BADACHRO!

Day1 Monday 14th March 2022

We woke to a beautiful, sunny Monday morning, Sharon went to get her hair cut and I got things ready for us to set off for a surprise getaway for Sharon's birthday.

Once Sharon was back we loaded up the car and off we went.

But! where to?

Her first guess was east, but that proved to be wrong in less than a hundred yards. South wasn't long after. It took a while before west was confirmed.

We soon started to see lochs and bens, and the weather was still looking good.

By the time we got to Glen Docharty, Sharon was sure that we were going to the Torridon. Wrong again. It was in the right kind of direction and the view from here is always worth a stop. It has to be one of the finest views anywhere in the highlands. All the way down to Loch Maree.

We didn't turn left at Kinlochewe to go to the Torridon, although she was still half convinced we were just taking a long route to get there. There is, in fact, no realistic other way. We could have driven to Red Point, 26 miles, walked to Diabaig, 6 miles, got a non existent taxi to the Torridon another 10 miles. That would clearly be unrealistic as there are no taxis at Daibaig. In fact, there are hardly any houses. The direct road route from Kinlochewe is only 23 miles, much quicker and you don't have to haul your suitcase over the 6 mile hill track from Red Point to Diabaig. So, we weren't going to the Torridon, which might have been a disappointment to Sharon, I suppose.

Instead, we were going to go for a walk, the first of a number on this trip.

This was described as a delightful circuit walk through the replanted and regenerating Bad na Sgalag native pinewoods. 

Sounded just the thing to start our few days away. We had our picnic in our knapsack, so off we set. In no time at all I was back at the car as the camera seemed to break down irrevocably and I decided to put it back in the car and rely solely on the phone.

So, here is Sharon standing on a wee bridge over the burn flowing from the Feur Loch. 

Feur means grass in Gaelic and the loch does have a lots of reeds and grasses round the edges, as you can see.

The path did go uphill and we were soon looking down on the loch. The further we went, the quieter it got. No traffic noise, no noise of anything, in fact. Can you not feel the stress melting off your shoulders at the mere thought of it?

There were occasional interpretive panels describing the landscape that we could see. Here I am standing next to some regenerating Scots Pine. This once covered vast tracts of the Highlands and it was removed by man to make space for livestock and to feed the many small iron works that flourished around nearby Loch Maree. 18th Century clearance of the land for sheep farms was even more damaging. The landscape may be spectacular, but the range of plants and animals is considerably impoverished from what went before.

As we got higher, views over to Slioch begin to open up. Slioch is 3219 feet high and is named after the Gaelic for spear, which it looks more like when seen from the north east. There are no similarly high mountains close to it and and it certainly dominates the landscape roundabout. Happily we were not going anywhere near Slioch on this walk.

The walk is known as Bad na Sgalag, which means the camp or grove of the farm workers, and it is the name of the loch you come back beside as well as the name given to the regenerating pinewood.

Over and above the farmworkers settlement, there was a substantial sheiling settlement beside the loch in the middle of the picture. At one time this was occupied by a priest and the loch and the burn flowing out of it are Lochan Chleirich and the Allt Lochan Chleirich - the lochan, and the burn of the lochan, of the cleric.

It was time for lunch and we had that at the highest point on the path, with fabulous views all around.

A bit of M&S food - falafel, olives and feta and manchego wrapped in ham along with tomatoes from home. A lovely place for a picnic and we did enjoy it.

As you can see.

Things started to go downhill after lunch - literally. We walked around the hill and down to the valley floor.

At the bottom of the valley was a small bridge across a burn. From then on in, the walking became more and more of a chore and a paddle. It was extremely boggy and muddy. It was, to be honest, a bit unpleasant, not at all the delightful walk we were promised.

Sharon had let me cross the bridge first, just to be sure it would hold her weight!

We were headed back along the glen, following the Abhainn na garbh choire - the river of the rough corrie - that should have been a clue.

Not only was it boggy, but the river became more hemmed in by steep slopes.

Eventually, we could see the waters of Loch bad na sgalag.

Happily there was a bridge.

A bridge further upstream had been washed away!

There were some nice waterfalls and that did rescue some degree of delight in the walk. We also saw, but didn't catch a photo of, a pair of dippers.

The waterfalls debouched into the loch, which was pretty enough.

We plowtered through the mud and bog beside the shores for a while.

The path then veered up the hill, away from the loch, but not from the mud and the glaur.

The loch was much smaller until, in 1951, it was dammed and formed part of a wider hydro scheme to serve the village of Gairloch.

By now I was really beginning to struggle with the sore knee, despite the painkillers, the gel and the knee strap. Sharon was way ahead of me at times.

I did catch up with her on the flat at the top of the little pass we were heading for. All my progress was brought to a sudden end when I went up to my knee in a muddy hole in the peat! Despite my clear distress, Sharon almost fell over laughing. Ho Ho!

We did, however, make it back to the car and thence to our destination, The Shieldaig Lodge. It didn't take me too long to hose off my boots and get them into the hotel drying room, while Sharon found a fine seat by the window overlooking Loch Shieldag.

In even less time, we were joined by a cold beer and gin and tonic. The view was pretty special and we were entertained by seals every time we sat down.

The hotel bar apparently has a dram available from every distillery that operated in Scotland since the end of the Second World War and almost every gin distillery in Scotland is represented as well. The most expensive whisky is a 70 year old Glenlivet at £2000 a nip. I declined.

After that reviver, it was upstairs for a hot bath and, some little while later, dinner.

We started with a hot smoked salmon pate, which I did not manage to take a good photo of, but you get the idea.

I then had a starter of pork and foie gras terrine with date chutney, gherkins and pain d'epices. Very good it was too. Sharon had scallops with sweet potato mousseline and black pudding. I seem not to have taken a photo, but she did like it, although felt the scallops could have had a bit more colour. She ate them all, though.

We both had a pan roasted thick local rib eye of beef, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, broccoli and chateau potatoes. It was very good, although Sharon seemed to get a tougher piece of beef than I, but I chivalrously swapped and happily ate hers as she did mine.

All this with a very nice primitivo and we were a bit too tired and full for any dessert. An early night beckoned after our adventures in the wilds.

Day2 Tuesday 15th March 2022

I had a plan for today. It was completely undermined by the appalling weather that we woke up to. Still, we decided to go west to Red Point to see how things might be there. Looking back towards the hotel and all you can see is grey, with a watery sun trying to break through the veil of cloud. It really would not succeed all day long.

A closer view of our hotel, right on the shore.

The hotel is not very far from Badachro. The name is from the Gaelic and translates as the very exotic Place of Saffron. Our interest, was more about drink than spice. The house and the shed that you can't see in the photo is the home of Badachro Gin. It had been hoped that we might have a wee look and a taste, but we were thwarted as it only opens on a Friday and we would be gone by then. It would have to be said that much of the west coast is closed or only partially open at this time of year. That is partly understandable, but the hotel was full, suggesting there were at least 24 tourists looking for something to do on a wet day.

Still, undaunted, we carried on west, into the increasingly fierce wind, which just made the rain closer and closer to horizontal!. The red roofs overlooking a little sandy bay did provide a bright spot in the grey.

It was beaches we had come to see, perchance to walk hand in hand along, in bare feet with the sea breeze in our hair. We did see the next beach - Red Point North beach. There was nobody on it, or at least if there had been, they were blown away some time ago.

Looking the other way, the mountains were looking a bit brooding.

There is a little viewpoint overlooking the beach. We decided we should take advantage and ventured out of the car. Brave, or what?

It was a bit difficult to look at as the rain was straight into our faces!

It was so bad that I even wore my Caley Thistle football hat!

It was obviously normal for it to be very windy here as even the post boxes are nailed to rocks.

It really was a bit wild. We had reached the end of the road and had taken no time at all to decide we were not going to do any walking today. Time to turn back.

We decided that we should go to find the alleged bird hide at Poolewe. Going there means passing the head of Loch Maree and there are magnificent views from the road up the loch. Well, at least they are magnificent if they are not obscured by cloud and rain.

I don't think it was obscured by cloud and rain, but we failed to find the bird hide! So, next we went north from Poolewe to see what we could find. Loch Ewe was used extensively in the Second World War, particularly for assembling Arctic Convoys to Russia. There were, and still are, huge fuel dumps around the loch. The local community has produced an interpretive trail around the loch and the surrounding area to allow people to better appreciate the role played by the area and the local community. The Russian people have been very appreciative of these efforts in the past, with significant events taking place locally. We witnessed one of these a few years ago with huge numbers of Russian service personnel and civilians in period dress, training ships and even a spitfire, Stalin and Churchill. It really was quite impressive.

Our first sight of the trail involved a large concrete gun emplacement, known locally as the threepenny bit - Bonn Tri Sgillin - in Gaelic, due to its shape. It was used by troops from India later in the War.

As you might expect the site had fine views up and down the loch.

There are gun emplacements all the way along the coast and the locals were clearly having to get used to a huge military presence. It wasn't only the Russians who had cause to thank the locals, but the Americans, too. In February 1944 an American ship was wrecked during a storm and the survivors were tended to by the locals. One, Old Mrs MacKenzie, who lived at the end of the road, made her biggest flask of hot tea and carried it through the snow over bogs and rocks for three miles to help the few survivors stuck on the shore and awaiting aid. She repeated this journey all through the night and she was not alone. In all 74 crew members drowned and only 12 survived

We carried on to the end of the road, where there is a small car park and a number of memorials. Those on the trail involve these black silhouette sculptures, which are really quite striking.

I was very brave and went out to read the interpretive boards. Actually, I didn't read them, I took a quick photo and then rushed back into the car. When I came to do the blog, I discovered that the photo was illegible, so I cannot tell you what it said!

Time to turn back, with a view of the beach!

The traffic was still a bit of an issue.

It was back to Gairloch for some hot lunch. Sharon was praying for an end to the rain along with something nice to eat.

My prayers were answered with the mysterious appearance of a pint of beer!

Meanwhile, the hurricane continued outside!

Next up for me, was a very acceptable plate of fish and chips. Fresh fish as you might expect, given the there is a fishing harbour at Gairloch.

Sharon had a bowl of hot soup and an egg sandwich. She liked it a lot, she said.

From there, it was back to the roaring fire at the hotel.

Watching the seals in the loch from the window.

Once we had our fill of seal watching, it was up to the room for a hot bath and a cold gin before dinner.

The first appetiser tonight was a very nice smoked haddock vol-au-vent with a chive and caper sauce.

Then we both had a ham hock terrine, with toasted brioche, fig chutney and a Russian salad. It was as good as it looked and sounded.

My main was pan fried venison, turnip, salsify, broccoli and home-made potato crisps with a rosemary reduction. It was very good, but the salsify was almost pointless and the turnip was, well, turnipy - if that's a word. The venison was very good.

Sharon had baked haddock rolled around something, with aubergine caviar , sweet potato and a pesto oil. Again, she enjoyed that.

I decided that a visit to the whisky bar was a good idea, so I had myself a very acceptable glass of specially bottled Balmenach. This is the same distillery that makes Caorunn Gin, one of Sharon's favourites. Most of their whisky output goes for blending, but Gordon and MacPhail from Elgin negotiate the release of occasional casks that they bottle and sell. It really was very good and remarkable cheap at under a fiver for a dram.

The perfect end to what might be described as a bit of a dreary day.

Day3 Wednesday 16th March 2022

Wednesday morning could not be more different from yesterday. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. The view from the breakfast room was outstanding and peaceful.

It was even better outside.

So, it was time to get on the road and hit the beaches that we couldn't see yesterday.

However, we hadn't taken into account the rush hour!

The hills were so much better looking in the sun.

And, so was the coast.

We got to the end of the road and started out on a circular walk to Red Point beach. It did suggest it might be boggy on the middle part of the walk. It was also a little unclear on how you got to the beach from the farm. Luckily the farmer was out feeding his cows, so we were able to ask him.

Here are his cows rushing to get get their breakfast.

Here is the swamp of mud and cow shit that they left behind! There was no way through without wellies, so we turned around and and headed for the path to the north beach!

A much more promising prospect.

Sharon decided to take a slightly less obvious route to the beach.

Just so she could brag about her age, even though it wasn't quite her birthday yet.

However, the beach itself was well worth the detour.

It was a bit crowded. There were 6 other people there.

Luckily, you couldn't really see them.

It was just spectacular.

Even I couldn't spoil it.

It was pristine and quite awe inspiring.

We spent ages walking along beside the sea, hand in had, with the breeze ruffling our hair, although we managed to resist any urge to actually get our shoes off and paddle in the freezing waters.

The wind was really a little cool.

You could tell how busy it was by the footprints.

Once we could walk no further, we went back to the car and headed for Gairloch and another, quite different, walk. On the way back we got a fine view of the mountains with a fresh covering of snow.

Our next walk was the Sand River walk, inland from Big Sand and roughly along the route of what was once an archaeological trail. There were fine views backwards to the sea past the Sand River, even though the cloud cover had increased.

It was still pretty cool, though.

There was still a bit of romance about, though.

Some great views to the snow-capped mountains,

You could tell Spring had arrived - there was a lot of frog spawn about.

The path was taking us a bit higher. The website said this was the almost imperceptible hillock of Druim Liath - the grey ridge. Well I thought it was perfectly perceptible to be honest! We were a bit knackered when we got to the top.

It would have been a bit worse if we had had to climb these hills. These hills are much better to admire from afar.

However, from our high point we could look back towards the sea. If it had been a bit clearer, we would have seen the hills of Skye.

We were happy, though.

This had been an archaeological trail and there were signs of previous habitation all around, if you knew what to look for,.

As we were heading back to the car, the weather was beginning to look more and more ominous.

In fact, very ominous.

If we had been able, we might have broken into a run, or at least, a trot by this point

We got back to the car after only the mildest of soakings and were greeted by this rainbow.

After a long and lovely day, we headed back to the hotel. The weather had got better again and the  hotel looked really nice in the sun.

After a drink overlooking the bay and the seals, we had a nice bath and got ready for our dinner. Tonight we were having the tasting menu with the accompanying wines.

We started with a little appetiser of hot smoked salmon and guacamole. It was delicious.

Next was a lamb shank terrine with a fig compote. Cold lamb terrine didn't sound too clever, but it really was exceptional.

4 oysters with a lemon and shallot vinegar were next. Oysters are not our favourites, but these slipped down quite nicely.

 

Scallops with sweet potato mousselline and black pudding was really very good.

Next up was a lemon sorbet sitting in a shallow pool of Badachro gin. Very nice, indeed. 

I had a fine roasted breast of pheasant with haggis and wild mushrooms. Sharon had a grilled sea trout fillet with a red pepper sauce.

Pudding was a profiterole with strawberry ice cream and chocolate sauce.

All very good and then we had a nightcap in the lounge where we had an interesting chat with a couple of chaps from Glasgow and another two friends form London and Edinburgh. The latter chaps had arrived in a powder blue Bentley sports car. It was an entertaining evening.

Day4 Thursday 17th March 2022

Time to go home. After breakfast we set off north, to make a loop of our journey. 

The weather was a bit on the grey side.

There were some fine views over the sea to compensate, however.

Some views over to the Scoraig peninsula as we came round by Dundonnell.

We were supposed to have had another walk at Laide woods, but, no sooner had we parked, but the the heavens opened. That was enough to convince us that it was time to go home. This was a holiday, not a punishment.

We really had a good time, despite the mixed weather. Red Point had been an unforgettable highlight. It really is hard to beat the west coast on a half decent day.

Happy birthday, Sharon. I'm already looking forward to the next one.