Late Afternoon in the Strath

Dover - Shetland Day 36
Tomich (Nr Lairg) to Bettyhill

Distance cycled: today 76.0km, total 2,145.9km
Ascent: today 489m, 14,767m

Highlight: top tip from the owner of the quirky Crask Inn, my first stop of the day around 25km north of Lairg. By taking the road alongside Loch Naver and the river from it to the sea at Bettyhill, today's destination, it saved me 10km and about 6 steep hills en route.

Lowlight: my planned lunch stop at Altnaharra Inn didn't happen, with food and drink off the menu, with chaos evident as apparently the manager's house had burnt down. I consoled myself with the emergency Scotch egg I had kept for such an emergency. Was ready for the splendid meal at the Bettyhill hotel at the end of the ride.

What else? My largely deserted route on low traffic single track roads took me through Strath Naver for the last 25km or so. This fertile valley had had a significant population for at least 6,000 years until the brutal forced eviction of 100s of tenant farmers in the early 1800s to be replaced by sheep. The upper part of the valley remains almost deserted, although a few farms were in evidence lower down.

Photo: this glorious beach scene at the mouth of the river Naver also shows a farm house ruin surrounded by sheep in the foreground.