Wednesday 11 July – Alness to Dornoch – day 78
We knew today would be a long day, and we had to get to a point about 22km away by 2pm, so we went for a very early breakfast and go off to our earliest start yet – 7.40am! With Val still yawning (Peter was OK; he had had the benefit of coffee!) we set off along minor roads on our way towards Dornoch.
Our morning’s walk was all minor roads, nothing very exciting to report really. The only village we went through today was Tain, where we found the lovely Sunflower Café, serving hot drinks and tasty scones and shortbread – a welcome break after about 20km of walking. The café certainly lived up to its name – sunflower yellow décor with everything inside continuing the sunflower theme – cushions, pictures, cruet set, you name it, it had sunflowers on it !
And so to the big event of the day – a tour of the Glenmorangie Distillery! Peter was indeed a happy camper when he realised that this could be included on our itinerary, as he loves their whiskies. You have to book the tours, hence our need to be there for 2pm. And it was well worth it. We had a very entertaining young tour guide to show us around, and of course at the end you get to sample the product! A wee dram was served to each of us, with instructions on how best to savour the smell and taste.
From here, it was just another 12km to our destination. (If you say it quickly it doesn’t hurt your feet so much!) We did manage to get away from the roads a little, with a bit of time cutting up through a farm track, but mostly more minor road walking until we reached the bridge over Dornoch Firth. We had to join the A9 and all its traffic for a couple of kilometres in the run up to the bridge. Fortunately the bridge itself had a nice pedestrian friendly pavement, then back to roadside walking until we could cut back to another minor road to take us in to Dornoch itself. By 5pm we were very glad to see our accommodation for the night – The Old Manse B and B – a fine looking building dating back to 1883.
A quick shower and change and off in to the village centre to grab a table and some food at the local before ‘the big game’ started – yes, England vs Croatia was on tonight and we knew it would be busy anywhere that was screening the game! Our meals at the Eagle Hotel were excellent, the service was fabulous, and England played well but sadly lost.
On the plus side, our quick peek at Dornoch showed it to be a very good-looking village, sandstone buildings, wide streets decorated with hanging baskets, a thirteenth century cathedral (the smallest in Scotland we believe). Yet another place worth a second visit and further exploring!
Five days, 132km / 82 miles to go!
Distance toady: 32km / 20 miles.
OUR FAVOURITES
Favourite half-day walks:
Dovedale, Peak District
Gorgeous valley walk following the River Dove
Fort Augustus to invermoriston, Great Glen Way:
Superb views out over Loch Ness
Any canal walks
Always a favourite – tranquil and peaceful
Bridestowe to Okehampton, Devon
Along the Granite Way following an old railway line by Dartmoor (In fact, any rail trail would also do!)
Hidden Valley (Kinlochleven to Fort William, West Highland Way)
The Scottish version of a walk in the Swiss Alps
Devil’s Staircase (Glencoe, West Highland Way)
Fabulous views of Glen Coe
Dufton to Cross Fell, Pennine Way
The high point of the walk
Cotswold Way
Any half day would do
Scrumpy to Scotch 