Remember that warm/dry week in Scotland in early June ?? I did a 3 days Edinburgh and back trip in my Exige 260 roof down all 3 days!!
I knew it was going to be a selfish trip so went alone.
Clockwise and anti-clockwise. Edinburgh - Braemar/Timintoul (through the Cairngorms missing the rubbish roads direct to Inverness) to Inverness - Gairloch - Lochinver - KyLesku - Durness - Bettyhill (North Coast) - Thurso - and back via Ullapool/Inverness/Edinburgh along the west coast missing out Lochinver. I’ve previously done (car and bike) Applecross and it’s worth half a day, so excluded it this time round.
Woke up Wednesday with the rest of the week on leave, remembered my promise to visit this area again but NEVER in the rain AGAIN. It all relied on getting accommodation for Thursday evening in the north coast, it can be a real problem in this area. Once secured at Farr Cottage (B&B with dinner run by a chef with attitude which would be excellent for a small group of Exigers - see below) I packed up and went. The plan was to start looking for accommodation from Gairloch onwards, which I found in Ullapool (recommended for choice of accommodation and food). Ullapool to Bettyhil was a slow/fast/low/fast fantastic day. I strongly recommend taking the single pass road south of Lochinver (next to Loch Lurgainn, turn off near Drumrunnie) for a slooowww relaxed empty vista plus the one north, do the A837 east of Lochinver after dinner in the late summer light not-so-slow by memory. Recommend a stop at the Durness Balnakeil Craft Village (link below - Chocolate factory for lunch) an old disused military camp and much better than the usual hotel formula.
Lunch at Kylesku Hotel, beach walk at Durness. Arrived at Bettyhil about 6:30pm, decided to tick the John-O-Groats box and blasted east. But after the fantastic roads of the day got really bored and turned back at Thurso. Back in time to be invited to join the other guests for leftover dinner. A good day.
Friday back home anticlockwise, stocking up on strong coffee at the craft village. Great to get a different perspective going anticlockwise. Inverness direct to Edinburgh is f***%%^g annoying with ave speed cameras and people averaging 5 miles below limit etc.
Overall a good 3 days, overtook a few slow porsche/ferarris/GTRs/cyclists. Got surprised by Highland Cows on the road.
Personally I think the extra time and effort in avoiding the east coast by doing a clockwise/antoclockwise there and back was worth it. Any one else have an opinion??
Waiting for more dry days in Scotland !!!
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Rev … _Scot.html
Balnakeil Craft Village | The 'Far North' Revisited … t-village/