Ben Loyal
Kirstie Shirra visits a royal hill in Scotland’s far north renowned for its queens, castles and – possibly – hidden treasure.
Ben Loyal is often known as the ‘Queen of Scottish Mountains’. While any royal connotations with its name appear to be wrong, it does have an impressive castle.
The granite tower of An Caisteal, the castle, is Ben Loyal’s highest top at 765m and is just one of the five rocky tops that crown the ridge. This circular route takes in all five castellations. From each of the tops, you gain fantastic panoramic views over the surrounding countryside, composed as it is of vast swathes of wild land and water. The shifting white sands of the Kyle of Tongue in particular are a sight to be seen.
In the middle of the Kyle you can see the Rabbit Islands, so named because rabbits were introduced to them in the 1700s to provide meat for the local laird.
You also look down to the small Lochan Hakel, notable for potentially containing Jacobite treasure. In 1746, the Hazard, a Jacobite ship carrying over £13,000 in gold coins to fund Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion, brought the coins ashore but the crew were attacked and threw the coins into Lochan Hakel. Bonnie Prince Charlie sent 1,500 men to recover the money, but they were defeated en route and the government is thought to have recovered most of the coins. The 1,500 men may have made a difference to the outcome of the Battle of Culloden and it’s just possible that the depths of Lochan Hakel still contain some Jacobite gold to this day.
Castles and abandoned gold aside, Ben Loyal, with its commanding position on Scotland’s far north coast, is a treasure worth visiting in itself.