NW Scotland: And miles to go before I sleep. . .

Saturday, 5 July 2014

We are currently outside of  Durness  which, outside of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, is one of the furthest north cities in Scotland.  We left Loch Ness this morning and traveled to Ullapool.  It is a cute little coastal town, though it smells of fish and burning rubber near the harbor.  It is located on an inlet of the North Sea.  We walked around town, then got an ice cream cone before getting in the car to move on. 

Next we stopped at Ardvreck Castle and Calda House (right next to each other) on Loch Ardvreck.  They are ruins that you can simply walk right up to.  The Castle was built by the McLeods in the latter half of the 15^th century and was quite small—one room on each floor.   Calda House was built around 1730 byKenneth MacKenzie who owned the castle by this time, but  his wife did not like it’s austerity.  The house was quite large with nine bedrooms.  (All must have been quite small, however).  Well, the MacKenzies racked up a great deal of debt and the Earl of Sutherland won it from Kenneth in 1936.  A year later, MacKenzie supporters burned the house down and vowed that no Sutherlands would ever live there.  50 years later, men were paid to carry the stones from the house down by boat to Kirkton to build the first parochial schoolhouse there.     There was also at least one burial cairn there, previously unearthed to show three chambers, but it has grown in again.  There was also supposed to be a walled garden by the castle further out on the promontory, but I saw no evidence of it. 

Calda House

Burial Cairn

The Castle

Joshua

As we drove, we saw the landscape slowly become breathtaking.  We saw large stony mountains looking down over streams brambling over stones in meandering ribbons through the moors.  We saw green undulating hills with rocks pushing up through the green carpet over small lakes and ponds.  Unfortunately, we were on a “single track” road (read one narrow lane shared by traffic going both directions with no shoulders), so we could not stop to take photos.  We also saw large bowl depressions in the moors full of ferns.  They looked like the homes of the “wee folk.”   It was all very beautiful and mystical.  It looked like a travelogue of Scotland that you would watch on PBS or some cable travel show. 

Our three lovely children!

Along the way, we saw church ruins and, of couse, we had to stop!  First we had to encourage the sheep to get off the road so that we could park there instead of on the main road (which the sheep were also blocking).  Then we checked out the ruins—very plain must not have been too old.  The gravestones surrounding it were much more interesting.  The oldest one was 1806, the most recent from the 1950s.  Most, of course, were Mac-somethings. MacLeods and MacKenzies dominated.   

Then we drove to Stoer to an old lighthouse.  The lighthousekeeper had to trim the wicks every 4 hours and could only clean the Fresnel lens and the inside in early evening because the sun might burn him during the day, coming through the lens and reflecting.  The whole family lived there and the children attended the Stoer primary school.  Beyond primary school, they needed to be sent to boarding school because there were no upper schools in the area.  The family also had their own barn with livestock to provide for them. 

The North Sea

Our silly children

The barn and pasture of the lightkeeper's family

The North Sea

This is from the beach

We eventually arrived at our hostel.  It is tiny and divided into two low buildings.  One has  the men’s and women’s dormitories.  So we divided up.  The other building has reception, a kitchen and eating area, and a lounge.  We have no wifi, so this will need to be uploaded tomorrow when we arrive at our B&B in Aberdeen.  About a week ago, the B&B contacted us to say that the renovations that were supposed to be completed already were not.  They gave us a few alternatives, we chose one, and they took care of the booking, payment (since we had already paid), etc.   After preparing our beds at the hostel (pillowcases, bottom sheet and duvet cover on the comforter), we walked down to the Smoor Cave.  It is a large cave which has tours during the day (being 8:00 by now they were done), but it is open all the time, so we walked in the large cave and into a smaller cave.  The large one was caused by the ocean, the smaller by a river.  Pretty neat.  I was unable to get a photo in the waterfall cave because my flash kept reflecting off the water droplets in the air.  

Then back to make dinner, then Randy went up to the Spar to get milk for breakfast while the children and I washed the dishes and cleaned up.  Tomorrow is an even longer time in the car to get to Aberdeen.