Altnaharra

Every good holiday has one or two tales that are to be repeated often and remembered most fondly. One of mine from this trip will be the main road from Tongue ➡︎ to Lairg  ➡︎ . It's an "A" road - you know about them, yes? They are the big, major trunk roads which make up the backbone of the road network in this country 🤣.



The single track section actually starts back at Lednagullin ➡︎ which is nearly 60 miles from Lairg.

The A836 between Tongue and Lairg is a little under 40 miles and nearly ALL of it is single track, with passing places, fairly obvious from this OS Road Map which clearly says "narrow road with passing places". ➡︎




It was an absolute joy - fabulous scenery and mostly drivers who understand how to use passing places (unlike the foul 'Wild West' which is navigating narrow roads in the Lake District these days) and took me through some of the most spectacular country. I had times when I did not see another vehicle for miles but it was never scary - whilst I still loath Alex Salmond's wind turbines which have defaced so much of the landscape I can appreciate the surprising number of mobile phone masts which make so much difference for residents, visitors and the emergency services.


That skinny bit of tarmac on the right - yep, that is the main "A" road.



Only 75 miles driving that day, and whilst the van knows she was moving for just 3 hours, I stopped so much it actually took 8 hours to complete the journey, and I enjoyed it so much that the following day when I found myself on roads which were wide enough for two vehicles I was quite disappointed . . . .




The single-track experience also included a 3 mile side trip down Loch Naver to the Caravan Club site at Altnaharra which is somewhere definitely worth making the effort to stay.


When I arrived at the site the Manager greeted me with "good afternoon, how was your journey?" She was clearly shocked and taken aback when I told her I was fine, thank you and had enjoyed a fabuous drive down from the north coast.

We settled into a good chat after that - apparently it is not at all unusual for new arrivals to get out of their vehicles with deep relief, especially those towing caravans or driving large motorhomes *. When some of them learn that the only way out is another 20 miles or more of similar road depending upon their planned route one or two have almost cried.

Altnaharra is an idiosyncratic site - no toilet block, no showers and you cannot drink the water without boiling it first. I knew all this before arrival, it wasn't a problem.



People have appreciated this location for hundreds and hundreds of years - I shared my site with Grumore Broch and even considered pitching directly next to it but the view was a little better (and the ground a little more level) where I chose to spend the night.








For all this remoteness I had a strong phone signal - the Scottish Government might have failed to invest in essential ferries but they have made progress with vital communications. I sent this picture to husband who replied "aw, what a shame you could not get a pitch closer to the water". He said the same thing when I got to Bunree.







* The reason for my labouring the point about narrow roads - later in my holiday I had the misfortune to get talking to someone on another campsite who was headed for Altnaharra towing a caravan. When I mentioned the A836 was single-track he flatly refused to believe it, to the point of telling me I could not navigate and had been on a different road, apparently "A" roads are never single track. Whilst he was not stupid enough to say the words "silly little woman" out loud I could see him thinking them.

That evening I was not in the mood to be called a liar by a know-it-all-bully and and suggested he check his map. Then I walked away whilst he was still talking at me. If you had the misfortune to encounter a Bailey caravan towed by a red Seat, I am sorry - I did try to help 🙄.