Sites for sore eyes: Bunree

Gosh, it's been ages since the last post. July turned out to be a very busy month and I just couldn't get a post written.

Still. Summer is now most definitely here, and it's time to talk about another one of those special sites that we just keep going back to. The first in this occasional series was the excellent little lochside strip on the shores of Loch Naver at Grummore/Altnaharra.

This site, at Bunree just south of Fort William, is similar to Grummore in many ways. It too is a Caravan Club site. It too is by the shores of a loch, this time Loch Linnie, and here too (if you get there early) you can pitch up within mere feet of the water.

Here the similarities end. Grummore is an intimate little place miles from anywhere with almost no facilities. Bunree is a big site with all mod cons. Spotless toilet and shower blocks, laundry and drying room, children's play area, you name it, they have it.

It's also far from being miles from anywhere. Not only is it bang slap on the A82 just a few minutes from Fort William - one oh the largest settlements in the Highlands - it's even closer to the village of Onich, complete with village stores, hotel/restaurant, and petrol station. Even better, you're also mere minutes from the glory of Glencoe - somewhere I've enthused about before.

Perhaps because it's so well appointed and offers such fine views of the loch and the boats - both leisure and industrial craft - that make their way past, the site is almost always busy and advanced booking is absolutely advised. We've seen many people who've turned up on spec turned away, and we'd hate to see you disappointed.

It is, however, important to play by the rules. Competition for the lochside pitches is understandably strong, and if you want to stand a chance of bagging one you do need to arrive early. BUT it's really important not to arrive before the "first arrivals" time of twelve noon. If you do you're going to get gunned up with people leaving (you have to clear the place before twelve too, so there shouldn't be any overlap) and worse, you'll piss off the wardens.

That would be bad because they're lovely people who fall over themselves to be helpful and don't deserve the extra stress early arrivals clearly cause. On our most recent visit, in mid July we miscalculated how long it would take us to get there from the site near Stirling where we'd stayed overnight. (Not something we normally do on the way to Bunree, hence the miscalculation.)

When it became clear that we were going to be very, very early we slowed down, and as we created the summit of Rannoch Moor we started taking five minute breaks in laybys, culminating in a twenty minute stop at the endof Glencoe. (Not actually a hardship.) After all this heroic procrastination we arrived on site at three minutes past twelve. There were two caravans in the queue ahead of us...

Still, we had arrived, and we bagged a pitch by the water. Our latest highland adventure was well and truly underway - about which, more next time...

Wandering around Grummore.

So, there we were, pitched up on the banks of Loch Naver in the heart of the Northern Highlands. It was a bit windy - but the weather was dry and bright, and however happy we might have been just taking in the spectacular view of Ben Klibreck we all know that you can't just sit around outside the 'van.

Besides, as noted in the last posting, there's a lot of history to be found in Strathnaver and its environs, so we set out to explore. We were feeling a little bit lazy though, so we didn't initially go all that far. A short walk up the hill behind the site brings you to the remains of the cleared village of Grummore - or "Big Grum" in English. The cleared remains of its counterpart Grumbeg, or "Little Grum"* can be found a little further up the road. Grummore is rather peaceful now. Unlike much of the surrounding country this relatively gentle slope is covered with lush green grass rather than heather and so is also covered in quietly grazing sheep and their associated droppings. Don't walk up there in sandals, is what I'm saying...

The low stone walls that are all that remain of this once thriving community protrude through the grass and bracken, rough grey scars amongst the vivid green. It looks in many ways like many other ruined villages you might see elsewhere from all sorts of different times. The difference with these ruins is that we know exactly when they became ruins. The precise moment when they stopped being homes and became the forlorn mounds of rubble they are today. We know who was here, we know why the people were removed and the buildings removed.

We know this because there are records, and because in the grand scheme of things it didn't happen all that long ago - just about two hundred years ago in the years between 1814 and 1819 in fact. Grummore was the first village in Strathnaver to be cleared on the orders of the Duke of Sutherland. By this time the clearances were nothing new, with many landowners in Scotland having already moved people off the land to make way for more profitable sheep. In many ways, in spite of the fact that he has become the symbolic hate figure for the clearances the Duke was in fact somewhat late to the party - he was neither the first nor the worst of the landowners who cleared their tenants from the land, he is simply the best remembered.

Not that this excuses what happened, of course. Prior to 1814 there were thirty settlements in Strathnaver. Now there are three. Altnaharra sits at the southern end, Syre is roughly half way up, and Bettyhill - where many of those cleared  ended up, sits right at the northern end on the coast. That's it. The clearances, overseen by the Duke of Sutherland's Factor, one Patrick Sellar, was zealous in his approach. In other parts of Scotland tenants were allowed to remove the timbers from their houses so that they could be re-used wherever they re-located. Sellar seems to have preferred to set fire to them. You can't argue that this wasn't an efficient method of making sure that people left and didn't come back, but it's hardly surprising that the clearances on Sutherland have come to represent the worst excesses of this depressing episode in Scottish history.

Sellar was, in fact, tried for these actions and for the murder of an old lady who died as she was being removed from her house. His defence seems to have been that he was acting lawfully because he was carrying out his employers orders - a defence that has become the default position for people involved in atrocities - and he was acquitted.  A cynic might well take the view that this acquittal owed more to the composition of the jury - they were all landowners who had something to gain from the clearances - and certainly the crofters who were removed did not feel that justice was done.

Still. The horrors of the clearances here at Grummore and elsewhere are history now. What you experience on the hillside now is peace. It's an easy walk - sheep droppings notwithstanding - not least because there is a planned trail around the site with wooden walkways carrying you over the roughest ground. This is because Grummore is the first (or last, I suppose, if you're starting at the other end...) stop on the brilliant "Strathnaver Trail". All the way along the valley sites of interest are marked by lilac coloured posts and provided with informative information boards so that you know what you're looking at. At most there is even space for you to pull off the road and park - a very important touch on a road that is only wide enough for one vehicle at a time.

As you wander through the abandoned and fallen houses - there are at least twenty that I have been able to make out; in some you can even still make out the floor plan - it is worth looking back down towards the loch, which looks spectacular from this vantage point. You also get a good view of the Broch that occupies one corner of the Caravan Club site - tangible evidence that occupation in this beautiful valley has a history that goes back a long, long way.

Brochs, as mentioned in the previous post, were circular stone towers and are very nearly unique to the Highlands**. Most date from around two thousand years ago, and nobody is entirely sure what they were used for.  In fact, there is a lively debate in archaeological circles regarding how many there actually are. The problem is that unlike a Roman Villa or ancient church, Brochs don't leave a particularly distinctive footprint once their walls have gone. You can see there used to be a round building there, you might even find evidence of occupation, but was it a Broch, or a roundhouse, or something else?

Anyway. The traditional view is that the structures which have been identified as Brochs were purely defensive, but modern thinking is that they were more akin to fortified farmhouses. The Brock at Grummore is pretty much collapsed now, but if you look down on it from the road you can still clearly see it's "doughnut" shape. The ones that survive in a more intact condition always remind me of power station cooling towers, and to me they suggest something about the ancient Scots which is quite surprising.

They didn't care about the view.

How do I know this? Because there are several Brochs which remain pretty much intact, and they all have one thing in common. There are no windows. Once inside, you couldn't see out - even the entrance ways are tiny - openings a couple of feet high by a couple of feet wide. I appreciate that our Iron Age ancestors had more to worry about than we do now, and that in the absence of glass windows meant no protection from the wind - which I can attest is pretty icy and pretty fierce at times - but even so, the idea of being in such a place and not being able to see it boggles my mind slightly.

Because there is just so much to see - as I hope to demonstrate in the next post...

*"Mor" means "Big" in Gaelic, "Baeg" means "Little" or "Small". I'm guessing that "Grum" means something too, but I'm still a novice in the Gaelic language and I have no idea what...

**There are a couple in southern Scotland, but the vast, vast majority are north of the Great Glen.

Sites for Sore Eyes - an occasional celebration of perfect places to pitch up. 1: Grummore/Altnaharra

I really am in two minds about this post. There's  a bit of me that loves this place so much that I just want everybody to know about it. There's another bit of me that loves this place so much I just want all of you to stay the hell away so that me and Mrs Snail can have it all to ourselves. However, the Caravan Club has been promoting the bejeezus out of the place this year - so if I'm ever going to talk about it, now would appear to be the time...

We discovered the place about five years ago and were instantly smitten - there is real magic here, so I'm making it the first of an occasional series where I talk in depth about the actual sites where we stay. I don't normally do that, preferring to concentrate on the places to see and places to eat in the area. But some sites are special and deserve some extra attention. Grummore is one such place. 

The Caravan Club site at Grummore*, sits on the banks of Loch Naver about four miles east of the little village of Altnaharra, and twenty odd miles north of the town of Lairg in the Northern Highlands. The site occupies a narrow strip of land between the road and the Loch, offering one of the best views I can imagine of Ben Klibreck - one of the 282 "Monros", or "Scottish Mountains over 3,000 feet". When the weather is calm - which is surprisingly often given the location, Loch Naver becomes a perfect reflecting pool, offering a double view of this extraordinary peak. Whatever the weather the constant changes of light make the view endlessly fascinating.

Facilities are spartan, at least by club standards. Only about half of the pitches have electric hook up, there is no shower block, no laundry, no toilets. Just a chemical closet emptying point, a waste water drain and two taps. Oh, and unless you're carrying a portable satellite system (which we do not) there's no TV signal. Even the FM radio reception isn't perfect. Oh, and you have to drive over twenty six miles on single track roads.

For me and Mrs Snail, there is more than enough. We would be quite happy to park up the 'van here and just sit and watch the ever changing view. But even if that's all you do, that's not all there is. Interest is added by the vast quantity of wildlife which frequents the place. There are the ever present sheep (the warden is often to be seen patrolling the site with a small shovel and a bucket clearing up after them), the groups of red deer which can be seen on the hill behind the site and on the opposite shore, and the astonishing abundance of bird life.

Our bird feeder has attracted Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinches and Siskins in great numbers. At the right time of year you will see huge quantities of Swallows and Swifts and while you may not always see them, in late spring and early summer the distinctive call of the Cuckoo is pretty hard to miss. You're also guaranteed to see larger specimens.

If you've been reading this blog from the start you'll know that I have a thing for Raptors; one of the earliest editions of the blog went on at some length about a falconary display. There is just something about the larger Raptors that makes your heart race when you catch a glimpse of them wheeling and soaring in the distance. Well, around Grummore you will not only see Buzzards doing just that, there's every possibility you will see them up close and personal - I've been within three feet of one which just sat on a wall and looked at me.

There have been sightings of Golden Eagles in the hills around nearby Loch Loyal - although I confess I've never seen one - and when we were there last (Whit Week 2013)we learned that one of the people staying at the same time as us had seen our largest bird of prey, the White Tailed Eagle, on the opposite shore of Lock Naver not once but twice. Ironically at the time we were parked up by the shores of Loch Loyal scanning the sky for Golden Eagles... We've also seen pairs of the rare Red Throated Divers, and their even rarer Black Throated cousins. Herons, Tufted Ducks, Geese, Plovers, Dunlin (see below), Oyster Catchers - it's a veritable bird watching paradise! 

Birds aren't the only things flying around either. While they're not frequent enough to become a noise nuisance, you will also get to see the RAF's fast and not so fast jets doing their thing. I don't think we've ever stayed there without having at least one low flypast from either a Tornado or a Typhoon skimming the Loch - and by low, I mean low enough to make out the profile of the pilot - and slightly more in the distance you can often see pairs of Tornado GR4s dancing between the hills as they rehearse their ground attack/force protection routines.

Seriously, if watching stuff that fly is your thing, you may never want to leave the site!

Indeed, in some ways there's no need to. Grummore sits almost literally in the middle of nowhere. the nearest towns are Lairg, twenty off miles southish and Bettyhill, twenty odd miles to the north at the mouth of the River Naver. With no disrespect to these little towns there is very little reason to visit either - although there is a rather good museum in Bettyhill, about which more in a later post...

Lairg and Bettyhill are probably the closest shops - don't get excited, they're pretty small and will only be able to supply the basics - but if you plan well before you set out you probably won't need them unless you're staying awhile. The absolute basics - bread, milk, etc, can be obtained from the warden's little shop, which will also provide ice-creams - and does a roaring trade on hot days as cyclists pause for a wee rest by the lochside.

There is a good day out to be had in the town of Dornoch on the Eastern Coast, and in the town of Ullapool on the Western Coast, but they're both something of a hike from here and easier to get to from almost anywhere else. The space inbetween these places however is full of beauty and wonder, so a certain amount of "getting out there" is highly recommended.

Then there's the history. The valley of Strathnaver, where Grummore is to be found, and the surrounding areas possibly drip with it. Not all of it is happy. Grummore, the village after which the site used to me named can still be seen on the hill immediately above the site. Well, the remains of it can. The Village of Grummore was cleared rather violently at the height of the notorious Highland Clearances - a violent and shameful sequence of events which have both shaped and scarred the Highlands of today. There are many clearance villages along the valley - now largely empty of people but once positively humming with communities. As a result we'll keep coming back to them as we explore the place in future postings.

But the history of human occupation in this valley goes back much further than the tragedy of the clearances. On the Loch shore at the edge of the site itself sit (for they are far too collapsed to be called "standing") the remains of an Iron Age Broch - a sort of fortified farmhouse/tower unique to the north of Scotland and the Islands. The broch at Grummore is little more now than a ring of rubble, but there are better preserved examples both in the valley and in the surrounding area.

And it is the area around this amazing little site that we'll be exploring in the next post.

*Now officially called "Altnaharra" as part of the Club's efforts to make the location of their sites clearer. Because obviously everybody knows where Altnaharra is...