LOCH ASSYNT AND ULLAPOOL JUNE 2022

The 5th of June 2022 and we were off for a short trip to the west coast with our friends Pam & Hugh. It was a fabulous day and the forecast was for more of the same.

We were not to be disappointed.

We drove to the Dornoch Firth bridge, then turned westward. The sky and the water became more and more blue as we got further and further west. It was getting towards lunchtime and we were on the look out for a picnic site. We soon found just the spot beside a boathouse on the shore of Loch More - the big loch.

Out came the blankets and the sandwiches and we had a very pleasant little luncheon in majestic surroundings, with Ben Screavie in the foreground and Arkle away to the north west. For some reason, Sharon is reflected in the picture, looking like an unusual cloud formation.

I tried another view and she put her arm in front of the lens instead!

I sat down then and caught the corner of the picnic rug instead.

We even managed a selfie - not taken by me, of course!

After lunch, I went for a short walk along the shore and got an uninterrupted view along the loch, taking in Ben Stack and Arkle.

We had serious business to do, so carried on west, passing Laxford Bridge and stopping only for a short comfort break at Scourie. We were not reckless tourists defacing the NC500!

Although the sky was still blue, there were some fine cirrus cloud formations to see.

It wasn't long until we were approaching Kylesku, which is dominated by the mountain, Quinag.

Now, you might have expected us to stop there, but, we sped across the curve of the Kylesku Bridge and ignored the turn off to the Kylesku Hotel, which we have enjoyed many times in the past.

Our aim was to get to Loch Assynt, to visit Craig's bench and to check on his geocache. I would have to say that this was probably the best weather we have encountered here.

In fact, I think the niceness of the weather adds to the poignancy of the visit. Craig would have been 35 this year and who knows what he might have achieved, what relationships he might have had and what the future might have held for him?

After casting roses on to the loch, Hugh and Pam had a wee seat on Craig's bench.

We then placed another of Craig's carabiners into the geocache. It was then back to the car to get to our next stop, the Ladysmith Guest House in Ullapool , where we were to stay overnight.

You would never know from the name, just how nautical it was going to be inside - there were ships everywhere! Apparently, the owner's late husband had worked on boats and clearly took his work home with him.

We had been in the car for a fair bit today, so a walkabout and a cup of tea was required. Walking proved to be the easier of the two. Finding a cup of tea and a cake at 4 on a Sunday afternoon was rather more difficult. We did eventually track one down, but it wasn't easy! There seem to be a number of factors at play - Brexit and the subsequent lack of foreign workers have left many businesses short of staff, lack of tourists after Covid, sometimes an apparent lack of ambition, or maybe it was just a Sunday. We were agreed that whatever it was, it was certainly a disservice to those tourists who were willing and able to spend money, but had nowhere to spend it.

Anyway, we did manage to walk along the front and beside the sea all in glorious sunshine.

We easily managed to find the venue for our dinner that night. We had booked The Dipping Lugger some time before we made this trip and the outside looked sufficiently smartly understated to whet our appetites.

A lugger is a kind of sailing boat used widely throughout western Europe and the dipping lugger refers to a particular type of sail. I could go on to explain the sailing arrangement, but I couldn't really understand the explanations on Google!

Suffice to say that the house is named after the boat, but it was originally a manse and then was altered in 1829 by Thomas Telford. He was involved in the layout of Ullapool for the British Fisheries Board at the time.

After our walk, it was back to our rooms to freshen up before going out for dinner. However, before we could eat we had to have a pre dinner gin and tonic. This was arranged by Hugh and Pam, who had brought it all with them. The owner of the guest house was more than happy for us to sit in the garden and the gins and nibbles were prepared by Hugh and Pam, while Sharon and I waited patiently. You can see the process set out below.

The result of this was well appreciated!

Suitably refreshed we took the short walk to The Dipping Lugger, where we were warmly welcomed by our Maitre D', Calum. He was great fun and very knowledgeable about the food and wines we were going to have.

We had a nice table, with a view of the sea from the small dining room. They only had another couple dining that evening, not because there was no demand, but because there had been so much demand over the last few days, they had started to run out of food!

We started with snacks and a glass of champagne (Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve, if you need the details).

The snacks were Alium on the right and Stornoway on the left.

The Alium was a tiny tartlet of the thinnest pastry encasing soft, buttered leeks, an onion puree and chives and chive flowers to finish. The Stornoway was a tiny warm cake containing Stornoway black pudding, sitting on a bed of black garlic ketchup.

It was all absolutely delicious and it confirmed our impressions of the outside!

The next course was called Hay. It turns out that this was because hay was burnt and the smoke was used to infuse the water, which was used, in turn, to make the bread. I have to say, I couldn't really taste that, but it was, notwithstanding, some of the best bread I have ever eaten. There was no wine with this course, apparently wine only came every time we got a new set of cutlery! There was some Netherend farm butter. This is supposed to be the best artisan butter that you can buy in the UK. It was so good and it melted delightfully into the still hot bread.

Luckily we got new cutlery next! This was for the scallop, which had been seared and topped with Japanese spice, puffed rice and samphire.

Luckily there was a dashi and soy broth served with it which was great to mop up with the lovely bread. Another triumph. This came with a glass of Clos de Paulilles Collioure Blanc from the Languedoc-Roussillon area in the south of France.

Next was perhaps the most intriguing dish on the menu. It was described as Carrot and it came with a glass of Yealands PGR. This is a blend of Pinot Gris, Gewurtzraminer and Reisling from New Zealand.

The carrot involved some cooked carrots and a merguez flavoured carrot foam, wild garlic pesto and sunflower seeds. It was remarkably tasty for something so deceptively and humbly sounding. Fabulous.

Next up was the first of the fish courses. 7 Crofts gin cured halibut, with horseradish, avruga and micro herbs. The owners of the restaurant also make their own local gin 7 Crofts, which we have tried before and rather like. The halibut was soft and lovely and the horseradish gel was delicious with it along with little salty pops from the avruga. It also came with a thin and crispy cracker.

This was accompanied with the best of the white wines we had - a Txakolina from the Adur area in the Basque region of Spain. I had never heard of it before, but I will be looking for it in the future.

The second fish dish was our main course of Monkfish with a dusting of hibiscus curry powder, peas and wild asparagus, served with a really finely made type of Pommes Anna. I have long been reluctant to eat monkfish, but this dispelled that reluctance, it was wonderful.

It came with a MacMurray Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Valley in California. The wine was really very good with the meaty monkfish. Indeed, the wine was another one to seek out, being really very quaffable.

Rather continentally, we had cheese before pudding. In this case Crofton, which is from Cumbria and is a mix of cow's and goat's milk cheese. Again, something I might have been tempted to avoid, but I loved it, especially with the drizzle of truffle honey that came with it. The port was an aged tawny Colhieta from Quinta do Crosta in the Duoro Valley of Portugal. It was all really yummy.

Pudding was called Strawberry on the menu. It involved a light as a feather hot strawberry souffle, topped with a ginger crumble, served alongside sorrel ice cream and macerated strawberries. What a magnificent triumph this was, a great end to any meal. The accompanying I Capitelli dessert wine from the Veneto region of Italy was perfect.

The ladies had coffee and sweeties. The raspberry jelly was like eating, well, a raspberry. There was also an almond praline.

The praline in particular went well with the gentlemen's 15 year old Balblair whisky.

The whole meal was truly fantastic. I enjoyed everything immensely. Along with the other dinner guests, Calum showed us the three bedrooms in the house. These were really very sumptuous and individual, with loads of style and lovely roll top baths. One for the future, I feel. We will certainly be back.

However, we had to leave just now and go back to Ladysmith for a bit of sleep. Apart from Pam having a fall, which she says was accidental and not drink related, the evening was an enormous success.

----o0o----

The morning dawned bright and blue again. Breakfast was very good and once we were ready, it was time to head home.

It was too nice to go straight back, so we went to have a look at Corrieshalloch Gorge. It is a long time since any of us had been and you forget how spectacular it really is. There is a long overdue interpretive centre under construction, which will really help.

We took the walk down from the car park in the sunshine. The car park was busy, but there didn't seem to be crowds of people on the walks.

Luckily, we were all allowed on the bridge at the same time.

The views upstream and down from the bridge are pretty good.

You get even more spectacular views from a platform further on. However, if you went there first, you wouldn't be so keen to stand and take photos on the bridge!