Island

Ride & Stride – Day 4: Saturday 10 September – ULLAPOOL to UNAPOOL (60 miles)

The Hebridean Ferry, arrived from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, just docking into Ullapool

What a wonderful place is Ullapool. I have been here a couple of times before, both for one night only, and the last time was back in May 1991 with Rachel. The weather then was fine, as it has been today, starting cloudless and slightly cooler than our previous days on Ride & Stride. I don’t suppose the town has changed very much in three decades; there are still only around 1500 regular inhabitants, though numbers are no doubt swollen in the tourist season. Perhaps there are a few more eating places now, catering in part for the NC500, but the coastal charm remains untarnished and I very much hope to return here for a longer stay.

Loch an an Ais and the hills beyond, from Knockan Crag

I started the day driving north with Peter, in Daisy the camper-van, whilst the other cyclists tackled the first few miles of today’s sector – 50 miles and nearly 1,300 metres, making this another demanding day for them. We stopped at Knockan Crag, where certain Victorian geologists, noticing the older overlying rocks on the Moine thrust-line, came up with the novel theories of folding, faulting and tectonic movement that pioneered a new geological thinking. A must for any geography graduate!

I deposited Peter at Inchnadamph to re-join the cycle tour, then drove the tortuous winding and undulating single-track road around the Lochinver peninsula before parking at Drumbeg. My route, to be covered later by the runners, followed the road for 10 miles over some significant ascents (totalling 480 metres) to our overnight stop at Newton Lodge, Unapool. The stats mean little really (although I will summarise them in a table at the end of our trip) against the beauty of the experience. What a wonderful place the north-western Highlands is on such a wonderfully sunny day as today – the colours and the new vistas around every twist and turn, every climb and descent of the road were really quite stunning, quite extraordinary. The clear air even enabled views over the dozens of miles across the sea to the outer Hebridean Isle of Lewis. The photos speak best:

Climbing out of Drumbeg, past Lochan Daraich, amongst the ‘cnoc and lochan’ landscape of ice-carved water-filled hollows, flanked by rounded and scoured rocky outcrops

Wonderful views from the col above Nedd, with the Isle of Lewis now an almost imperceptible line on the horizon in the early afternoon haze

The buttress of Quinag rising ahead of the coast road

Approaching my destination, above Loch a’ Chàlrn Bhàln (if there is an anglicised translation of this Gaelic name then it doesn’t feature on my map)!

The Ride & Stride runners covering today’s final furlong

This evening we settled into the Newton Lodge dining room for sunset views on Loch Glencoul, over a glass of wine and a seafood supper. It’s fair to say that the Ride & Stride team retired at the end of our fourth day tired but glowing in the achievements of another great day on the wonderful NC500.

Sunset in Unapool, from our dinner table

As for the song of the day, Gerry Rafferty has to be one of my very favourite Scottish musicians – such meaningful self-composed songs, wonderful melodies and sensitive vocals, which along with fine musicianship and production put his best work very close to the top of my particular charts! Rafferty passed away more than a decade ago now, far too young and quite underrated in my view. Today’s Blog title ‘Island’ acknowledges the song of that name from his 1977 album ‘City to City’, and features a great saxophone intro, solo and outro. Island was never released as a single, so if you don’t know the song then perhaps give it a play and you won’t be disappointed! The lyrics open with the following verse: