Enjoying the view over Culloden moor before heading back
Fine weather for our last morning so a pleasant walk up onto some moorland, well Tony won’t be finished lecturing till 15.00.
So that was our aim, and what we did. All well until reversing onto the drive only to meet a tractor coming towards us. The pressure was all too much and sadly Ted had a gentle coming together with the egg sales box. Despite being gentle it has damaged the fibreglass so a repair is needed. No people or cats were damaged in the process, and at least it’s the same side as the damage from very early on in our ownership so hopefully we can get it all done at once!
Poor Ted! Two little spots of white on the back left corner is where the outer skin has been broken to show the white fibreglass underneath
See the raised bit of roof, now all slated and weatherproof
Rather than dwell on this we went straight back to work. As we left on our little trip the last thing I’d done was give Brian the slater a tube of silicon sealant, to run along the top of the last row of slates of the far end. Mark has then come so ridge tiles and chicken pots were on which meant that the far end of the building is now watertight. Hurrah. T&N had started putting the flooring down so we continued with that, finishing on Saturday. It’s not exciting in itself, but it is very exciting that so much of the building is usable and can be worked on.
The only bit left is the bit above the big opening as the roof actually has to be raised here, as has been done on the other doorway while we were away in August.
So now we're on the 'Big Opening'. The bit at the bottom with the polythene over is the bit we helped Tony with before we went on our trip. You can see the sandstone quoins fitted, which in this photo extend just into the upstairs. Tony lays the quoins, the stones alongside to fill in and the concrete blocks behind, after Brian has selected each quoin and cut it with the stone saw, Jackie has selected each stone to fit like a jigsaw and make it match the existing stone wall, as well as mixing all the mortar in the mixer and Brian has cut each concrete block to fit and some of the stones that have bits sticking out in the wrong place. The wall is 600mm thick and as its got to tie in to the existing stone wall, very few blocks are whole, each one needs cutting - an angled corner cut off here, the length or width chopped off either square or at an angle and sometimes some very odd shapes to miss a bit of stone sticking out. I might hear something like 'I need 310 long, 130 to 170 angled along the side and take the corner off on the 130 side about 75mm at 45 degrees'. On with the stone saw, dust everywhere, a lot of it settling on me
Brian working on the frame
The big opening has therefore been our focus, and it has really been full on, we’ve been getting up earlier and while Brian is preparing the fruit for breakfast I’ve been mixing the first load of cement. The downstairs lintel went in while we were away, there’s just no stopping Tony sometimes, so we’ve been putting in the quoins and granite for the upper level. Obviously the higher we get the slower the process as everything has to be lifted, either up the ladders onto the scaffolding, which also has had to go higher, or into the building and up the stairs, easier but longer. We have now got just one more quoin, per side, to go in to come up to the wall head, and then the roof has to be cut out! Fortunately Tony has done the other doorway as this seems really scary to me, chopping off one of the legs of an A frame (up to the cross member) seems really odd. Planning obviously went into this right at the beginning, so as well as 4 A frames being bolted together and lifted into place together at either end of the opening. (This was really scary 2 years ago when we put all the A frames into position, one was manageable by two people, 4 together was only manageable by the telehandler! ) Across the cross piece of the A frames to be cut is a huge, solid piece of wood to spread the load of the slates and in theory provide the necessity support for roof and tiles, but even so, cutting off one of the legs of an A and expecting it to stay where it is just seems weird! I guess, if the weather is kind, we might be ready for this by the end of the weekend, and Mark the slater has been booked to finish the roof in December.....
Here's where it's up to. It's now at row 11 of the quoins, you can just see the small quoins at the top. One more row of big ones to the existing wall head, then two more rows above to reach up to the top of the wooden frame, then it's modifying the roof like the other raised section. Then the slaters can finish off, they're booked for December!
The flooring is now laid in the newly slated and waterproof bit and the wood has been delivered and stacked in the centre ready to start building the internal walls. Firstly round the outside to cover, but not touch, the stone walls and then the internal walls to create two bedrooms, a bathroom and a corridor in this bit
This photo is to show just how far north we are (57.6 degrees north - just 9 degrees short of the arctic circle, where the sun doesn't rise at all on the shortest day). The sun in the centre of the glare is not that far above the horizon, but its not approaching sunset or sunrise. In fact, its just about midday and the sun is at its highest in the sky - and its not even the shortest day yet, not for more than 4 weeks. It does make the days here very short and the nights very long in winter
Isn't that the cutest photo? Seen at Duncansby Head
The crab claws were lovely, but I can still only blame them for being a bit poorly in the night, fortunately the toilets at Dunbeath Harbour are left open all night....
After the disturbed night we were a little quiet on Sunday, but having decided I felt ok we moved on. Two stops were planned, the first on the junction in Latheron to take pictures of a property that Tony had been interested in. Good looking building but no work had been done on it for a long time. The second stop was Whaligoe Steps, the second viewpoint on the NC500 ‘Magnificent viewpoints’. 360 steps, down 250 ft cliffs to a harbour that has been in use since 1793. Fortunately we didn’t have to carry up baskets of fish, but we did say hello to our first grey seals, baby on the beach, mum on the shoreline and dad? In the inlet.
At the bottom of Whaligoe Steps. 360 odd steps down into a narrow cleft between cliffs to a tiny harbour that you would have to be very brave to sail into
Looking down from the top. Fancy sailing into there?
Another pub stop was our plan, with electric and water, and we made it in good time, only to find it a bit depressing. We’ve easily got time to get to the north coast so we headed to what we planned for the next night, a little campsite for 5 vans. They didn’t answer our call, but we went anyway only to find closed notices. Shame, the views were stunning and it was one of the places we both wanted to stay when doing a quick look before we even left T&N. OK, there’s another small place about 10 minutes back, reviews say he can be a bit grumpy, but we are polite. He was grumpy, and declared that he’d been told to close from Thursday, was it because we had English accents? Next? Another pub, but no facilities, we rang, the girl was lovely and told us
Right at the very bottom of the steps
to park by the camping pods, which we did, but it felt like being in a housing estate. We had passed the signs for a ‘proper’ campsite (Ferry View Night Stop), gave them a call and decided to pay the whole £20.... They were lovely, most Covid aware - they took our temperatures and we had to book slots for showers so they could clean between us and, well, nobody else.... They had been booked up for the whole of November, but with lockdown had decided to cancel all the English bookings. We stayed two nights! Monday was John o Groats and Duncansby Head.
The weather wasn’t brilliant, we could see the sea stacks, but only just. It wasn’t raining though, and wasn’t too windy so it could have been far worse! Lots of seals to spot, including what I think must have been a very newly born pup. Took Ted back to the site and headed off, on foot, to the camp owners secluded bay. It was certainly secluded, the only paths to it were sheep paths, and they don’t necessarily go the most direct route! It was however beautiful, despite there not being any seals.
There's little baby seal pup on the rocks with mum and dad keeping watch
Well, you have to take a photo don't you
After much discussion, studying of weather forecasts and trying to second guess ‘queen’ Nicola Sturgeon, we decided that perhaps we should aim to be back at T&N for a good weekends work, so only one more day out before beginning to return. A little carpark by Strathy Bay, with a little hut with a toilet and washing up facilities. Originally installed for those visiting the graveyard, but for donations extended to campers.
The classic view of the sea stacks at Duncansby Head. Sadly a bit misty of the day we went, but we did decide to take the coastal path walk up to them
And got better views up close. There's three stacks here...
We left John o Groats in mist, and in fact had called Helmsdale to see if 36 hours was enough notice for ordering the seafood platter, “‘fraid not, not with this fog, the boats can’t get out.” As we’d travelled west however the mist had cleared and the sun come out. Strathy Bay was beautiful, and apart from the two vehicles from Dounreay Nuclear Plant, surveying every inch of sand, all our own!
We’d picked this as our final destination as there is an A Road cross country back to Helmsdale. This is Scotland though, and A road can mean single track with passing places.... “it’s a very long 40 miles” declared the care
...and another two looking back. That's five at least
worker who had brought his charge up from Dunbeath, around the coast! Plus if we wanted fuel Thurso it should be. Brian was game for the hour cross country, but I persuaded him that an easy drive for an hour and twenty would be much better! The harbour at Helmsdale was just as we left it, except for the other three vans, and the fish and chips also just as we remembered it (from Friday) one fish supper having two pieces of fish and more chips than we could eat between us!
And this is where we saw all the seals. This one looked like it hadn't been born long
Today an hour and a half to Culloden, for the battlefield, Museum, and .... field! Interesting though, the site of the last pitch battle on British soil (see this link for more details: The Battle of Culloden), and the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites in 1746. Despite it being in the news this morning that the National Trust for Scotland will be opening up some of their carparks to campers overnight it hasn’t happened yet, so we couldn’t stay. Just round the corner though, at Clava Cairns is a lovely little carpark, our last little stop on our mini break.
This is the other walk we went on from the Ferry View campsite, recommended by them. It's called Scotlands Haven and we would never have found it without their directions, trudging along sheep paths through heather and prickly bushes
A nice wild place that only locals know about
On to Strathy Bay and what a gem of a find this was. A picture perfect bay, beautiful golden sand and a motorhome friendly parking area with toilets and a washing area
There's |Big Ted parked up there next to the log cabin toilets. We couldn't quite see the bay from there but had good views of the hills inland. Others drove up a slight slope and had uninterrupted views, but knowing the trouble we recently had with poor traction and the need of the snow chains to get us out of a muddy field, we decided a short walk to the view was better. The cemetery is described as a Commonwealth War Cemetery, but we couldn't find any graves from fallen soldiers, it seems more of a locals cemetery to us
Fabulous walks down on the beach, but I couldn't quite get the 'arty' photo I wanted
This might just look like a field, but this is Culloden Moor and the site of a major battle between England and the Scottish Jacobites, resulting in the defeat of the Jacobite rebellion, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie (The Young Pretender). It happened on 16th April 1746 and, within an hour between 1500 and 2000 Jacobites, mainly from the Highland Clans lay dead, with the loss of about 300 Government troops. Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped, eventually 'over the seas to Skye' and then to exile in France. It was the end of the Jacobite rebellion and led to terrible suppression of the Highland Clans and eventually to the Highland Clearances, where crofters were evicted from their lands to make way for sheep farming and altering the way of life in the Highlands forever.
Along the path behind Jackie you can see a row of red flags which marks the government (English) front line and, on this spot the worst of the fighting and death occurred. Here the Highlanders met the English troops head on after making one of their Highland Charges. There's were fearsome runs by hardened clan members equipped with a shield and sword directly at their enemy shouting and making lots of noise. It had previously been enough to make an enemy turn and run in fear, but the English troops, led by the Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II, stood their ground and fired volley after volley of grapeshot straight at them causing terrible casualties
The troops broke through this wall (reconstructed) to outflank the Jacobite line, you can just see a blue flag indicating the extreme right of their line. They turned and ran back towards Inverness (10 miles or so behind), but got cut down and were shown no mercy (killed on the spot)
Tonights - and our last stop, Clara Cains, a 4000 year old burial site. No written records exist so its not known exactly who was buried there or the exact nature of it.
Here's a placard at the entrance about it. Click on it and enlarge if you want to read about it.
That's it for now, back to Tony and Nickys tomorrow to carry on helping them with their building
We’ve made a bid for freedom, after a ridiculously windy weekend, with a small element of excitement.... one of the slaters scaffolding boards that has been on the roof for months blew up and tried to to go over the top of the roof, Tony saw it vertical over the apex, and rushed into action, up onto the roof, and threw it and the supporting triangles to the floor before any damage was done, to us or next door.
Tuesday we made an early start with a mix and a half of cement to put the last two lower level quoins, associated blocks and granite into position. This should now be going good and hard ready for the steel lintel to go in on our return. The early start allowed Tony to head back to Aviemore, for his second trip in two days, filling the trailer with kitchen units. We didn’t wait for his return, so there will have been a lot of two ing and fro ing for N&T. We did however virtually follow him. This hadn’t been our original plan, but Doris had rerouted us, and that is what we employ her for, if she says the A96 is closed who are we to argue? Missing out Elgin meant we had to stop on the outskirts of Inverness for Aldi, but we were going past the door.
The Old North Inn nr. Inverness. An oldish pub that was being refurbished just before lockdown in March. All work stopped and now it is mainly done although paint cans were still in evidence. The food was good - good enough for us to book in for a cooked breakfast the following morning
Second night on the Brahan Estate, a CL site
Breaking ourselves in gently our first night was in the carpark of the Old North Inn where we had a pleasant meal, and a full cooked breakfast before driving the whole 20 minutes to our next stop on the Brahan Estate. Lovely situation, under some huge old trees. I comforted myself with the fact that if anything was going to come down it would have done so last weekend and that the ground didn’t seem too wet, and they were bound to have something to pull us off on the Estate!
We saw two of these little red squirrels on the Brahan Estate
Lovely forest walks
We had a lovely walk through the woods and along the river, no deer, but lots of pheasants and two red squirrels, can’t be bad. Up the next morning and despite my fears Ted pulled straight off onto the track. We had been warned by the owner of the site near Bonar Bridge we’d booked into for the next night that his ground was a little wet but he was sure it would be fine, just reverse on so I can pull you off if need be! The view was amazing, shame we had to reverse on, so we couldn’t really see it!
She didn't mention the gorgeous view by Struie Hill on the way to Drumbhan campsite near Bonar Bridge. That's the Dornoch Firth down there, Bonar Bridge at the end on the left and, beyond the mountain Ben More Assynt
Drumbhan campsite. Hard to get on, harder to get off!
We headed off up into the hills in glorious sunshine, we were apparently close to the warmest place in the U.K., in November! There were four of us here, two vans and two caravans. We struggled to get onto one of the hard standings, but did with a little bit of wheel spin. Watched one of the cars make a bit of a meal of getting onto their pitch, and that was without the caravan. Oh well, it’s sunny and a light breeze and tomorrow is another day!
Lovely walk up into the hills near Bonar Bridge
Snow chains on for the 20m drive off!
The other, smaller van escaped with relative ease, one caravan, tick, then we tried, no chance. Would his pick-up be man enough for the job, or should we just put on the snow chains? We opted for the chains, they worked, and we could give them a good wash before we left site. Just as well we hadn’t planned a big travel day.
Helmsdale harbour, a free parking spot, but with donations to the RNLI. A lovely position, in theory for 8 vans, though we were all alone apparently there have been 20 or so for much of the summer, but they have raised £3500 so there are pluses and minuses. I got that information from a very nice man I accosted as he was about to jetwash his minibus. “Is that drinking water?” Somehow we had managed to forget to fill our drinking water container with the excitement of all the mud! It was and he very kindly let us have 10 litres or so.
Taking the snow chains back off. It was only 20m from the pitch, over grass, through the gate and up the muddy path behind. There was absolutely no chance of getting any grip, even though we have all season tyres fitted. Everyone else got off OK, but ours wouldn't even start to move, spinning in the mud. It must be our weight of 4.5T that did it. Thank heavens for snow chains! I changed completely into old clothes to do it and back again after cleaning hands, arms and snow chains of thick mud. It took about an hour to move that 20m, good job it wasn't raining!
The view (as above) at the Loch Fleet Nature Reserve
Into the village for a little reminisce, we had visited here on a trip with Helen and Ian and Roddy Dog. I recognised the cafe by the river, the Clearances Memorial and Brian recognised the War Memorial. We also recognised the pub garden, so we thought we’d have a pint! Dinner was going to be easy, the best fish and chips for miles around. Back to Ted for a bit, amble along the harbour wall and have a chat with the crab fisherman and son who have just pulled in. I was dithering, could I be bothered to deal with a crab, in the van, after a pint? He could obviously read all this going across my face, and offered us “4 claws for our tea” how could I refuse that? He than refused to take any money, and we discovered there are 6 in the bag. It’s going to be a good dinner tonight! What lovely people, and a lovely place.
Parked up at Helmsdale Harbour, lovely weather, lovely views and very friendly locals
We watched this little fishing boat chug in with his catch...
Today we moved another half an hour or so to Dunbeath, another free spot on a harbour. Not a working one this time, and the donations go to keeping the toilets nice and the flowers planted for all to enjoy. We stopped en Route to have a little look at a clearance village, there wasn’t a lot to see, and although it was beautiful today, it would have been a different story in different weather.
Had a chat with him and his son while they unloaded their catch of crabs. He told us how only male crabs are of value, about £2.20/kg, against female crabs that only get about £1.40/kg. Normally female crabs are exported to China, who value them highly, but that market is closed at the moment. He had a third bin of 'disabled' crabs with only one claw of missing legs. Those will only get £0.70/kg
And then he gave us these 6 crab claws for our dinner!
We parked up at the harbour and headed towards the visitor centre only to spot the Spar on the way. We bought a couple of pies for lunch, and he asked us where we were going. “The visitor centre”, “it’s shut,” he said handing us a leaflet with information about the Dunbeath Broch. It’s about 2000 years old, and a bit of dry stone wall, though would have been a tall, imposing, circular tower with cells stairs and galleries. It was however an interesting stop off on a lovely river walk. We went as far as the ‘Prisoners leap’ a not particularly narrow gorge, that if the prisoners leapt and survived they were allowed to go free!
We’ve looked at the sea and seen seals, I’ve written a blog that won’t be posted as the WiFi is rubbish, I’ve got crab to cook, and we’ve got Strictly on the TV (we did check we had reception when we first arrived!) life’s hard!
Watching the approaching sunset at Helmsdale Harbour
The lifeboat donation point on the harbour that we donated to. Apparently they have raised £3500.00 since March from motorhome parking, so they are very happy
We dropped in at the Badbea Historic Clearance Village. No much is left of it now, its on a windswept clifftop just outside Helmsdale and was a resettlement village set up after the residents were evicted for nearby fertile glens during the clearances, in order to use their land for sheep grazing. They lived here from early 1800's until finally abandoning it in 1903. One of the last families emigrated to New Zealand and, some years later their son returned here and had a memorial erected in their memory
Another harbour stop, this one a little further up the coast at Dunbeath. Very quiet and pleasant with public toilets and a donation box. Lovely walks nearby, that the shop owner in the Spar told us about when we went to buy lunch. We decided on the 3 mile river walk to a Broch and a gorge...
Very pleasant walk along the river, over a suspension bridge and up to the Broch
This is Dunbbeath Broch, an iron age dwelling that had been much altered over the years. It is estimated that it was about 16m high originally and is 16.2m diameter
Inside the Broch
Onwards towards Prisoners Leap in the distance, but there's another bridge on the left, so we had to go exploring there as well, which led us to yet another bridge over another river
Peering over the edge of the gorge at Prisoners Leap. Apparently the gorge was carved through during the last ice age
Fine view of the river from up here
I wanted to finish with a little Youtube video of a speeded up bit of dashcam images from our journey showing the lovely Scottish scenery we are driving through (it only last just over a minute):
