On the beach at Durness, NW Scotland

Smoo Bay, Durness, Highlands, Scotland

Loch More, Highlands

Clear blue sky in Durness after breakfast; and wildlife everywhere: rabbits on the lawns, migrating birds and local sparrows feasting on feeders. The feast of topography is immediately apparent, the vertical cliffs and sandy beaches.

Tarbet, Highlands

Glencoul, Highlands

 Kylesku, Highlands

Ullapool port, Highlands

Sunset at Ullapool, Highlands

North-West Highlands
Clear blue sky in Durness after breakfast; and wildlife everywhere: rabbits on the lawns, migrating birds and local sparrows feasting on feeders. The feast of topography is immediately apparent, the vertical cliffs and sandy beaches. The layers of rock are clear to see at the inlet leading to Smoo Cave as are the string of blockhouses that are the remains of the wartime pioneering Chain Home radar system. and now fibre internet has arrived in Durness.
Moving on and inevitably south, the road from Durness to Ullapool is just fantastic. It’s 69 miles if you don’t take any side-trips but continually evolving as you drive. Moorland, granite mountains and sea lochs. Water-lilies grow wild in some of the fresh-water lochs! I took all day, stopping often and hardly leaving sight of the car. The detailed geology is formidable but the effects of thrust faults (Glencoul, Knockan), glaciation and, above all, just the age and variety of the rock, gives a show which is a treat, particularly in exceptionally fine weather such as this.
Ullapool is more accessible than Durness and seems to be a centre for touring. There’s a big camping, lots of pub style hospitality as well as the ferry terminal for the boat to the Isle of Lewis. I found an outdoor seafood shack selling a seat trout salad which I followed with haddock and chips in the sunshine on the harbour wall. The only birds around here seem to be seagulls who regard tourists as sources of food, a wave of my camera strap sorted that out.
And sunset.