The High Road North - Part Four: Inverness and Beyond!

Now I think of it, the trip between Bunree and the Northern Highlands is longer than I thought. Look at us, on episode four and only just heading into the City of Inverness.

Inverness - or "Inbhir Niss" (Mouth of the river Ness, in Gaelic) is the most northerly city in the UK, at least according to Wikipedia. I'm not sure where this leaves Kirkwall, which last time I looked was definitely still on Orkney and I'm pretty sure it counts as a city. I mean yes, it's small by city standards, but it does have a Cathedral, and I've always thought of it as the Capital City of the Orkneys. So. I'm going to regard it as the largest city on the mainland.

Whatever. The place is old, dating back to the sixth century at least and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. It is certainly the administrative centre for the Highland Council - as you enter the city along the A82 you drive past the headquarters of the Highland Council, or "Priomh Oifis" (Prime Office) in Gaelic. It is also the home of the main campus for the University of the Highlands and Islands, a rather nice looking castle and an airport.

That, I'm afraid is all I can tell you about Inverness, because like Fort Augustus and Druimnadrochit before it, this city is a place we have only ever driven through - we've never stopped here. The road sweeps you into the edge of the city, and then around it, bypassing the centre of town and conveying you through the light industry and out of town supermarkets towards the Moray Firth. One final roundabout, overlooking the Inverness Caledonian Thistle ground and then you're on the A9, crossing the Moray Firth on the Kessock Bridge.

Now, I know I've been rude about the A9 in the past, and it is our least favourite road in Scotland*. In truth, the A9 north of Inverness is fine - it's the bit south of the city we lost patience with. North of Inverness the A9 takes you into the Black Isle and then, if you stay on it, onwards into eastern Sutherland and then to Caithness. We, however had a different route in mind. A couple of miles north of the Kessock Bridge you come to a roundabout with two major exits. Take the right fork, and you're away up the east coast, as previously described. Take the left fork, signposted Ullapool,  and you're off to the other side of the country.

Yes, I know. We started this drive on the west coast, we've jagged across the whole country as we followed the Great Glen to Inverness on the east coast, and now we're going all the way back across Scotland to the west again. Such is the nature of main roads in Scotland, I'm afraid. Besides, if you're going to drive from one side of a country to the other twice in one day, Scotland is the country to do it in, don't you think?

This stretch was basically the final leg of the journey, and as we drove ever further north and west both the landscape and the weather began to change. 

We'd driven up the great glen beneath slate grey skies beneath a constant bombardment of persistant rain. Now the sky began clear and brighten, while the view outside the window of the car began to lose the green pastoral roll of the Black Isle and take on the rockier, more robust character of the rugged Scottish north west.                                                                                                                  

This is a perhaps my favourite leg of the trip, perhaps because you start to feel yourself getting closer to your destination with every turn of the wheel and you start to spot the landmarks that whisper "nearly there" in your ear.

Not that there are all that many landmarks. This is a landscape more notable for what it doesn't contain rather than what it does. You don't pass very many houses - or buildings of any kind for that matter. What you have instead is space. Beautiful, unsullied, empty space. You'll see the occasional huddle of empty cars, left by walkers who have headed for the hills, or people who have chosen to spend their day thigh deep in freezing cold water as they try to catch salmon or trout in one of the many little burns that flow down the hills and over the rocks.

It doesn't seem very long before you find yourself approaching Loch Glascarnoch. 

this seven mile long reservoir sits roughly half way between Inverness and the little coastal town of Ullapool. The massive concrete dam that holds the water in check sits at the southern end of the loch, and does rather dominate the valley as you approach. 

At the bottom of this imposing edifice sits the Aultguish Inn. We've never stopped here, but it always seems busy. In addition to the usual facilities you'd expect to find at an inn, the Aultguish also provides a sizeable bunkhouse for walkers and outdoor types on a budget, and an increasingly busy camping area. I dunno. Perhaps it's an over exposure to the film "The Dambusters" as a kid, but I always think the place looks a little vulnerable...

There's a steepish hill here, which takes you up above the Aultguish Inn to the level of the lochside, from where, if you look back you can see the hiking booted footprints painted on the roof of the bunkhouse. We've been driving past here for very nearly twenty years, and those boot prints still make me smile.

From here you continue north west, skirting first the north shore of the little Loch Droma before passing the falls of Measach on your left - about which more in a future post - and a good sized car park on your right. At this point you're following the course of the River Broom, although you wouldnt know this from the road because it flows at the bottom of a steeply sided and very deep gorge. More about that in a later post too.

Before much longer we were skirting the south eastern shore of Loch Broom, it's waters mirror still and slate grey under the brightening sky. Soon after that we were climbing the last hill before the little town of Ullapool, which sits contentedly towards the upper end of the loch. Ullapool too will be getting a post all of it's own in the future,so we will continue on, through the town, up the hill and past the tiny settlement of Ardmair.

Actually, "settlement" is rather a strong word for Ardmair. From the road it looks like a short terrace of holiday homes and a caravan site, but it's worthy of mention because the caravan site is rather good. We stayed there once a couple of years ago because we were heading to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and this site was handy for the ferry. The site shop was well stocked, and the sheltered bay offers a wide cobble beach and views of Isle Martin. 

Good as it is though, Ardmair was not our destination this trip, so on we went. The road sweeps north now, taking you past Ben Mor Coigach (literally "the big hill in the Coigach region) on your left. Shortly after that the twin mountains of Cul Baeg and her bigger sister, the twin peaked Cul Mor swing into view, again on the left, and we knew we were very nearly there.

We fairly sprinted up the hill with the Knochan Crag visitor centre on our right, and as we crested that rise, with the crags climbing up above us we could see our destination, a little field just above the village of Elphin. This Caravan Club Certificated Location was going to be home for the next week or so. We were back in Assynt - the land of Rocks and Lochs, the place that first kindled our love for the Highlands.

This is not the northernmost spot in Scotland, but for us, the High Road North ends here. Next time we'll explore the place in detail and perhaps you'll understand why... 

*It would be our least favourite road in the whole of Britain were it not for the existence of the M5 and M25, which occupy a whole other level of hideousness...