500 reasons to love Highlands
IN MORE than 40 years of living here, I had never been to the Highlands and islands. Nor have many of the people I know.
Everywhere you cast your eyes in the northern Highlands there is a dramatic mountain, a beautiful loch, a pretty waterfall.
And you get to share it only with sheep, cows and the occasional resident of an isolated cottage. So why don’t more of us go? The rather “changeable” weather is the obvious answer.
We went at the end of the summer and swam in the sea in glorious sunshine and got battered by torrential rain and gale force winds in the same day. But it’s still worth it. The best way to see the northern Highlands is driving the North Coast 500, which starts and finishes in
XXXXXX xxxxxx Inverness.
Xxxx There are plenty of stops at “settlements” – tiny villages with not much beyond a local shop and a pub/ hotel – along the way.
We took three days to do the drive and added two nights in Orkney on the way.
Our first stop was Wick, via the beautiful Dornoch beach. We checked into a cosy cottage in the grounds of Ackergill Tower, a 15th century castle on the edge of the sea.
Next morning, we went for the obligatory photo opportunity at John o’ Groats, before heading to Castle Mey, the Queen Mother’s Scottish residence.
Whether you’re a royalist or not, it’s a fascinating insight into her life.
We made another stop at Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the British mainland, before a 90-minute ferry ride from Scrabster to Stromness on Orkney.
We drove to Kirkwall and checked into our apartment attached to the Ayre Hotel. The next morning our Orcadian guide David showed us the many sights.
They included the Standing Stones of Stenness, a neolithic monument believed to be the oldest henge in the British Isles, the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae, the most complete remaining neolithic settlement in Europe.
Elsewhere, the kids were chuffed to meet a rare woolly pig, the Mangalitza, at the Orkney Buffalo Farm.
We spent the rest of the day on the sandy beach below Skara Brae before heading back to Kirkwall.
The following morning, we headed back to the mainland and a day of driving, covering the west coast of the 500 route.
After a hearty lunch in Thurso, we pressed on to Ullapool. Our home for the evening was the Coul House Hotel in the hills over Contin, a short drive from Inverness.
It is luxurious and child friendly – a great find.
The next day, we went to Chanonry Point, where dolphins danced around in the surf near the shore.
We hit the beach in Nairn before the essential Nessie search as we drove around Loch Ness.
We could happily spend every holiday in the Highlands for the rest of time. If only we could order some Caribbean sunshine...