17/05: Achmore back to Ullapool and onto Kinlochbervie
Category: General
Posted by: The Agnew Family
It took us about 1.5 hours to drive back to Ullapool. The first part of the drive was 1 lane roads which are slower as you either slow way down or stop when you meet a car going the opposite direction. When we hit the two lane roads we made good time. The scenery was nice but nothing like what we saw yesterday. In Ullapool we got back on the NC500 and started driving north.
First stop was the Rhue lighthouse. It's not a big lighthouse and looks even smaller from a distance. We saw this lighthouse as the ferry entered Ullapool harbour yesterday.
We stopped at the Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve in the North West Highlands Geopark. The low cliff of Knockan exposes rocks that set the scientific world ablaze in the 19th century, with the discovery that a slice of old rock sits on top of much younger ones. Rocks here are 500 million years old. The crag was formed by the Moine Thrust, the force of two continents crashing together. That's me walking on the trail --- the high wind make it a little chilly.
Looking down at one of the lakes you could see from the trail.
A view from near the top.
Two views of ruins of Ardvreck Castle, standing on a rocky promontory in Loch Assynt. The structure dates from about 1490 and is associated with the then landowners, the Macleods of Assynt. Thanks Wikipedia.
A little water falls across the road from the castle parking.
Ed got tired of wiping rain drops off the camera lens before you could take a picture so he switched to the cell phone. The cell phone does a great job in adverse weather conditions.
If the view looked pretty and there was parking we'd stop and take a photo.
Near Kylesku Bridge.
I think this rock is beautiful. The grey rock, Lewisian Gneiss formed deep inside the earth's crust. The rocks got so hot down there that they almost melted. Later on, other molten rock forced it's way through the gneiss and eventually hardened. The black rock (dolerite) and the pink (granite) have penetrated the grey gneiss.
First stop was the Rhue lighthouse. It's not a big lighthouse and looks even smaller from a distance. We saw this lighthouse as the ferry entered Ullapool harbour yesterday.
We stopped at the Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve in the North West Highlands Geopark. The low cliff of Knockan exposes rocks that set the scientific world ablaze in the 19th century, with the discovery that a slice of old rock sits on top of much younger ones. Rocks here are 500 million years old. The crag was formed by the Moine Thrust, the force of two continents crashing together. That's me walking on the trail --- the high wind make it a little chilly.
Looking down at one of the lakes you could see from the trail.
A view from near the top.
Two views of ruins of Ardvreck Castle, standing on a rocky promontory in Loch Assynt. The structure dates from about 1490 and is associated with the then landowners, the Macleods of Assynt. Thanks Wikipedia.
A little water falls across the road from the castle parking.
Ed got tired of wiping rain drops off the camera lens before you could take a picture so he switched to the cell phone. The cell phone does a great job in adverse weather conditions.
If the view looked pretty and there was parking we'd stop and take a photo.
Near Kylesku Bridge.
I think this rock is beautiful. The grey rock, Lewisian Gneiss formed deep inside the earth's crust. The rocks got so hot down there that they almost melted. Later on, other molten rock forced it's way through the gneiss and eventually hardened. The black rock (dolerite) and the pink (granite) have penetrated the grey gneiss.