The Narrows

Photos taken on our holiday at Poolewe, Wester Ross. We stayed in a delightful little cottage called The Narrows named because of its situation on the narrow section of the River Ewe before it enters Loch Maree. Every morning we were treated to dozens of birds gathering on the feeder. Great tits, chaffinches, cole tits, robins, a couple of pigeons and a blackbird all turned up as soon as I put their feed out. We also left out a slice of jam and bread every night for the local pine marten, it ate it all but one night and the slice it left was devoured by the robin and blackbird the next morning.

Our itinerary was roughly as follows -

Saturday - travelled up from Stirling via Glencoe, Fort William and Kintail, turning off on to The Wester Ross Coastal Route just before Balmacara. A long and tiring day but the weather was kind and the coffee stops much appreciated.

Sunday - A local day. just popped down to Gairloch, had a coffee in The Mountain Coffee Company cafe at Strath. We then drove to Charlestown Harbour but by then it was raining pretty hard so we beat a hasty retreat back to our cottage and just relaxed.

Monday - We went to one of our favourite beaches, Firemore Beach, a huge beach which is part way along the Poolewe Peninsula. The only people we saw were an elderly couple who were doing the NC500 and they arrived just as we were leaving. From the beach you get a super view of the distant hills of Fisherfield and Torridon to the east. It was from the head of the peninsula that the Arctic Convoys of WW11 gathered and set off for Russia to deliver supplies and ammunition to both the Allied Forces and the Russian Forces. Over 3,500 souls were lost, either killed by German fire or perishing in the icy cold Arctic Ocean. A lot of the old battlements and pill boxes still exist, making it a very sombre place to visit.

Tuesday - Another coastal day. Firstly to Mellon Udrigle and then on to Gruinard Bay. Again there were very few people about on either beach. It was a cold and windy day so we were both thankful for our warm coffee stop at Inverewe Gardens cafe on the way up. You get an even better view from Mellon Udrigle beach; from the hills of Coigach and Assynt in the far north, round to An Tealloch and The Fisherfield Hills, (which is known as The Great Wilderness), in the East. With the right conditions, Mellon Udrigle can be a photographers dream. We then had a short drive up the coast to Gruinard Bay, another fabulous beach. Unfortunately the weather had closed in and it absolutely threw it down. I got out of the car just long enough to take a couple of photos and then admitted defeat. It was a case of back to the cottage to get warm and dry off.

Wednesday - Gairloch, Big Sands and Rubha Reidh Lighthouse. We called in Gairloch mainly to get a couple of sandwiches for lunch but the shop was closed. By luck it was situated right next to Vinyl Stop Record Shop so I went in there to see what they had to offer. It was an impressive place stacked with hundreds of records. I ended up buying two, The Stranglers first LP and a live Dr Feelgood LP, both from the 1970's. We then headed along to coast to Big Sand Caravan Park and their excellent cafe. After refreshments we headed for the beach which is owned by the caravan site. It really is a superb sandy beach which seems to go on forever. It was quiet when we visited but I should imagine it will be chaotic at the height of the season. It gave fabulous view right across to The Isle of Skye and inland down the the Torridon Hills. Finally we drove to the lighthouse at Rubha Reidh which is right at the end of the peninsula and in the middle of nowhere. Stupid me got the car stuck in some mud which could have been disastrous but, to cut a long story short, we got rescued by a party of walkers returning from their walk who gallantly pushed us out. God knows what we would have done without them. Very relieved, we headed back to base to lick our wounds.

Thursday - Torridon, stopping off at Victoria Falls near Slatterdale. The best day of the holiday and even the weather played ball. The falls were impressive but had the sun directly over them so photography was a none starter. I've tagged a phone photo of them at the end of the blog and I think its come out very well considering the conditions. We then carried on past Loch Maree to Kinlochewe and took the single track road down Glen Torridon. One plus about the roads in these parts is that they have lots of passing places. We had a lovely coffee in The Torridon Stores Cafe where we sat outside over looking the Loch to drink them. Them I had a walk to an open air church called An Ploc which Sal had previously visited. For more info see this link An Ploc. Sal went on a longer walk taking in a path going adjacent to the road towards Inveralligin, I think it had some historical significance but for the life of me I can't remember what. I then picked her up and we found a nice spot down Glen Torridon to eat the sandwiches which we had bought at the stores. They do know how to make good coffee and good sandwiches. Their speciality is Cheese and Haggis Toasties, they are to die for! We retraced our steps back to the cottage, stopping off at Loch Maree to take a few photos of the mighty Slioch. A fine day all round!

Friday - wet, wet, wet and the final day at The Narrows. We were prepared for a wet day and had decided to go and visit The Arctic Convoy Museum. I've mentioned the convoys on Mondays paragraph so I'll just leave a link for the museum which describes things a damned sight better than I can! Arctic Convoy Museum. It isn't a very large museum but they manage to fill it with many interesting relics, stories, information, models and a full length film show. We got back to the cottage mid-afternoon and chilled out before going to The Badachro Inn for pizza. We ate them overlooking Red Point Beach, hoping for a sunset but it never came. We did manage to get a request played on Wester Ross Radio. We asked for Torriron singing Lighthouse which was quite apt as we had the hills of Torridon behind us and we could see the flashing light of the lighthouse on Rona in front of us. A lovely fitting way to end our holiday.

Saturday - a long drive back down to Stirling for an overnight stay,

Sunday - back to our base in Cumbria. Motorway all the way and rain all the way. Were both glad to bet back to my caravan.