The Assynt Loop – Beaches, a Broch and a Castle
A day by car, from Lochinver and back.
The route
Assynt, in the north-west of Sutherland, is a rocky land of lochs and heather where the mountains rise one at a time, Suilven, Quinag and Canisp, and the coast breaks into little bays of white sand.
This is a day's loop from Lochinver, its main village. The drive is as much the point as the places. The coast road by Drumbeg is single track, steep and twisting, with a new view at every crest, and the day is planned around it. There's time on the beaches, at an Iron Age broch and a ruined clan castle, and for a long lunch by the water at Kylesku. It's a day for a car or a small campervan rather than a big motorhome.
Before you go
Book a bed near Lochinver the night before
The whole day fits the daylight from mid-February to late October; in the short days of winter drop Knockan Crag, and in snow or ice skip the coast road by Drumbeg. Assynt's beds are few and go early: Discover Assynt, the community's website, lists them.
Book a table at the Kylesku Hotel
Lunch is served daily from noon to 5pm and walk-ins are welcome only when there is room, so ring 01971 910047 before you leave Lochinver for a table at about one o'clock.
The day
Assynt
The day leaves Lochinver at nine for white sand at Achmelvich, with Suilven behind you. By lunchtime the coast road has carried you over the hills to Kylesku, and the afternoon comes home inland, past Loch Assynt, to Lochinver by early evening.
2 hr 26 min at the wheelAbout 73 miles
Achmelvich
An attraction
Fill up at the petrol station on Main Street, as there's no fuel on the loop. Then it's 12 minutes' drive north on the B869 and down a narrow, twisting road to Achmelvich. The white sand is mostly crushed shell, and on a bright day the water turns turquoise over it. Walk over the headland to the quieter beach beyond. Hermit's Castle, a tiny concrete hideaway of 1950, is a scramble over the rocks to the west: leave it in the wet. Driving out, look inland for Suilven.
15 min on foot
Clachtoll beach and broch
Drive 16 minutes north to Clachtoll, a sandy bay between two headlands. From the beach car park, the broch, an Iron Age stone tower, is about a kilometre along the shore, 15 minutes' walk each way. The path crosses rough rock above the sea: keep back from the edge, and leave it in a gale or when it is wet. Two thousand years ago the broch was a farming household's home, until the tower fell. Its walls still stand about three metres high in places: please keep off them.
1 hr by car
Kylesku Bridge
An attraction
It's 60 minutes' drive by Clashnessie and Drumbeg: single track, steep and twisting, with blind crests. Pull into a passing place on your left to let others by, or wait opposite one on your right, and never park in one. In a big motorhome, or in snow or ice, go round from Lochinver by the A837 and A894, about half an hour. Cross Kylesku Bridge to its north car park for the whole curve of it, then come back for lunch at the Kylesku Hotel by the old ferry slip.
11 min by car
Ardvreck Castle
An attraction
Drive 11 minutes south on the A894. A mile on, the Rock Stop at Unapool has a free exhibition: the North West Highlands Geopark's website lists its days. At Skiag Bridge turn for Inchnadamph, park by the A837 and walk 5 minutes to Ardvreck, built by the MacLeods about five hundred years ago on a neck of land in Loch Assynt. In 1650, the story goes, the Marquis of Montrose was held here. Keep off its walls, and see the roofless Calda House, by the road, only from outside.
22 min by car
Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve
An attraction
Give Knockan Crag two hours of daylight, with the drive home: from late October to mid-February, go home from Ardvreck instead. It's 22 minutes' drive south by Ledmore. Here the rocks are in the wrong order: older schist was pushed along the Moine Thrust over far younger limestone. The open-air Rock Room tells the story, and on the Thrust Trail, about half an hour, you can lay a hand on both. In Lochinver, 40 minutes' drive, An Cala (not Sundays) and Delilah's (not Thursdays or Sundays) serve dinner: ring first.
If it rains
Assynt has little under a roof, so a wet day here is mostly a day of views from the car. Keep the drive and the long lunch at the Kylesku Hotel, and on the days it opens, the Rock Stop's free exhibition at Unapool is the one place indoors. In heavy rain leave out the scramble to Hermit's Castle and the shore path to the broch, where the rock is slippery, and give Knockan Crag a miss, as its Rock Room is open to the weather. Ardvreck is only 5 minutes' walk from the road.
Worth a detour
- The Bone Caves
For a walk in place of Knockan Crag, the path to the Bone Caves leaves a car park beside the A837, about two and a half miles south of Inchnadamph and 7 minutes' drive from Ardvreck. It climbs the limestone glen of the Allt nan Uamh, the burn of the caves, where the bones of reindeer, bears and lynx have been found. It is about five kilometres there and back, mostly on a good path, with a steep last climb across a slope: wear boots and allow two hours or more. That is an hour more than Knockan Crag, so give it three hours of daylight from Ardvreck, with the drive home of about half an hour. It suits older children, not a pushchair.
Where to eat
Kylesku Hotel Restaurant, a restaurant in Kylesku.
Photograph by David Cameron via Google