Visit Lochalsh & the Isle of Skye. Scottish Highlands part 2
In Part 1 of this short series of blog post I wrote about heading off to Scotland to stay in Sallachy, a small hamlet just a few miles away from the Isle of Skye.
This second part of this Scottish Highlands blog post covers the next couple of days of our stay and includes a trip to Ullapool as well as a picture of the biggest custard cream I have ever eaten.
Picture sets
As with Part 1 and most of my blog posts there are normally plenty of photo’s. This short series is no exception and you’ll find plenty of images from the trip in the picture sets below.
A decent walk
With the weather looking decent and ideal for walking we decided we would head for Dornie on foot. This meant a round trip of about 10 miles or so most of which was along the winding and twisting B road that had made up the last leg of our journey on Saturday.
It really was super picturesque and we were inundated with perfect views as we made our way towards Dornie. Shortly after reaching the main road and crossed the bridge across the loch we had terrific views of the Eilean Donan castle on our right and the colourful houses in the village of Dornie.
Heading for a beer
As we crossed the bridge we could see our planned refreshment point in the distance, a pub called The Clachan.
After a walk that had been the best part of five miles we were looking forward to beer – but alas it was not to be.
It turned The Clachan had fairly limited opening hours at the time of our visit (which is fair enough I suppose given the time of year) and I think was only open three evenings a week.
There was another place a couple of hundred yards down the road The Dornie Hotel but this was also closed until later in the day. We decided we would call back to the Dornie Hotel later in the day.
We took a walk for another half mile or along the ‘front’ at Dornie and enjoyed the scenery before turning to head back.
To be honest there isn’t great deal at Dornie and even the village store has been closed for some while. There’s some community action underway with aspirations to re-open the shop as an ongoing enterprise which the place sort of felt like it would really benefit from.
But we did find somewhere for a drink …
It was looking like we would be heading back to our accommodation without any sort of refreshment stop … but that was before we stumbled across a place just off the road out of Dornie.
We had spotted a sign for a bakery a couple of hundred yards of the A87 main road so headed along the track and arrived at the quirky but welcome Manuela’s Wee Bakery.
This was a really welcoming and friendly place to call to and we were glad that we had found it. Service was great, coffee was good and the unusual ‘cakes’ were just delicious.
At the time we called there we were the only people in, I guess that was due to the time of day and it being a little in advance of the ‘tourist season’. Given the range of different things there, cakes, coffee, cold drinks, fresh pizza’s, a gin distillery, a bird garden and a pleasant sitting out area them I’m pretty sure it gets busy.
The proximity to the Eilean Donan castle will just add to its attraction.
Manuela’s has a really interesting back story – and it’s one you can read at this link and I would say if you are passing that way on the road to Skye it really is worth stopping by. You can find some pictures of our visit to Manuela’s in the first picture set below.
Off the Croft
And a place that is worthy of a mention is a takeaway called Off the Croft. It’s about a mile outside of Plockton and located on working croft, there’s some outdoor seating but it is a takeaway on a working croft – so it’s not going to tick the boxes as an indoor restaurant but if you want – burgers, fish and chips etc. off the absolute highest quality then this place needs to be checked out. Suffice it to say that if we are up that way again there is no way that we are not going to call back there!
Picture set one
Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through.
Picture set two
The photos in this set are separated into four groups. The first Group A were taken around our accommodation at Salachy and I don’t think I could ever get bored of the views and colours in these pictures; Group B were taken on the way to Ullapool; Group C at Ullapool and then finally Group D at Ardmair Bay.
Ardmair is a small village in the North West Highlands and just a few miles drive from Ullapool on the A835. The bay itself is more stones that sand – well actually it’s pretty much all stones but it’s a decent place to stop and take in the views the fresh air and the glorious light.
As with the earlier post (Part 1) some of the photo’s using a drone you can read more drone related info at this link.
Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through – and if you are thinking of heading that way I’d say there are enough pictures in Groups A – D to give you a decent idea of what it’s like up there.
Picture Group A
Glorious colours and dead flat water at Island Bay on Loch Long – what a way to start the day.
Picture Group B – on the way to Ullapool
More incredible colours and views on the road to Ullapool, which is about 45 miles north-west on Inverness.
I had only been to Ullapool once before and that was back in 2021 when I had been motorcycling on my own in Scotland on a BMW F800R – you can read about that trip at this link.
Picture Group C … and that giant custard cream
A pleasant stroll around Ullapool and a visit to a small cafe/gift shop where we fine hospitality with very good coffee and giant custard creams – they were absolutely superb. I’d have to say without any shame at all that I could have ate more than one!
Picture Group D – Ardmair Bay
The last pictures from a very decent day. These were taken at Ardmair Bay just a few miles along the coast from Ullapool.
