Backblip: Not so hairy

The weather at Grummore was windy - even a tad wild, and cloud appeared not long after we settled there. It rained a little in the night but did not disturb us too much. The wind kept the wee beasties at bay. 

We waved goodbye to the friendly wardens and the beautiful loch and headed off towards Forest #5 for our  next overnight stop.

Forest #3 was at Ferry Wood and the Ord, just on the edge of Lairg. This call represented our second change in plans as by this time we had opened up a window in our itinerary. Mr L had spotted the Visitor Centre on his tourist map and so we elected to call in and make better use of the time scheduled for shopping in Lairg itself.

What a joy the Visitor Centre was! A real exemplar. We bought birthday cards from the good selection on offer and collected a few useful leaflets. They sold decent coffee and good ice cream too :-)

We set off in slightly overcast conditions, warm and humid, to walk Nell in the woods along the loch. The longer loch-side trail that we had wanted to do was closed due to fallen trees from last winter's storm damage (the major theme of our trip, it seems). We attempted to make our way but were beaten back in the end to complete the shorter trail... in time to almost escape the rain that came on. Midge Quotient: Low

The grounds around the visitor centre are populated with wood carvings of various beasts. I include the hairy coo here as it was our only sighting of anything like a Heilan' Coo in our whole week! I head set off from Orkney uttering the words: "a photo of a lone hairy coo is de rigeur for this trip!"

Rosehall forest was scheduled for overnighting but we called in at Raven's Rock Gorge on our way. Here we set off once more on the longer trail... to find it closed by storm damage. We picked our way back  and did the shorter/easier route to the bottom of the gorge instead. 

Lovely place, well worth a visit. Midge Quotient was Low.

As is Rosehall Trails (not to be confused with Forest #2, Rosal). We did the Pine Marten Trail, in damp conditions, before dinner and a very peaceful night's sleep. Midge Quotient: bearable.


9th September Backblip
10th September Backblip
11th September Backblip