Trip report Part I - A change of plan from the Far North to the Cairngorms NP

A cottage was booked back in January for a week at the end of May in the North West of Sutherland, plans had been made for walks, views, wildlife, flora, geology etc.

Black Wood of Rannoch 

The trip started well with a stopover on the Friday at Kinloch Rannoch, with a dusk and dawn visit made to The Black Wood. The hotel porter seemed bemused to see someone heading out for a walk in the rain at dawn. The Black Wood is a remnant of the Caledonian Forest, a Natura 200) site, Special Area of Conservation, Site of Special Scientific Interest and managed by Scotland's Forestry Commission. I last visited it in 2008 and well overdue a return visit.

Field layer diversity in the Black Wood of Rannoch

The blaeberry was flowering in the wood field layer and despite the rain, bumble bees were out gathering nectar and pollinating the blaeberry.

Blaeberry flowers

Bog Beacons were conspicuous in the wetter places of the wood.

Bog Beacons

The attrition of storms on the wood was evident with wind thrown branches littering the woodland floor.

Wind throw

Some parts of the wood had an interesting dynamic of Scots Pine and Birch trees.

Mosaic of Scots Pines and Birch woodland

My visits have only scratched the potential of the Black Wood and a note has been made for a more extended visit in the future.

The trip up the A9 and onto the single track roads through Sutherland passed soon enough and we reached the holiday cottage on schedule. It was a warm and sunny afternoon, opening the door to the accommodation revealed a cold and damp interior. A dead bumblebee on the duvet, a dying beetle on the floor and other assorted dead invertebrates added to the unwelcoming atmosphere. A further surprise was an information notice over the kitchen sink that stated the tap water wasn't fit for drinking and instead bottled water was supplied instead, sadly there were no bottles of drinking water anywhere. Further disappointment was an inspection of two cups for a restorative not beverage suggested that hygiene standards had slipped too. Oh, and the hot water was courtesy of a wood burning stove, which meant lighting and stoking a fire to ensure hot water: you really do need to to actually experience this to appreciate the convenience of gas/oil/electric boilers. This may sound like first world problem territory, but the prospect of spending a weeks holiday in this most unwelcoming of accommodation was beyond the pale. We decided we would bail out and find alternative accommodation. Sadly, the internet wasn't accessible and it seemed from the cottage instruction book that guests needed to call a number and sort any access problems themselves.

Fortuitously, the owner then turned up and after introductions, I expressed some forthright opinions. He blamed an error on the cleaning roster of the estate for the the state of the accommodation, confirmed he had never personally stayed in the accommodation and appeared to have some difficulty in accepting that opening an email from his phone outside on the mobile phone network was not the same as internet access. He offered to fully refund the £460 booking fee and also offered to let us stay overnight whilst we sorted out alternative accommodation. Without hesitation we accepted the offer of a refund, declined the second gesture and left, to find internet access. It was hugely disappointing as the location was superb, but we were also hugely relieved having dodged a bullet.

With one exception, all previous visits to Scotland had been to accommodation owned by Scottish residents and these have been exemplary. Our one and only previous poor experience of holiday accommodation in Scotland, was also courtesy of a sporting estate owned by English gentry. So if nothing else, sporting estates have some consistency in providing underwhelming accommodation in our limited experience.

Rose Root, Strathy point, Sutherland

The Tongue Hotel had no room availability, but the bar area had wifi and over coffee the quest for accommodation began. We established the following :

• A lot of accommodation had been already been booked on a long term basis by contractors for renewable energy developments.
• Durness was the focus of a week long running festival, The Cape Wrath Challenge and that had seen accommodation booked far and wide.
•  Coast 500 visitors, and other tourists to the area meant overnight accommodation in the local area was at a premium.  

A patron in the bar kindly helped by suggesting we drive along the coast road to Thurso and check out the BB's / guesthouses for vacancies, this seemed the best and a room was available at The Sheiling, Melvich, the owner, room, facilities and home cooked breakfast were all superb. We had dinner at the Strathy Inn - very good - and managed a couple of hours at Strathy point: taking in the views, looking for cetaceans and photographing the flora. Next morning we contacted Sykes Cottages, a company we had booked accommodation with before and were able to talk to a representative. There was no accommodation available in the NW Highlands, widening the search to wider Highland area and a rental property in Kingussie was available, we booked it and headed south.

Scottish Primrose, Strathy Point, Sutherland