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Photograph by Alistair Pryde of Words & Pictures,
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Ask
not for whom the hound roos; she roos for thee.
(From:
"Send not to know for whom the bell tolls,
it tolls for thee." John Donne, 1624)
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Tara on the
main A836,
just outside Altnaharra |
At
Dunnet Head - furthest point North on the British
mainland |
Us at John o' Groats - one end of
the longest distance between two inhabited
British points on the mainland, with Land's End
in Cornwall lying 876 mi (1,410 km) southwest |
May began as April ended – with the clearing
up after the renderers had departed. What a mess
they left! However, with the help of the great
local tradesmen we know, things have got sorted
out more or less. The grass is still a bit of a
mess, with lumps of dried render all over the
place, but apart from that we’re happy.
It’s late May as we’re writing this,
and we’re still in Altnaharra as we reach
the end of our anniversary celebration break.
Last evening we had our traditional dinner at the
Altnaharra Hotel – we’ve been doing
this since 1990! And it didn’t disappoint.
In 1994, we had Hannah with us in her carrycot
and this year we had Tara with us on her rug. A
lovely meal with lovely people in a lovely place.
We got into conversation with Walter, the
ghillie, who regaled us with fabulous stories
from his 62 year in the job. A ghillie is a
person who is employed to advise and support
visitors’ fishing (in this case) and
hunting. Fascinating. We also got talking to a
guy working on the Creag Riabhach wind farm site,
which was very interesting indeed – hearing
how they transport the 22 huge generator units
from Inverness here, by road, was amazing. He
though it would be working later this year and as
we drove passed the site we could see that they
were well on the way.
Earlier in the month, we had a new garage door
fitted – the old one was about 30 years old
and was, frankly, knackered! The new one is very
swish and quiet! We went for dinner with Hannah
and Ben (and Tara) to the Kings Lodge Inn in
Durham (used to be Finnbar’s) which was
brilliant. Ian went to a conference in Edinburgh
with UHI, involving his first train journey since
before the lockdowns started.
So, we have decided to complete the Six Points
Tour at long last! Regular visits to this website
(and we know you’re out there) might
remember that some years ago we planned a road
trip visiting the four furthest compass points on
the UK mainland, plus the two points furthest
apart (hence Six Points). For many reasons we
never did it, but we are now determined to
complete it. As a start, and while we were up at
the top end of the country, we did John
O’Groats and Dunnet Head (furthest North) so
that’s a third of it completed. We intend to
do Ness Point (furthest East) or Ardnamurchan
Point (furthest West) later this year and then
the last three next year. Our progress on that
plan will be shown on our travel blog that can be
found via the Adventures link in the menu on the
left.
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| Today
is: |
2022 |
| Site
last updated: |
Friday,
June 03 2022 |
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