Introduction
Thursday 2nd June 2016
So here we are
at last, after what seems a lifetime of walking, ready for the very last leg of
our epic journey. I sat at Glasgow Central eating a sandwich and waiting for Mike.
I had spent the previous week with my daughter and her family in Ayr and was
meeting Mike in Glasgow to head north with him to Perth and Inverness. At first
I was not going to ring him. After all, I had sent him all the train bookings
and the changes from the original schedule that the closure of Queen Street
had brought about. But as an afterthought I gave him a quick bell. The horror
of it! He had registered the change of station but not the change of times. He
was sunning himself on the river bank unaware that the Perth train was just
about to depart. I was standing by the barriers wondering where to leave his
tickets when he raced into the station. It took me several hours to calm down.
The change
of trains in Perth was smooth and uneventful, except for the lack of toilets
out on the platforms. A pleasant couple kept us in conversation on the way north
and time flew by as we rattled through
the Cairngorms. Timetables showed that the fastest way to get up to Helmsdale was
by bus. So we walked round to the bus station and booked onto the last bus
north. We were soon driving rapidly up the east coast into rather cloudy and
threatening weather. All the beautiful sunshine of the west coast had been left
behind.
We stayed at
Kindale House in Lilleshall Street and ate at La Mirage, a pleasant restaurant
with a history (Nancy Sinclair, Barbara Cartland and TV Programmes). I had
battered haddock and chips and a couple of bottles of Northern Light (4.0%)
from Orkney Brewery. After our meal we walked round the village in the drizzle
and stared with amazement at the yellow-coloured hillsides of gorse and broom.
Friday 3rd June 2016 Kinbrace
- Melvich
Flow Country
I was
getting used to sunshine so it was a disappointment to wake up to cloud and
drizzle. After a huge breakfast, I grabbed a sandwich from the Spar supermarket
and walked up to the station to await the first train of the day. This took us to
Kinbrace and the end point of last year’s expedition. The last leg of our walk
was underway.
The first
seven miles to Forsinard were mostly uphill. The final mile down to the station
and RSPB reserve was hidden in mist. In the very early planning phase, I had
hoped to use the hotel. But this had closed long ago and looks unlikely to open
soon. There was a cottage next to the station that offered b&b and drinks
but it did not look any livelier. The visitor centre did not offer any refreshments,
just details of birding walks up to viewpoints that were today deep in wet
cloud. The main feature was the number of landholdings that contained the
notice ‘RSPB not welcome here’. This was obviously an organisation which was rather
weak on its ‘good neighbour policy’.
Another four
miles of road, this time downhill, brought us to a small parking area at Forsinain.
Here we sat and ate our butties and gave our road-weary legs a short break. We then
took the first opportunity to get off the road. This was a footpath marked on
the map at Breacrie, two miles to the north. But this diversion was not a
success. There was no sign of a route across boggy ground and rough fields.
Even a high gate through a deer fence was wedged shut and had to be climbed and
a rickety old bridge could only be accessed through a gorse bush. But we
eventually got back onto tarmac along the west side of the river, passing
Trantlemore and Upper Bighouse. It was reassuring to meet a footpath sign at
the end of the lane, indicating an official route to Kirkton. However it was
not easy to find and we had to turn from our first choice of track to get back
on line. The path got clearer as we approached the bealach and it was a clear
track on its descent to the river.
There was a
cemetery in a rather remote place, a small walled enclosure on a steep bank. A
sign said that it contained some Commonwealth War Graves. How strange. Kirkton
was a one house hamlet so it was swiftly onwards to pass a working quarry and
gain the main coast road. In half a mile we were at the pub, asking where our b&b
was and organising a meal for later. Then it was on to the far end of the
village of Melvich to find our accommodation for the night, a room with a view,
and a delightful Swiss host.
Kinbrace
dep. 10.18, Melvich arr. 17.45 GPS 22.71
miles in 7hr 10m 36s including a 13 min lunch stop in Forsinain Car Park.
We stayed at
the Shieling B&B. The meal was at the Halladale Inn where I had fish and
chips again. This time though, I managed a pudding of ginger sponge and cream.
The beer was bottled Dark Island (4.6%) from Orkney Brewery. Before we could
settle for a session, quiz night preparations began and tables and chairs were
being relocated. We were being accosted
by a most assertive lady about our taking part in the quiz. It was time to go
back to the digs. As we left the pub we saw a notice about the closure of the
footbridge across the river, our planned route for tomorrow.
Saturday 4th June 2016 Melvich
– Dunnet
From Nuclear to Wind Power
We sought
advice from our landlord on the status of the footbridge across the river, the
off-road and shortest option for our route for the day. He suggested that the
locals were still using it but we should be careful. This proved the case. We
dropped down the lane to the beach and climbed over an insubstantial wooden
barrier to pass a sign asking us to cross with care.
This took us
through the grounds of Bighouse and on up its access road. Then we broke out
across the moor and a faint but obvious line. It did not remain obvious for
long and we soon decided to abandon the off-road option and to make for the
main coast road. . We spend at least five miles on this quite busy road, uphill
at first, crossing our last county boundary (into Caithness) and then dropping
down into the village of Reay. A shop provided a butty for the day and then we
left the village passed a well-kept golf course. The white globe of Dounreay
was now dominating the view towards the coast. However, rather than trail
passed the nuclear facility on the main road, we chose an inland option along
what appear from the map to be a narrower quieter lane (suggested cycle route).
However this did not prove the case. It was a wide straight rat run that
attracted fast moving vehicles looking for the same short cut. The hillside
ahead of us was covered with wind turbines, most of them working quite hard in
the gentle breeze. It seemed to take us an age to pass this wind farm.Our
old friend, Balfour Beatty, was installing a new transmission line to get the
power onto the National Grid. We later learnt that all the newly installed
renewable generation was transmitted to a sub-station in the south of Caithness
and then cabled under the sea to Peterhead and onwards down the Angus coast.
We rested
briefly by the roadside in the village of Westfield and ate our butties. Then
we had a five mile road walk into Thurso and the promise of a coffee shop.
After days in the wilderness, it seemed strange to walk into a sizeable town
passed shops, schools, and a hospital and railway station. We were right in the
town centre before we found a café. I feasted on cappuccino and a ‘yumyum’, a
chocolate-coated cake.
We walked
through the pedestrianised street and enquired of a local the route to a
footbridge over the river that was indicated on the map. We then made further
enquiries from dog-walkers to ensure we found the coast path out of town and
passed the castle. It was a relief to get back to real coast walking again. The
path clung to the field edge above the rocky shoreline. A girl, walking strongly
ahead, gave us confidence to stay on the low cliffs after the path came to an end.
We followed her for some time before she stopped to allow us to catch her. She
then explained that she was lost as well. She was a French student making a
tour of Scotland after a year at an Edinburgh college. The three of us then
proceeded along an increasing narrow trod until we pulled round into a sand
cove, Murkle Bay. We left the young lady here and dropped onto the beach. The
short cut along the water line brought us to the foot of some grassy cliffs. An
awkward climb revealed that a coastal continuation was not a possibility. To
make progress, we had to climb a barbed wire fence into a large field. In the
end, a series of fences persuade us to abandon the coastal option and to turn
inland to pick up a farm track at East Murkle. This track soon led us back to
the coast and round to the tiny harbour of Castlehill and an information area
on the flagstones of Caithness. A lane then led us onto the main road for the
last three miles into Dunnet. The lack of conversation now indicated the
tiredness we both felt as we left the shore and tramped between sand dunes and
forest along the busy road.
Melvich dep.09.00,
Dunnet arr. 18.30, GPS 27.36 miles in 8hrs 47m 27s walking time plus a 20 minute
lunch stop (12.50-13.10) and 20 minute in Thurso coffee shop 14.35-14.55).
We stayed at the Northern Sands Hotel in Dunnet. We ate in
their restaurant and I had pressed pork belly in cider jus followed by
chocolate pudding. The real ale on draught was Scapa Special (4.2%) from
Swannay Brewery on Orkney. This proved an exceptional beer so I found it hard
to stop at two.
Sunday 5th June 2016 Dunnet – Mey
Northernmost Point
What a
beautiful day! There was not a cloud in the sky as we left the hotel after an
early breakfast. Round the corner we bumped into a man, wearing a ‘disaster’
base-ball cap, who directed us onto the coast path. We proceeded passed the museum
at Mary Ann’s Cottage and down to the sea at Dwarwick Bay. Then there was a
spectacular path up the hillside with the white house which the Queen Mother
used to visit, high up above. This path climbed along the edge of steep ground
and over cliffs until it then came out on high grassland white with cotton
grass. We wound our way around the west side of the headland with views of Hoy
opening up ahead. Eventually the lighthouse came into view and the last mile
up to it was mostly uphill. This was a magical moment as we stood in the sun
and took photos. We had achieved a south-north end–to-end linking up the Lizard
Point in Cornwall with Britain’s northernmost point, Dunnet Head. It had taken quite a long time to come round
the coast path so far so we abandoned ideas of continuing along the eastern
cliffs and instead came down the road that took a more central line.
It was
really warm now. Sheltered from the light sea breeze, we were in T-shirt and
shorts as we moved inland. Back through Brough, we picked up the narrow lanes
that led back to the shore at Ham, then sat in a field for 10 minutes to
consume some of our emergency rations. At the Crossroads Primary School we
turned down another straight road to Scarfskerry from where we could see the
top of the Castle of Mey with its Saltire flag flapping in the breeze. The
coffee shop at the castle was still open so we dashed in for a coffee and cake.
Then I took the last tour of the castle whilst Mike guarded our rucksacks. It
was only a short walk up to the main road to find our accommodation for the
night.
Dunnet dep.
09.30, Mey arr. 17.70, GPS 16.40 miles in 6hr 01m 53s walking time plus a 10
min break in a field for a snack (13.45-13.55) and two hours at the Castle of
Mey (15.15 – 17.15).
We stayed at
the Hawthorns B&B in Mey. We ate just up the road at the Castle Arms Hotel,
where I feasted on steak and wine pie and apple crumble and ice cream. The real
ale was all bottled but I went through their collection of Northern Light
(4.0%) and Corncrake (4.1%) from Orkney Brewery and Scapa Special (4.2%) from
Swannay.
Monday 6th June 2016 Mey –
John O’Groats
In My End is My Beginning
It was not
quite so pleasant this morning. There was a cloud cover that we had not
experienced for several days and the breeze has a cold bite to it. We could not
face a walk down the main road so we cut south down a track lined with beech
hedges to gain the back road, a shorter straighter route over the Hill of
Rigifa. In Upper Gills a man was watering his front garden. I commented that
this was a first for the Scottish Highlands and we stopped to chat. He was a
Geordie who had retired here with his wife, bought a plot of land overlooking
the Pentland Firth and had built his own bungalow. Onwards we marched through
the village of Canisbay and back down to the coast road. We were not on this
for long. We knew there was a footpath along the shoreline but were unsure where
to access it. We left it until reaching a track near a b&b and found that we
could have gone down to the sea earlier. So it was only a few yards, passing
some garishly-painted extensions, to the hotel and into the car park and visitors’
centre of John O’Groats. We got some tourists to take our photo in front of the
famous signpost then quickly moved away from this popular spot in search of a
coast path to Duncansby Head.
I popped
into the reception cabin for the caravan site and was advised by a most helpful
gentleman that our best route was through the caravan site and out onto the
short grass above the sandy shore. He warned us of a fence crossing but there was
a strategically placed stile that led out onto less grazed grassland and
upwards towards the lighthouse. Very quickly we got up to the small car park in
front of the lighthouse and then descended round the south side of the security
fence to gain the north westerly tip of Britain and the end of LE JOG, the
British end-to-end walk. It might have taken us 13 or 14 years but we had
finally finished. Or so I thought until I climbed up to the trig point and the
view southwards along the east coast open up in front of us. What an amazing
and unexpected panorama! After days of relatively flat walking along a gentle coast,
suddenly we were back in a landscape of dramatic cliffs and headlands. The
central features were the great Stacks of Duncansby, two magnificent sea stacks
of triangular-shaped leaning rock sticking out of cliff and seascape. The
cliffs were lined with nesting and resting sea birds, probably fulmars, whilst other
birds, probably razorbills or guillemots sat on the sea itself. We were drawn
into this wonderful coastline and wondered along the clifftops for an hour or
so before reluctantly turning our backs on the North Sea and headed back across
the grassy peninsular and down to John O’Groats. Just time for a coffee and
cake and then it was round to the bus stop and the end of our journey. Or was
it just the start!
Mey dep. 09.00,
John O’Groats arr. 13.30, GPS 12.84 miles in 4hrs 35m 38s walking time with
lots photos in John O’Groats and sightseeing around Duncansby Head..
Aftermath
The bus
dropped us near Thurso town centre. We had time for a quick sandwich. Whilst we
were eating, a lady came in who was walking the end-to-end (LE JOG) in one continuous
journey. She had started in March and was due to finish the following day. Jill
Woodman was her name. She was from Leeds and before we parted, she left us details
of her charity donation site.
We then
walked up to the station in good time for the train which was more that the
train was for us. An engine problem with the incoming train from Wick was such
that it could only go forwards. It could not come up the branch line to Thurso
and then reverse out. It was waiting for us at Georgemas Junction and we
passengers were bundled into two mini buses and driven the 10 or so miles down
to this junction. We were eventually settled on board and set off rather late
on the long journey to Inverness. The train kept on losing time to the schedule
and by the time we pulled into Inverness Station, the 34 minute connection time
was down to 5 minutes. We had to dash across the platforms and get into our
seats on the sleeper. For the first time today we could relax and celebrate our
achievements. All I had to do was walk down to the kitchens and order a beer
and a meal. I was met by a very embarrassed member of the catering staff. The
train had no food or beer, no warm food, no sandwiches, no nothing. We faced a
nine hour trip through the night with no food. What a miracle we had had a
sandwich in Thurso or we may not have survived. We were given a free cup of tea
and retreated to our seats for a long hungry night.
At 5.30am
the train pulled into Crewe Station and we were into the buffet so quickly that
we had our bacon butties before the train was on its way again. We however sat in
Crewe and had our breakfast and then caught the first bus home.
