Loch a Choire

You really feel in the mountains here, maybe more so than anywhere else south of Skye. The surrounding hills positively invite you to jump up them directly from the deck they seem so close. An evening stroll around the head of the loch is a delight. Kingairloch House and the surrounding estate seem mysteriously affluent and everything is very trim for such a remote part of the mainland, even the little roads are well surfaced. Maybe loads of money is made from the Glensanda coastal quarry which like the estate is owned by the Yeoman and Larson families. There are a lot of self-catering cottages as well as catered accommodation in the big house itself. In 2009 a restaurant opened in the old boathouse, just by the anchorage on the north shore (ph 01967 411 232). Only at weekends, but not it seems in the middle of September when I was last there, which seemed slightly surprising. They have put down six free moorings, so I must try again in the summer. By the moorings is an old broken down graveyard, but with some more recent cairns mostly to members of the Strutt family who must have been big round here. Indeed the late Mrs Patricia Strutt was one of the most formidable deer stalkers in Scotland it seems.

There is a walk to Kingairloch village along the road, but it is a very minor one. There you will find a surprisingly well looked after church, right on the beach (Camas na Croise). Mid 19th century. I wonder who keeps the brass so gleaming bright.