A white cottage with a lit chimney stands above a seaweed shore, a sailboat anchored offshore.

Wester Ross

Plockton

A village of painted cottages curving round a sheltered bay of Loch Carron, with palm trees along the shore and the mountains of Wester Ross behind.

Welcome

In Plockton, a row of neatly painted cottages curves along the shore of a small, sheltered bay near the mouth of Loch Carron; palm trees line the street; and across the water white cottages sit on a craggy, wooded point with the mountains of Wester Ross behind.

Artists have long loved it.

Its past was harder. In the early 1800s the landlord built a fishing port here for families cleared from the land. It boomed with the herring, then fell so poor that it was known as the village of the poor, until the railway came in the 1890s.

Today a few boats still fish for prawns and lobsters, and in summer trips leave the harbour to see the seals. The village had its television fame as the setting for Hamish Macbeth, and every summer its regatta fills the bay with sail.

Before you go

The village is open at all times.

Boat trips, including seal trips, leave from the harbour in summer.

Where: On Loch Carron, off the A87 near Kyle of Lochalsh.
Railway: Plockton station, on the Kyle line.
Regatta: A fortnight from the end of July.

Did you know

A rusted green corrugated shed overlooks a wooded, rocky shoreline in Ross and Cromarty.

Did you know

Hamish Macbeth.

The BBC filmed its drama series Hamish Macbeth in Plockton in the mid-1990s.

The Plockton Hotel's carved sign hangs against a black-and-white stone wall.

Did you know

Village of the poor.

After the herring boom ended, Plockton became known as Baile na Bochdainn, the village of the poor.

Hidden Scotland

From our guide to Wester Ross

Plockton curves round a sheltered bay near the mouth of Loch Carron, a row of painted cottages with cabbage palms along the shore and wooded crags across the water. It began in the early 1800s as a planned fishing village for families moved off the land, and it grew with the herring before hard times set in. Artists have long loved it, and television made it famous as Lochdubh in Hamish Macbeth, which ran on the BBC from 1995 to 1997. Come in summer for the seal trips and the regatta, and stay for a drink by the harbour.

Hidden Scotland

From our guide to Ross and Cromarty

Plockton curves round a small, sheltered bay near the mouth of Loch Carron, with a row of painted cottages along the shore and palm trees by the street. Across the water, white cottages sit on a wooded point with the mountains of Wester Ross behind. It was built as a fishing village in the early 1800s for families cleared from the land, and it knew hard times before the railway came. Artists have long loved it, and television viewers will know it as the setting for Hamish Macbeth. In summer, boat trips leave the harbour to see the seals.

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