Stoer Things to Do

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Drumbeg is located on the magnificent north Assynt coastal road and is a splendid little place.It is tiny(pop. about 100) but manages to cater well for it's many visitors. There is the Drumbeg Hotel, serving bar meals, a well stocked village store, a craft shop and tea garden. It's a popular area for loch fishing, brown trout being the main catch and permits can be bought easily enough at the village shop, among other places.

There are plenty of lochans to choose from, the landscape around here is riddled with them, although most involve a hike to get to apart from Loch Drumbeg, on the southwest side of the village and very accessible.

Just to the west of Drumbeg is a car park with a magnificent viewpoint. Here, there is an information board with details of the view which looks out over Loch Dhrombaig to Edrachillis Bay, the Summer Isles and Handa Island. Quite spectacular, especially on a clear day.We noticed that this park was free from a "no overnight parking" sign. Hooray!! How sensible of the local authority to let people park and spend money in the village while they stay overnight. There are even public toilets here.

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The lighthouse at Stoer is a must, if on this peninsula, if only for the lovely coastal views. It's at the most westerly point on the Stoer peninsula.

Once again, we made the trip on the motorbike which enabled us to park in the top car park, up a pretty stee last stretch of road. We laughed when we noticed the only other vehicle brave enough to make this final stretch was a small Swiss camper. Obviously used to steep gradients!!! The other option is to park in the first car park and walk the last bit.

The lighthouse was built by the famous Stevenson family, like so many in Scotland and was lit in 1870. In 1978, the light was automated and is now controlled from Edinburgh.

We noticed the whole place was beautifully neat and tidy, freshly painted and a pleasure to visit. The lighthouse keepers cottage has been turned into holiday accommodation, and can be booked via by the National Trust for Scotland. When we walked round the lighthouse, it appeared to be empty, with furniture piled up in the various rooms.

From the lighthouse, you can walk over the headland to the famous Old Man Of Stoer, a 200ft. rock stack. Popular with rock climbers, who have to swim to reach it's base before they can begin their climb. Oh dear, no thank you!!

It was wonderfully peaceful at the lighthouse where we sat and had our coffee in the hot, hazy sunshine,looking out to the flat calm sea.

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Another tiny crofting community based close to a beach. Nowadays, I would say most of the scattering of houses are holiday lets or people working from home.

The beach is slightly away from the community, although there are a couple of houses and the odd ruin by the beach. The beach is nothing spectacular by northern Scotland's standards but what made this place special was the fact we saw a basking shark!!! We had just arrived and I was climbing off the bike when I saw something in the water, close inshore. I knew minke wales frequented these waters, as did porpoises and seals but this was BIG and on it's own. I raced towards the sea, as did one other person who appeared from nowhere. He waded into the water, fully clothed, with his camcorder. I videod from the shore and it was then that Nick told me it was a basking shark. I didn't believe him at first, but afterwards, I realised he was right. What an amazing sight. I have some really good video footage but not a good photo, I was too busy filming!

This beast was so close to the shore, we could see the entire shape of his body as he fed in the shallows, to-ing and fro-ing. An unforgettable experience!!

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We made the journey round the Stoer Peninsula on the motorbike, so reached the places we wanted to visit easily. As you come down the road to the beach, stop and admire the natural rock arch at the far end of the bay.

Culkein is a strange place. It has a sandy, rocky beach and as usual, in these small communities, a jetty was provided for local boats, built about a hundred years ago. Nowadays, most of these have fallen into a sad state of repair and Culkein was no exception.Larger fishing vessels found the jetty too small and preferred to use the moorings at Loch Nedd.

There are two or three wooden chalets to let behind the beach, a real away from it all location.Also, beyond the jetty are the ruins of what would have been a large farm.

Just as you come down the road before the beach there is a strange mound with a hole in it. This is the remains of a double ice house. There was a thriving fish farm here with a fish station based in Culkein. The salmon were netted at sea and landed at Culkein, where they were then preserved in the ice houses. The fish station, as did others in the area, closed in 1995.

We stopped for a coffee from our flask whilst drinking in the atmosphere of this peaceful backwater. We had the place entirely to ourselves.

Be aware, there is nowhere really to park here for any length of time.

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After the winding, uphill, downhill travelling,it comes as a bit of a suprise when the landscape flattens out and reveals a beautiful white sand beach, complete with a mere sprinkling of people enjoying the unnaturally warm weather. Although this gorgeous beach is right by the road,it is one of north western Scotland's lesser frequented beaches, simply because of the nature of the road to reach it!! It is also relatively sheltered and the climate mild, owing to it's closeness to the Atlantic Gulfstream.

The tiny crofting community of Clashnessie (in all, about 14 houses!) is spread around the back of the bay where there is the odd holiday cottage.

Behind is a waterfall, I believe easily walked to but I had forgotten all about it and we drove on.

There is a small parking area opposite the eastern side of the beach, where the usual "No overnight parking"sign was evident.

If you are after a quiet sandy beach,accessed by road, this is the one.

---continuing---
...and we understood exactly the meaning of the word "boggy".
The whole terrain was covered by water and mud for a depth high enough to make you dig your entire foot into it.
The worst part is that the mud was invisible because of the grass growing over. We arrived to the car park covered with mud up to the knee... to find this stupid seagull watching us as two pointless town-living humanoids...

After a while we decided to take the way back knowing that one more hour walk was necessary.
The first part went ok, then I had a great idea.
We had climbed a small creek going there, and I saw that if we had returned following a more internal path we may have avoided the climb even if walking a bit more.
We took that way...
---continues---

We made it! We reached the destination after about one hour or so walking. There was a warm sun and we were thirsty and hungry.
The scenery was superb, I'm sad I was not able to take a decent picture of it, but I can ensure it that place definitely deserved the fatigue.
There were some seal down in the water. I french guy with good eyes pointed them to us, but they were too far away even for my camera zoom.