Day 14 – to Betty Hill, Scottish North coast (only 56 miles)

Despite the short ride, we had an earlier start this morning. Simon had ventured out before breakfast to get some cash (the B&B wouldn't take cards). Luckily, the local convenience store had a cash point and opened at 6:30.

We were on the road by 8:30 and quickly reached Lairg, a little town about 12 miles down the road. There appeared to be more B&Bs than in Betty Hill and slightly more restaurants/cafés – than Bonar Bridge only had two eating establishment. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing this when we booked our accommodation for last night...

From Lairg, the “A” road narrowed down to a single lane, with frequent signposted passing points. The climb over to Loch Naver was long and gradual, an we quickly overtook our second solo cyclist for the trip. By 11:15 we had already covered over 33 miles and had reached Altnaharra, which some fellow LE-JOGers had told us was the only place for lunch before Betty Hill. The pub didn't look very open – we subsequently discovered that the place was closed down 3 years ago.

As we were both fairly cold and wet (there was intermittent rain with only occasional sunshine), and faced nothing but wilderness before Betty Hill, Simon decided to sprint to our final destination for a hot lunch before the pub kitchen closed. We made fairly good progress, although we had to stop a couple of times to re-inflate the front tyre as a result of a slow leak (a failed patching attempt).

When the sun came out, the views across Loch Naver to Ben Kilbreck were amazing. The only blight on the landscape were the occasional dense (and often rather sick-looking) pine plantations. The logging trucks scared us a little on the single lane roads – we heard one had overturned near to Bonar Bridge yesterday.



We reached our final destination at just after 1:00, where we both got a warm lunch while drying out in front of an open fire. On hindsight, it would have been good to push on for a further 30 miles or so this afternoon – but we booked our hotel over a month ago.

We ended up chatting to a local historian over lunch who recommended the local museum and some walks. In the end, we have had a relaxing afternoon learning about the McKay Clan and the Clearances followed by a walk across Farr beach in the sun.