Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Station Bunkhouse
Opposite train station
T
01599
544235,
E
mickcoe@btinternet.com.
A pleasant wee
bunkhouse bang opposite the railway station, with rather
cramped six-bed dorms and better four-bed dorms popular
with families, all below a pleasant open-plan kitchen and
living area. Check-in i
s at t
he same owner's
Nessun Dorma
B&B next door. Dorms
£14
EATING AND DRINKING
Plockton Inn
Innes St
T
01599 544222.
The locals'
choice offers excellent lunches like watercress and sweet-
potato soup or smoked trout pâté, then a fine evening
menu of fresh seafood, often from the inn's own smokery.
Good vegetarian options too, and music on Tues and Thurs
evenings.
Daily noon-2.30pm & 6-11.30pm; food
served noon-2.30pm & 6-9pm.
Plockton Shores
30 Harbour St
T
01599 544263.
Metropolitan-styled café-restaurant that starts the day
as a relaxed coffee and lunch stop, then shifts up a gear
for modern Scottish, European-flavoured dishes like
monkfish in a light Talikser whisky-and-fennel sauce.
Tues-Sun
9.30am-9pm
(closed
Sun
eve
Nov-Easter).
Loch Carron
North of Plockton are the twin sea lochs of
Loch Kishorn
, so deep it was once used as
an oil-rig construction site, and
Loch Carron
, which cuts far inland to
STRATHCARRON
, a useful rail link between Kyle of Lochalsh and Torridon but little
else. If you're arriving from the south by car, however, you pass
Attadale Gardens
(April to mid-Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5.30pm; £6;
T
01520 722603,
W
attadalegardens.
com), made up of twenty artistically landscaped acres ranked among Scotland's finest
gardens by horticultural aficionados.
12
Lochcarron
With supermarkets, cafés, a bank and fuel,
LOCHARRON
represents a major hub
hereabouts. While it's of more use than interest, two craft sights warrant a pause. A
mile north of town on the main road, the
Lochcarron
Old
Smiddy Heritage Centre
(Easter-Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5pm), a nineteenth-century smithy and forge, is open
erratically in season but has become a focus for local
crafts collectives
, with two halls
selling weaving and quilting, pottery, painting and woodwork. More celebrated are the
tartans of
Lochcarron Weavers
(
T
01520 722212,
W
lochcarronweavers.co.uk). You can
see weaving demonstrations (and buy fabrics and clothing) in its workshop a mile
south of Lochcarron towards Strome Castle.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
LOCH CARRON
By rail
Strathcarron is on the Kyle-Inverness line (Mon-
Sat 4 daily, Sun 2 daily): trains run from/to Inverness (1h
45m) and Kyle (40min).
By bus
Timetables are co-ordinated so that buses meet
train arrivals at Strathcarron. Services run to Lochcarron
from Shieldaig (Mon-Fri 1 daily; 1hr) and Torridon (Mon-
Sat 1 daily; 1hr)
Tourist information
Due to move on our last visit, the
information point should be in the crafts collective at the
Old Smiddy by 2014 (Easter-Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5pm).
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Ì
Kishorn Seafood Bar
Kishorn, 6 miles north of
Lochcarron
T
01520 733240.
A bright, informal café
named in the top-ten British seafood restaurants by one
national newspaper for local and fresh seafood. Come
for sharing platters (£25 for two), Skye mussels or just
garlic scallops and a croissant (£8).
March-June & Oct-
Nov Mon-Thurs, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm, Fri
10am-9pm; July-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-9pm, Sun
10am-5pm.
Old Manse
Church St, Lochcarron
T
01520 722208,
W
theoldmanselochcarron.com.
Floral fabrics, pine
furniture and wrought-iron beds - country style rules in
the five spacious rooms of the Old Manse, on the road to
Strome Castle. Perhaps its real appeal is the locatio
n be
fore
the loch - £10 extra buys you a room with a view.
£60
Rockvilla Hotel
Main St, Lochcarron
T
01520 722379,
W
therockvilla.com.
Refurbished in 2013 to offer smart
(if slightly bland) small-hotel decor, this is far better than
the tired pebble-dashed exterior suggests - spotless,
comfortable en-suites, posh toiletries plus mod cons like
flatscreen TVs, iPod dock
s an
d wi-fi. It also has a licensed
restaurant. Easter-Sept.
£79