If you want to move on straight away, then on day 4 it would have been easy to travel straight to Durness. However, we kept rooted in Thurso with the view to travel on the following day (partly due to our lack of success with being able to go to Orkney). So, we decided to use this additional day to voyage out and discover all the beauties that the north coast had to offer. Our first stop was to the hidden gem called Puffins Cove. This is not signposted and would be easy to miss as there is no obvious carpark. However, google maps does know about this, you need to look for a very small off-road carpark located between the signs for Caithness and Sutherland. As previously mentioned, we were not blessed with the best weather at the start of the holiday. This location may be best viewed on a warm and calm summer’s day as we were hit with blistering winds when we reached the coast and felt like we were going to be blown right off the edge. Due to this, we felt it safest to not venture down to the actual coast, but the views from the top were spectacular. There were no puffins to view, but this is obviously just bad timing and likely due to being slightly out of season. We even took the binoculars down to catch a glimpse, which would have been valuable if the puffins were around. Our advice here would be to wear appropriate shoes again. The actual trek to the coast was easy, there was no inclines, there was no rocks to boulder over, but it was extremely saturated and boggy, to the point that we had to wander a little off track to find a safe place to walk through. As you will see in the pictures through, it was definitely worth the trek and the wet feet we ended up with!
Next stop Strathy beach, located approximately halfway across the north coast. Again, this beach would have been very easy to miss. It is located just off the A836 and it is signposted but not by a brown sign, so just look out. We were again stunned by the beauty. Why is all this beauty be so far from home?! It would be so nice to have these places on our doorstep: ‘What do you fancy doing today, shall we take a quick trip to Strathy beach?’. Only its over 8 hours and 30 minutes away. After a quick stop, we decided to venture up to Strathy Point Lighthouse. We thought this would have been a perfect location for a quick lunch stop. After the single-track road, we were greeted with a sign that cars were not permitted beyond a certain point. If we had more time we would have happily wandered further and seen the lighthouse up close, but we were very conscious of time, so again, we had a lunch break with a view. Unfortunately, the poor weather did not give us much opportunity for a photo.
A further 9 miles west, we discovered Bettyhill Viewpoint, and this time we were greeted with our first real experience of single-track roads. You could tell which people were locals as they showed no fear veering around the blind corners at 60mph and showing no signs of slowing down. If the sky was a little clearer, I am sure Bettyhill Viewpoint would have been a much better view, but it was still exceptional. If it wasn’t observed in person, I would have said that this was made up.
Now the question was how far forward do we carry on driving before turning back? As it was only early afternoon, we continued further to Borgie Forest walk. This is only a short walk (or at least the track we found was), but it was out of this world. The walk borders on to the roaring Borgie river, and with such diverse flora around, we definitely couldn’t complain.
We turned back at this point and decided to visit a few extra beaches that we spotted on our way over. Farr beach was the first one we visited. There is a sign post for parking, but where the parking this is referring to is we are unsure. We parked on a small car park, but there were several signs indicating some of the parking being residential so we parked in what we thought would be a visitor space and hoped for the best. Following the path and crossing a small bridge, you are greeted with, once again, stunning views. Although it is a small beach, it can sure pack a punch on the optic nerves.
Following this, we made a quick stop to the Marie Curie Cancer Care Field of Hope, located in North Sutherland. This is a clearly marked viewpoint, however, as there is no clear turn in the road, it is also very easy to miss (we did miss this on the way across and almost again on the way back so just drive slowly). As you will be able to see in the photo, we arrived at a bad time as the weather was about to break again. The next beach was Melvich beach if you drive down to the carpark, you have views of the Halladale River. Stunning. This is where we enjoyed the delicious blueberry muffin that was supplied by Angela. As the weather had not quite brightened up, we didn’t venture out here.
Final stop, Sandside Bay beach. We were raring to go and were all set to take a lovely stroll along the beach. We were greeted with a warning sign ‘Radioactive contamination in form of metallic particles have been found on the beach’. Although I am sure it would be perfectly fine to take a stroll, we decided to play it safe and not venture too far. We took in the view, and we left envious of all the people that live near by these spectacular places. Time to get an early night as we needed to get up early and out the door to our next venue the following morning.
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