Struie – The Dornoch Firth from Above and Lunch in Tain
A few hours.
The route
High on the Struie road, a lay-by known as the Million Dollar View looks down the length of the Dornoch Firth to the Kyle of Sutherland and the hills beyond.
On the way back down, a tall stone carved by the Picts stands in a field at Edderton, and lunch is at Platform 1864, a pub and restaurant in Tain's restored station building.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Links House at Royal Dornoch in Dornoch, 5 miles away.
The day
Struie
A morning by car on the south side of the Dornoch Firth: a big view from the hill road, a short walk across a field to a stone the Picts carved, and an unhurried lunch beside the railway in Tain.
About 0.5 miles on foot
Struie Hill Viewpoint
An attraction
The viewpoint is a lay-by on the B9176, the Struie road, about two miles from the A836 junction at Fearn. From the low stone wall, with its stone pillar and indicator plate, you look west along the Dornoch Firth past woods and green fields to where it narrows into the Kyle of Sutherland and winds off into the hills. The whole firth is a National Scenic Area, and the road you came up was the A836 until the Dornoch Firth Bridge opened in 1991.
12 min by car
Clach Biorach
An attraction
It's about 12 minutes' drive down the hill and east to Edderton. Park at the village hall and walk 300 metres along Station Road, where the pavement runs out in places, then through a gate and 100 metres over rough grazing. Clach Biorach, the pointed stone, is over three metres tall and most likely Neolithic or Bronze Age, far older than the salmon and double disc and Z-rod the Picts carved on it. Local tradition says it marks the grave of Carius, a Danish prince killed in a skirmish with the Picts.
11 min by car
Platform 1864
Lunch
It's about 11 minutes' drive on to Tain station, with parking beside the platforms. Platform 1864 is the old station building, boarded up for over thirty years until Graham, a Tain man trained as a chef from a young age, opened it as a pub and restaurant in 2015. Rail signs and framed timetables hang inside, many of them given by people who remember the old station. By day it's a family place for breakfast, a pub meal or something lighter, with a beer garden and room for children to play.
If it rains
On a wet or grey day, go straight to Platform 1864 for a long lunch under its roof and keep the hill road for a clear morning.
On the way
- Balblair Distillery
Balblair Distillery is a few minutes' drive from Edderton Village Hall. Whisky has been made here since 1790, with only a short pause in the Second World War, and it is released as vintages, named for the year it was distilled rather than for its age. Tours walk you round the old buildings and end with a tasting, and are best booked ahead: ring 01862 821273.
Greens Restaurant, a restaurant in Tain.
Photograph by Luka J via Google
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