The Western Isles – Or There And Back Again XV

By theorkneynews on June 12, 2018 • ( Leave a comment )

By Bernie Bell

A Loop and Some Pies

We set off on the ’loop’ as advised by Jaimie at Croft 17. We made a slight detour to Lochinver for lunch. As you enter the village, there’s a sign on the Lochinver Larder saying ‘Award-winning Pie Shop”!

Mike couldn’t possibly not eat in an award-winning pie shop, so we did. I didn’t have a pie – they are real, traditional, solid pies, which would be too much for me for lunch, but Mike had pie, mash, peas and gravy, and he said it tasted as good as it looked. The café is in a conservatory sort-of room – very light and airy – and busy. Folk always suss out good places to eat, and those places get busy, so, at the Lochinver Larder, if the tables are full, they also have a ‘selling-out’ service where you can get pies to take with you, or even have pies posted to you! Desperate Dan would love it!

After lunch, the weather started to clear up, and, by the time we reached Achmieluich beach, it was a fine day. The road to this beach is tortuous – worth it, beautiful, but tortuous. Could say the same of some people! We walked across machair and dunes, to a clear, sandy beach, then back to the car and back up the long, steep and winding road, with surprising views of Suilven, peeking over the horizon, on the way.

Then onto a still tortuous, but less so, road, continuing the loop. Jaimie had told us of falls at Clashnessa. I was too tired, by now, to walk to them, as it is a bit of a walk, but that needn’t stop you from doing so!

You really do need an OS map for this area, and, if you have one, you can find Clashnessa, find the, very small, place to park by the road, and walk back up the road a bit, where there is a sign pointing you in the direction of the falls, then, it looks like it should be a lovely walk to them. You’ll have to take Jaimie’s word for it, as we didn’t do it!

Then to the Drumbeg viewpoint, which is one of those viewpoints where you don’t see why they bother with a sign – it’s just ….THERE – a sweeping view, all round, and one which even a tired bear can stand and look at and breath in and enjoy.