Torridon - Wester Ross - Scotland Summer 2006

Picture of a mountain, clouds just touching the top

Picture of mountain with some sunshine brightening it up, single track road in the foreground

The ray of hope (sunlight) at the end of my visit to Gairloch the previous day turned out to be a false hope: The weather was even worse this day, in addition to the rain it was quite windy, not exactly the weather I was looking for to get out into the hills safely and to see something. But then it was a holiday and I decided to just relax and spent a few hours reading Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre until the early afternoon.

At some point in the afternoon it looked like it was clearing up a little bit, enough to give me the chance to get out a bit. This time I took the single track A896 towards Torridon. Early on I had a surprisingly good view of Beinn Eighe, when the clouds almost lifted from the summit for short time. They soon came down again though. I had a nice view of Sgurr Dubh (782m) on the southern side of the road, when the sun briefly broke through and illuminated it. But I didn't see much of the Munros of Liathach and Beinn Alligin, as the clouds were very low or it was even pouring down with rain when I passed them.

I briefly stopped in Torridon, taking a quick look at the National Trust Torridon Estate visitor centre. From here I took the road out to Diabaig, hoping for some good views on the way.

Picture of a view over a sea loch, the sun breaking through but more rain coming in

For a large part of the way I didn't see much as more clouds and showers passed through, but the sun did break through for a brief moment when I arrived above Diabaig. The sun looked quite dramatic shining on to Loch Diabaig and Loch Torridon, unfortunately I could already see more clouds and rain coming in from the west.

Driving back over the steep hills I noticed that my car's engine was getting hotter than I expected it to, it looked like the engine cooling fan wasn't starting to run when it should. Luckily the owner of the Moru Outdoor Shop was able to point me into the direction of Colin Stevenson in Aultroy who managed to fix it (the connection between the fan and the fan switch was dodgy). Relieved that there wasn't a major problem with the car I returned to the hotel. Would the next day finally bring some better weather?

Picture of a (stranded?) ship on the beach in Lower Diabaig

Previous: Gairloch - Wester Ross <- Scotland Summer 2006 -> Next: Slattadale - Wester Ross