Chocolate & the Northernmost Point(s)
Day 11: Piles of Rocks and Hot Chocolate
Today we attempted two of the Rick Steve's driving tours, and so left as early as possible, which wasn't that early at all.
Ardvreck Castle
Today the castle comprises a finger of stone, pointing accusingly at the sky. Just enough remains to identify it as once having been a three storey tower house of traditional design, including a corbelled section that once housed the main staircase and part of a vaulted basement level. Across the narrow neck of the promontory is a dry stone wall that marks the line of an old defensive wall: traces of the original defensive ditch here can still be seen.
The castle dates back to about 1490 when the lands were owned by the Macleods of Assynt. Its only place in history is an especially inglorious one. On 27 April 1650, the Marquis of Montrose, fighting for the Royalist cause even after the execution of Charles I (see our Historical Timeline) lost the battle of Carbisdale to a much smaller Covenanter army. His flight brought him, two days later, to Ardvreck Castle, where he sought sanctuary with Neil Macleod of Assynt.
Neil was away, and his wife, Christine, tricked Montrose into the castle dungeon and sent for troops of the Covenanter Government. Montrose was taken to Edinburgh, where he was executed on 21 May 1650. This act stands as a notorious betrayal of Highland hospitality.
Ardvreck Castle was attacked and captured by the Mackenzies in 1672. In 1726 they replaced it with the more modern Calda House (apparently recycling some of the stone from Ardvreck when they did so).
This burned down in 1737 and before the Mackenzies were able to rebuild the house, their estates had been seized by the Crown for their support of the losing side in the 1745 uprising. It has remained a ruin ever since.
Driving through Northwest Scotland: From Ullapool to the North Coast
Cocoa Mountain
A must for those with a sweet tooth, this "chocolate bar" serves up world-class truffles and stunningly rich hot chocolate made with chocolate from its next-door chocolate "factory." There are sandwiches and cake, too, and coffee if you feel overwhelmed by chocolate. The factory (beside the cafe) sources the beans from around the world, but makes the final product here.
~Rough Guide to Scotland
Smoo Cave
At the eastern end of the extended village of Durness is the car park for Smoo Cave. "Smoo" is a name thought to derive from the Old Norse Smuga which means "hiding place" and the name is applied to this end of the village and to the river, the Allt Smoo, which disappears into a sinkhole on the inland side of the A838 a short distance from the car park, as well as to Smoo Cave itself.
It is entirely possible that the "hiding place" that so appealed to the Vikings was not so much the cave itself as the extremely narrow and steep sided inlet which extends for a third of a mile back to the mouth of the cave from the inhospitable cliff-girt shoreline to the north. Traces have been found of a fishing and shipbuilding community living and working here during the Viking era, and it is easy to imagine that this was an ideal place for a community that wanted to stay undetected by anyone sailing by, in an age when far more travellers journeyed by sea than overland. The earliest evidence of occupation of the cave goes back much further, to around 5,000 years ago.
Near the car park are a series of interpretive boards, and from here a set of steps descends the west side of the cleft. The most obvious feature as you begin your descent is the inlet running north out to the sea. Then your attention is gripped by the large flat-topped rock on the eastern side of the cleft. But as you near the foot of the descent you come into view of the main attraction, the huge gaping mouth of Smoo Cave itself.
After crossing the river by means of a wooden footbridge, a path heads into the first chamber of Smoo Cave. This chamber measures some 200 feet long, 130 feet wide, and is 50 feet high at the entrance. It is easy to imagine that a sizeable community might have made its home in the cave, and so long as you didn't pick one of the many spots where water drips down from the roof, you'd have probably been able to keep relatively warm and comfortable here.
The first chamber was created by the action of the sea. What makes Smoo Cave unique is that the second and third chambers were created by the action of the freshwater Allt Smoo. A covered walkway leads off to the west side of the first chamber and leads to the second. Here you find the mist and roar that accompanies the foot of a 60ft waterfall caused by the river dropping into its sinkhole.
The end of the walkway is as far as you will be able to go unaided. During the summer season, and when the quantity of water flowing down the river is low enough, there are daily tours conducted by boat into a third chamber, which lies on the far side of the second. On the day the photographs shown on this page were taken the water level in the second chamber was high and there was no possibility of reaching the third.
On returning to the car park it is well worth taking the short walk to the wooden bridge that has been built across the Allt Smoo at the point where it drops into the sinkhole. It is also possible to view from above, again from a safe distance, the location of blowholes in the roof of the cave you will have noticed while underground.
There are many stories associated with Smoo Cave, and for centuries it was believed to be the residence of the Devil. This made it a convenient place for the local laird's henchman to dump the bodies of anyone who fell foul of what passed for local justice at the time. In the 1700s two excisemen were searching the caves for a suspected illicit whisky still when they were murdered by the simple expedient of the local boatman (and, probably, illicit still operator) rowing their boat too close to the foot of the waterfall.
The North Coast & Castle Varrich
Caisteal Bharraich or Castle Varrich, built on a promontory with fine views along the Kyle of Tongue, is a two-storey ruined tower house. ‘Doun Vorrich’ is marked on Pont’s map of Strathnaver as a tower, and then on Blaeu’s map of Strathnaver.
This was a property of the Bishops of Caithness, which was later held by the Mackays. It can be reached by a steep path from the gate beside the Royal Bank of Scotland.
RSBP Dunnet Head
Dunnet Head is the most northerly point on the UK mainland. It is Caithness in miniature. Being at 58 degrees north, geographically it is the most northerly point on the UK mainland. Historically it is very important as the very pinnacle of Dunnet Head, Easter Head, was a WWII radar station and nearby Burifa Hill was a Gee station. The remains of the two stations can be seen in prevalent positions on the Head. There is an abundance of wildlife and birdlife. some great places to walk, cycle and horse ride, and generally become involved with the environment.
Dunnet Head is home to the North Highland Way, a walking, horse riding and cycling route between John o Groats and Durness.
John o’ Groats
The sign you'll usually find above the harbour at John o' Groats says it's 874 miles from, or to, Land's End. And while Dunnet Head ten miles to the west, extends further north, and Duncansby Head, to the east, is probably a mile or two more distant from Land's End, John o' Groats is the place you start or finish if you want to cover the length of Britain playing hopscotch or pushing a pea with your nose. As a result it's attracted quite a following over the years.
Most of the guidebooks are unflattering about John o' Groats. It's always tended to be a place that leaves you wondering what visitors who travel the length of Scotland to reach it actually think when they arrive.
John o' Groats is named after a Dutchman, Jan de Groot. In 1496 King James IV granted De Groot the ferry franchise between the harbour here and Orkney, which was at the time still a relatively new acquisition by Scotland. It has been suggested that De Groot gave his name to the silver coin, the Groat, as this was the level at which his fares were fixed by the authorities to curb his efforts to cash in on his franchise. The truth is that groats as coins predate De Groot by the better part of two centuries. De Groot started the development of the area around the harbour, building a house, reputedly octagonal, and located not far from the hotel.
Hill o’ Many Stanes
The Hill o' Many Stanes is signposted inland along a minor road from the A99 in the scattered hamlet of Clyth. You follow the minor road for a third of a mile before coming to an obvious signpost near a layby which provides parking, and then follow a path beyond a gate for the 100m or so to the ancient monument itself.
The Hill o' Many Stanes is well named. It comprises a roughly square area on the southern slope of a low hill otherwise covered in heather and gorse. On this hillside is an arrangement of some 200 stones, arranged in 22 not quite straight rows aligned very roughly north-south, which fan out a little at their southern end.
Visitors are encouraged to stick to a path which goes around the perimeter of the site, and this allows you to appreciate the pattern of stones from the full range of available angles. Many ancient sites you visit leave you with a sense of wonder. The Hill o' Many Stanes is rather different in that it leaves you wondering: what on Earth (or beyond) did the people who placed these stones here had in mind in doing so?
An account written in 1871 said that at that time there were 250 stones visible, and it has been speculated that there might originally have been up to 600 stones present here. That is the number that would be needed to form the complete pattern only partially visible today, especially if you accept the possibility raised by outlying stones and settings for missing stones that the pattern might once have extended further east than it does today.
The individual stones used are not large by the standards, say, of a stone circle, but they are pretty impressive in terms of the effort involved in moving them. The largest are up to about 1m in height and 1m wide, and perhaps half that in thickness. Each has been carefully placed and aligned, and each was packed with smaller stones around its base when it was erected.
The Hill o' Many Stanes is the best preserved of a number of ancient monuments of a type unique to Caithness, and Sutherland. It is generally believed to have been erected some 4,000 years ago, but "believed" seems to the the right word, because little or no real dating evidence has been found for the stones. Proposed uses for the lines of stones have ranged from religious and ceremonial purposes to an astronomical observatory, but once again, no one really knows.
This lack of hard knowledge brings a sense of mystery which adds greatly to the attraction of a visit to the stones: indeed, to be honest, it is the main attraction of a visit. And as you wander around the perimeter of the site it is difficult not to wonder whether the whole thing might not be some antiquarian's practical joke. We'd only know for sure if a future archaeological investigation found the remains of a clay pipe from the 1700s or 1800s under the base of a stone. Or maybe we've just been watching too much Time Team.
Badbea
The clearances of the Scottish highlands during the late 18th and early 19th centuries remains one of the most emotive episodes of Scottish history. The remote settlement of Badbea, perched on cliff tops above the sea, is one of the most notorious locations to have received the dispossessed highlanders, as well as one of the earliest.
Tenants were moved here from 1793 onwards from the inland valleys of Langwell, Berriedale and Ousedale. They were given small plots to farm, the women made cloth, and the men could work at herring fishing on the coast, or on the massive wall that was constructed at the back of the settlement to contain the flocks of sheep that were now stocking the mountain-slopes.
The crofts comprised longhouses (with a byre at the lower end), outbuildings and keilyards. The land could support only small gardens, and each family kept a few cows and pigs. It is difficult to see how 28 families survived here when the settlement was at it height. Traditions tell how children had to be tethered to posts and rocks, as they played, to stop them falling into the sea. The population declined during the 19th century, largely through emigration to America and New Zealand, where the tenants could seek out a better life. A monument that records the names of the early settlers has been built over one of the longhouses, by the family of one such New Zealand emigrant. The last remaining house was abandoned in 1911.
The rights and wrongs of the Highland Clearances continue to be hotly debated. The brutality of the evictions and the destruction of a centuries-old way of life need to be seen against increasing poverty and the declining productivity of the land. Settlements like Badbea were an important transition in the Scottish diaspora.
~BBC