Day 36 - Tongue to Durness
Quick facts:
Weather: forecast to be 100% rain until 11:15 am
H 21 L 13C
Wind from the East at 24 kph
Humidity 93%
Sunset: 8:06 pm
Departure: Kyle of Tongue Hostel and Campsite
Destination: Homeknowe, Durness, IV27 4PN
Planned distance: 28 mi 44.8 km
Planned ascent: 1,670
Planned descent: 1,578
Route: Photo from Ride with GPS. For actual metrics pls see Ralph’s Strava report https://www.cycling4charity.org.uk
Good morning / Good day
I woke up in my little private hostel room, cosy with an electric heater, but hearing the wind. Rain is promised at 100% but it isn’t raining now. It is actually going to be quite a warm day - forecasted at 21C. Maybe cooler along the ocean coast where we will be riding.
The starting hill promised by the ride profile should warm me up!
I had something called a bacon bun for breakfast- not quite the same as a full Scottish breakfast the hotels and BnB’s serve but it was good enough to get me going.
We visited with dozen cyclists milling around the storage sheds and got ready to leave.
Ralph set off with his poncho in position waving goodbye to the group. They were spending a week or so cycling in Scotland. Most were software engineers from several companies somewhere down south. I suspect they were friends who graduated from the same program at a university somewhere. The youngest being a little toddler who rode in the support van! Ralph had some tools they needed for a repair. They had a good pump for us to fill our tires. Everyone was happy!
They were on the NC500 heading into the wind. They warned us about our upcoming hill. We were happily heading downwind. We didn’t get far.
Oliver’s van with the slogan across the rear doors: « Please Sir can I have more » was waiting to serve Ralph a cup of coffee 100 meters away! Not only did Oliver serve coffee but he gave a donation and I believe a snack or two.
He was parked on the Kyle of Tongue Bridge and Causeway that crossed the Kyle of Tongue right in front of the hostel.
The causeway was built in 1971 and cuts ten miles off the A838 between here and Durness - thank you Scotland! The causeway is 3.8 km long over Tongue Island with a 183 m low bridge to finish the hop.
The bridge ended at Melness Cemetery. Melness is one of the many croft communities of tenants which were created by the Clearances discussed earlier. I will leave it to you to look up what Scottish crofts are.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crofting
At best, people living on the crofts were subsistence farmers with their livelihoods supplemented by fish and kelp. When the potato blight came they couldn’t survive. Many emigrated.
At the end of the causeway we climbed to the height of land north of Ben Hope mountain called the Moin and arrived on the vast blanket bog with views forever in all directions. The first road, built by the Duke of Sutherland in 1830, was supported on bundles of heather to prevent it from sinking into the peat. If you have ever walked across a peat bog, you know how difficult and treacherous it can be. Our cycling route originally was to go along this old road but the surface was better suited to hikers so we kept to A838.
Far away we could see the single outline of Moine House. It was built as a refuge in 1830 on this high plateau where winter storms must have been quite awesome. It is the ONLY building on this road.
It has seen better days but still provides a place out of the wind on a blustery day.
This is apparently the wettest part of Scotland and the least densely populated part of the UK. The moss that has grown happily undisturbed here for 11,000 years has created a blanket of peat 10 meters thick. A huge carbon sink.
View from Moine House to Ben Hope along the old road.
A838 snaking in the distance towards Hope and the Hope Bridge that was a single lane bridge crossing Hope River at the mouth of Loch Hope.
I guess we have left the spongy moss district:
The next picture is a view of Loch Eriboll. We will follow its shores all around for the rest of the day ending with a climb up to Durness. This is a sea loch. I thought lochs were lakes and anything going into the sea was a fijord…but not so in Scotland. This is the deepest sea loch in Britain. It has served as a safe refuge for the Royal Navy for a century and I read somewhere that the last two vessels of the German fleet in WWII surrendered here - ending the Battle of the Atlantic.
There is some very interesting geology happening here with the deposit of fertile Durness Limestone. We passed limestone kilns along the shore. The rock on one side of the loch is completely different geology to the rock on this side.
A gorgeous quiet road all the way around.
This was our weather on a 100% rain forecasted Scottish day!
Up the far side of Loch Eriboll and on to Durness. What a beautiful day came out of the earlier wet forecast.
Zip line and cliff jump available for any thrill seekers. I took a pass and found quieter pastimes.
We did meet a group of motorcyclists at the zip line. Ralph chatted with them and explained our fundraising goal. There are a lot of motorbikes enjoying NC500 for the same reason we are.
Durness has put up a signpost too.
We found the AirBnB Ralph had booked for two nights. Durness is the gateway to Cape Wrath so just like we stayed at the Weigh Inn in Thurso and did an out-and-back to Duncansby Head, our plan was similar for our third corner - Cape Wrath.
Our ride today had been quite short so we had time to explore the town.
The Smoo Cave is on the east side of Durness. We had passed the signs coming into town and both of us wanted to see them. Unfortunately we were well past the time to have a guided tour into the depths of the cave but it was definitely worth the walk to explore as far as we could.
I laughed at the warning signs which essentially said the caves were very dangerous especially when it had been raining, but the guides were members of the National cave rescue team and they definitely would not lead a tour or do anything in unsafe conditions guiding tourists because it would be mortally embarrassing to have to be rescued…. Or something like that.
Along with being safe… the caves are efficient. According to the sign you can go for a tour and get your laundry done!
The cave was awesome - even if we couldn’t go far.
Entrance:
Interior boardwalk:
Opening to the sea:
The sunset walk back ended the day.
Today was one of the best for me. The wide expanse of open scenery started the day then lovely scenery close to the water as we went down and then up the loch. The roads were empty and great to cycle on and the few vehicles had passing places that they often used and waited patiently for us to cycle by. The big hill into Durness was a challenge but the reward was the view of the Atlantic on top.
Durness is a well supplied town with a grocery store and postal service a stone’s throw from our rented house.
We went to bed all ready to head to Cape Wrath tomorrow!
Safe travels.
Lorraine