OT : Exploring the highlands

Question for the FOAKs that wot have done it.
Staying around Loch Ness (Inverness) for a couple of days in August, then
have a few days to kill.
Would you head North or South to explore ?
Keen on scenery, mountains, castles, fishing.
Cairngorms or North Highlands I suppose is the question looking at a map.

 

You'll get better mountains to the south, but personally I would head
north - through Sutherland, maybe stay in Tongue. The scenery is
unbelievably bleak.

 

Take a truck-load of insect repellent with you.

 

South to Glencoe or SW to Skye.

Plenty of mountains and scenery and fishing including sea fishing if
you feel so inclined.

I wouldn't go to the Cairngorms unless you want to carry a tent etc
because it's not as 'accessible' as my other suggestions.

 

Lots of possibilities.

A nice circular route is to go west to Kinlochewe, down Glen Torridon and
onto Applecross via the coastal road. Return across the mountain pass to
Lochcarron and along the A82 through Glen Shiel back to Loch Ness.

Go dolphin spotting in the Moray Firth. Several boat trips available,
especially along the north shore of the Firth. We were lucky and had a view
of them from the cottage we rented on the coast just downstream of the
Kessock Bridge. They drive schoals of fish into the shallow water at low
tide and watching them feast is fantastic. The pod is estimated to have
over 140 dolphins.

Findhorn Bay was lovely. Really nice dunes.

The road south from Grantown on Spey to Ballater is quite scenic: part of
it is like a rollercoaster with spectacualr blind crests.

 

I keep meaning to go back to Sutherland one day. I loved Scourie, Tongue
and the Kyle of Durness.
--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Thanks all, all noted and will be fed into Autoroute to find some optimal
blasts.

 

Anywhere in the triangle between Ullapool, Durness and John O'Groats is fab.
The roads will be full of Dutch cars and foreigners doddering around in
campers in August. This was the case when I was last up in July a couple of
years ago. The year before I was up in May and it was fab. Very quiet as
the tourist season hadn't really started and the foliage beside the roads
was very thin so you could see for what seemed like miles in places and belt
along at a fair rate of knots.

 

WEST!

Go over to the end of civilisation as we know it......Mallaig!

You'll *love* the twisties going over that way, and the sheer drops *just*
after a VERY tight bend (or more).
Sheep.........................Now that's another story.

 

Well, it's Robbo, but he's right...

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, platypus belched forth and ejected the following:

My mate nicked a sheep once and let it go in the local park after
walking round town with it one evening.

Just thought you'd like to know.