couple of months per year. Then we turned off the road to the Dunnet Head lighthouse which is actually the most northerly point on the British mainland and has some spectacular cliff top views of the ocean. The lighthouse was designed by author Robert Louis Stevenson’s father. I don’t know why more people weren’t there. Then it was home to our warm cottage before dinner at the Bettyhill Hotel which was yummy and a very friendly place. We even had dessert.

Today we were taken by surprise with the clocks going backwards so the day seemed very long. It was a stunning sunny morning. We drove west to Tongue and started driving to Durness but we all got hungry halfway there so we turned back to the Tongue Hotel which is absolutely delightful. Because “the season” is pretty much finished most hotels apologetically offer a bar menus. This usually turns out to be scrumptious and simple food. For 9.95 you could get the soup and panini combo which was delicious. We also madly availed ourselves of their free wifi and their copy of the Scotland Lonely Planet while we ate. After a bit more scenery and driving we came back to the cottage and walked the kilometre or so down the road to the point here. It was cold and invigorating but we were snugly warm in our Kathmandu and North Face jackets. We said hello to the sheep and watched the sun set on the opposite hills.

Overall it’s been a lovely highland experience but I think we are all ready to return to civilisation where there is mobile reception and lattes.

🙂