Some Scenery along the North Coasts of Scotland
Back to home pageIn May 2006 we experienced some good weather in the north and northwest fringes of Scotland that allowed for some colorful photos.
Below are some photos with a narrative in the captions beneath each photo.
Click on a smaller image below to see a larger version of the picture. When viewing a larger picture, clicking "Next" allows you to look at the larger pictures one at a time. The larger version of the three panoramic images can be viewed by scrolling your browser window to the right and left.
Even the larger versions of these images are not of sufficient resolution for a quality print. If you would like a higher resolution printable picture, please let me know.
The gorse were in full blossom in mid May. Much of the hill on the other side of the town of Helmsdale is yellow with gorse. When gorse isn't blooming, it's not an attractive plant. It has woody branches, the green foliage is irregular and not bright and it's prickly.
From the same spot on the bluff beside the mouth of the River Helmsdale, looking up the Strath of Kildonan. The bridge is a 200-year-old Telford bridge.
Helmsdale harbor and the grey North Sea on a grey day.
This recently installed statue, entitled The Emigrants, is dedicated to the Highlanders who were evicted from their ancestral land during the Clearances between the later 1700s and the mid-1800s. The father is leading his family to emigrate with an expression of determination to find a better life elsewhere. The son is looking up with faith in his father. The mother is carrying the baby and looking sadly back up the glen, the only home she has every known. These emigrant families went to the mines and factories of Glasgow, the Carolinas and the Appalachian Mountains, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The bright sunshine gave the sea beautiful colors. This view is looking northeast, toward the Orkney Isles, but they are too far away to be visible.
Loch Eriboll is a sea loch that is ten miles long. This view is looking north out the mouth of the loch, from about half way down the eastern side. Since Loch Eriboll is a sheltered deep water anchorage near the northwest corner of Britain, it was used during Second World War by merchant ships assembled into convoys awaiting naval escort onward to Russia or back to North America.
A view of the North Atlantic. The road is passing close to this beach, with some blooming gorse near the road.
Another beautiful beach between rocky headlands. The deep blue of the North Atlantic contrasts so well with the white waves breaking at the shore of the island and rocks. The gorse in the foreground is lit by the sun, while the gorse closer to the beach is shaded by a cloud. The size of it all is indicated by the person standing on the beach.
This is the same bay from a different angle and with the cloud changing the sunlit portions of the scene. This view is looking west along the coast.
This panoramic picture shows what is seen by looking west then turning to the north and then to the east. The image is created by software that stitches together several photos. The software isn't flawless. Careful inspection will show places where the photos aren't merged perfectly. But it may convey some of the awesome scenery that can be seen in different directions.
I couldn't get enough photographs of the colors of the water, rocks and beach. However bright the sunshine, the man wading in the water seems foolish. That's the cold North Atlantic Ocean, not the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico. The woman in the heavy jacket with the dog is more sensible.
The road turned south, away from the sea, into the moors and hills. This is a typical single-track (one narrow lane) road with a wide spot for passing about a hundred yards ahead. We stayed that night in a Lochinver B&B.
The next day we went walking. The path we are walking is visible ahead to the left of the burn. The hill ahead, Conival, with the top half in the cloud, is our destination. By the time we got up the long glen, the cloud had lifted.
The burn passes over some waterfalls.
Beside the path, not far from the burn (stream), we saw this frog hiding in the moss and grass. She was between two and three inches long with her rear legs under her.
This view is looking back at the path we had walked. The burn we followed for a few miles is in the ravine to the left. The path at this altitude is stony.
Higher on the hill, all of Loch Assynt comes into view. The white lines barely visible in the upper right are North Atlantic waves about 15 miles away. The road, where we had left the car, is near the loch (buildings are barely discernable in this photo). The first two miles of the walk were up the glen on the lower left.
The clump of hills in the distance, north of Loch Assynt, is called Quinag. The closer featureless lump of a hill is Ben an Fhurain.
After some lunch near the top of Conival. Note that my jacket is still strapped to my backpack -- it wasn't very windy or cold, even though there is a little bit of melting snow remaining from the previous night.
Since the weather was comfortable and the days are long in May, we thought of going to that next peak, Ben More Assynt.
The path along the top of Conival.
The path down that side of Conival, along the visible ridge and up Ben More Assynt is nothing but stones. Walking with care on those stones took a lot of time. We made it much of the way along the intervening ridge before turning back. We realized we were running out of time. We should have turned back earlier because we had to rush, as best as the path would allow, to make it back before the restaurant closed.
Through we were rushing down the glen, I paused for a minute to capture the pale yellow primroses blooming on the rocky bank of the burn.
Yellow primrose and rocks in Glen Dubh.
We walked quite fast on the long path down Glen Dubh beside the burn, hoping to get a meal at the hotel near where we had left the car. I stopped for just a moment to snap this view of Conival in the evening sunlight. The reward for our jog down the long glen was a hot pub meal.
After dinner the sun is still over the northwest horizon on the road along Loch Assynt.
After the second night in the Lochinver B&B, we drove south along this narrow single-track road. The tide is low. This view is looking northwest. Beyond the visible isles, the next land is Greenland.
This is looking southwest from the same place.
Looking southwest the nearby islands are the Summer Isles, while on the horizon is the northwest portion of the Isle of Skye.
This panoramic picture shows the Summer Isles and in the distance the Isle of Skye.
This panoramic photo is taken near the end of the road. On the left, looking back along the single-track road, is to the southeast. The Summer Isles are to the south. To the southwest and west, across The Minch, the Outer Hebrides are over the horizon, out of sight. The right end of the photo is looking north.
On the road back, this view of the gorse, loch and hills was a good summary of the non-coastal scenery we had seen.
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