NC500 - Travel to Ullapool (Day 6)

Our next stop was Ullapool. We had a couple of nights planned here to allow us to have a chilled journey down from Durness and enjoy a few walks on our way. Ullapool is located 69 miles south along the west coast. Although there aren’t as many beaches to see, there is still beauty in the rolling hills and the geology offers a huge amount of history. We had marked a few places we wanted to see and we looked into a few places whilst we were in Durness. We made a quick pit stop at the Kylesku Bridge. You will see why in the photos. There are stunning views to both Loch Gleann Dubh and Loch a’ Chàirn Bhàin. We stopped on the north side of the bridge, and hopefully the pictures will do the view justice. However, there is parking on both sides of the bridge so you could take your time and stop off for a view from both sides if you would like.

We continued along the A894 for 3.4miles to find the next hidden gem. Technically, at this stage, we broke the NC 500 route. However, bear with us as we had our reasons. I had found on Tik-Tok a spot called the Wailing Widow Falls. It is renowned as one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Scotland, it is a 50ft drop from the Loch na Gainmhich. Now, looking into the falls online, you can view it from the top of the bottom. We originally parked on the car park at the top of the hill (which on google maps is named as the Loch na Gainmhich car park). This was mainly due to the fact that the bottom car park didn’t really look official. This route was very boggy, a little rocky, and quite frankly quite hard to walk so we decided that maybe it was better to view the falls from the bottom. Little did we know this would have been a walk in the park compared to what was to come next. The car park at the bottom is just a little grassy verge. There is enough room for about 3 cars. We started off with a little rocky walk, which wasn’t too hard to trek, but after a short while it turned into a mini work out and the rocky path became extremely difficult to walk. If you take your time, the sight of the falls is worth it. We didn’t walk right up to the falls. I am quite cautious person and don’t like anything that may result in slips and falls, and seeing as I had already injured myself I didn’t want to take to many risks. However, if you’re braver than we are there is further you can scramble to get a closer view.

After this, we continued down the A394 and joined the A837. I believe this would have been the route that you would be on if you took the coastal route that is sign posted for the NC 500. We caught a quick peek of the Ardvreck Castle. There is the opportunity to stop and get close to the castle if you wanted, but we pressed on to The Bone Caves which is approximately a 3-minute drive from the castle. Nicole had spotted this place as a site to visit so I didn’t really have much knowledge about what was there, but I am glad that she found this site. The car park was very busy. We didn’t struggle for a space but I imagine in the peak seasons that parking would be more difficult. The Allt nan Uamh, also known as the Inchnadamph Bone Caves, have been marked as a site of remarkable discovery. Two adventurers stumbled upon the caves that were filled with animal bones (such as the Arctic fox, wolf, lynx brown bear and even polar bears!). It has later been discovered that the bones are the most complete record of the last glacial period that has been found in Scotland. We were not expecting the walk to be as long as it was, but it was definitely worth it. We didn’t get chance to have a look at the route before setting of as it was occupied by people standing in front of the sign. It is a 2km route like a needle. There is a break in the path which leads up to the cave, and then the path re-joins to bring you back to the carpark. I would recommend having a look at it before you set off. The path is mostly clearly marked out, there are just a few places where, due to the main route being rocks, it gets quite hard to navigate and we did have an incident where we went off track and got a bit stuck. The path up and back down from the cave is quite steep so make sure you take your time and don’t take a tumble, it would hurt!

We continued our journey south and joined the A835, stopping at the Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve. This was going to be our second big walk of the day. However, when walking around the Bone Caves, I developed extremely sore blisters so we decided against this for the day. Instead we just took in the sites of Lochan an Ais and, after a pit stop, we continued 13 miles down to our next stop, Ullapool. The views on the way down were spectacular. Why is all this beauty so far from home?! We took a nice little stroll across the front of Loch Broom, this time, with the view of getting an ice cream. One promise Nicole made to me before we set off on holiday was that I was allowed to get a few ice creams on our travels. Seeing as I missed out in John o’ Groats I could not miss out again! We found The Seaforth Fish & Chip shop also served ice cream, so our afternoon snack turned into a two-scoop waffle cone ice cream. This is where I found my new love, Rizza ice cream. You will just have to try it to understand why it is the best!

Our Airbnb in Ullapool was Seaforth Flat hosted by Angela. We both fell in love with the place when we arrived. It is a well-kept, decorated and furnished flat. Angela is a very attentive host, and the welcome goodies were greatly appreciated. With an overall review of 4.99 stars, it is clear we are not the only ones that think so. We will definitely be staying there again if we happen to stop in the area in the future. We did both joke about asking Angela if she would put us up in the flat so we could move to Ullapool. It would be so amazing to live there, if only it didn’t get so busy with tourists in the summer.