Scotlands NC500 road trip - part 2

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