30th MAY - KINLOCHBERVIE TO ULLAPOOL via CAPE WRATH

So after (a full Scottish) breakfast this morning, we packed the car and left to try again for the trip to Cape Wrath. Leaving at 9.15am, we travelled the 17 miles back up to the ferry port near Durness. Having missed out yesterday when we arrived at 10.30, I assumed that on arriving today at 9.45, we would be almost first in the queue. But no, there were about 10 people waiting on the jetty, and another 5 had already been taken over to the Cape in a small motorised dinghy (the main ferry was away for its' annual inspection).

However, today there were two minibuses operating, so we were in luck and after waiting 20 minutes for our turn to be taken the 8 minute boat trip over to Cape Wrath, we were soon on the 15 passenger minibus, which took one hour to travel the 11 mile journey to Cape Wrath lighthouse - the end of the line. This is the most north westerly point on the UK mainland and is so remote that NATO / British Army exercises are carried out here two or three times a year - at which times the Cape is not accessible to the public.

The reason for the 1 hour time scale is that the entire road from the ferry to the lighthouse is potholed and very old (mainly built in the 1850s by the Northern Lighthouse Board) and is not maintained by the local Council. But the driver was very good with his ongoing commentary and humorous comments and the time passed quite quickly.

We were allowed an hour at the lighthouse to take photographs and have a sandwich in the adjacent café. Unbelievably the weather was almost warm - the sun was shining, there was blue skies and there was hardly any wind! I can't imagine that happens very often in this part of the world!

We arrived back at our car at 2pm and drove south (some very spectacular views from this road) to Ullapool, further down the west coast, arriving at our B&B at 4pm. We'd driven a total of 83 miles today.

Some photographs of our trip are appended below.

A Ticket To Ride

Janet in the ferry

Cape Wrath lighthouse

Blue skies at Cape Wrath!

Sandy cove just south of the Cape