22 June, Wednesday

I had been told that the road between Dunnet and Durness was worth driving along in good weather – I had had no views at all on Sunday.  So I decided to back track to Bettyhill and then to climb Ben Loyal, at the back of Tongue.  At least it wasn’t raining but the clouds weren’t all that high. 

East of Bettyhill, the Strathnavar kirk is now a museum, ostensibly specialising in the clearances – Bettyhill is a result of the clearances. 

Surprise, surprise, I was the only person in the museum.  I found the information about the clearances indigestible and confused.  The two best things in the museum were:

1) the rather depressed papier mache horse and (better)

2) a buoy made of dog skin.  I suppose as dogs don’t sweat, the skin must not be porous…

Actually there were 3 best things – the curator/attendant/old chap taking the dosh was fast asleep when I was leaving so hopefully I managed to creep out without waking him up.

The A838

Tongue is on the Kyle of Tongue which is a long sea loch, but is very shallow and quite a lot of it dries out at low tide (as does the Kyle of Durness).  There is now a causeway which cuts out having to drive around the edge.  There was a Jacobite naval battle here in 1746 – King of France’s sloop carrying money to finance Bonnie Prince Charlie was defeated.  They managed to get the money ashore and threw it into a lochan – the story goes that gold pieces still occasionally appear.

Tongue was home of the chiefs of the Clan Mackay but sold in 1829 to the chap who became the Duke of Sutherland four years later.  The Duke, responsible for the clearances, built the road which became the A838 , built a hunting lodge here which is now the Tongue Hotel and a fishing lodge on Loch Loyal – this is deep in deer and fish country. 

The “new” causeway

Ben Loyal (the Queen of Scottish Peaks) has 4 peaks, the highest is 762m.  The weather was OK but the top was in cloud

Sundew

A lot of places I’ve been have indicated that sundew can be found.  I have never been successful in spotting it.  However I did today.

Trees growing everywhere…

 

Looking east/south

Stunning views at the top…

The trig point

I struggled to find the highest point so abandoned the other three peaks and the walk along the ridge.

Deer

 

Lots of deer (look inside the walls)

I set off up the hill at 2 and got back at 7.  On the way back I heard a cuckoo.  It was only the fourth time I’d heard one this summer.

I set off south down the A836 – about the only building I passed in 20 mile was a posh fishing lodge and a boat house.  On arrival at Altaharra, a hotel, a petrol pump (attached to the hotel), 6 dwellings and a deer farm, I turned right onto an even more lonely road which turned north towards Ben Hope and Loch Hope.  After about 15 miles, seeing no other vehicles going either way I found somewhere to pull over and spend the night.

Loch Eribol, Ben Hope, Loch Hope