Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Timespan Heritage Centre
Dunrobin St • March-Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; Nov-Feb Tues 2-4pm, Sat-Sun 11am-4pm • £4 •
T
01431 821327,
W
timespan.org.uk
Good looks and sleepy ambience aside, the appeal of Helmsdale is the
Timespan
Heritage Centre
beside the river. An ambitious venture for a place this size, the modern
museum tells the story of Viking raids, crofting in recreated houses, the Kildonan Gold
Rush, Clearances and fishing through high-tech displays, including Wii-based games to
navigate animations of local yarns, and audio tours. It also has an art gallery.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
HELMSDALE
By train
On the Inverness-Thurso line (Mon-Sat 3 daily, Sun
2 daily; 2hr 20min from Inverness, 1hr 15min from Thurso).
Tourist information
Strath Ullie Crafts on the harbour
doubles as a source of tourist information (Mon-Sat
10am-5.30pm;
T
01431 821402). Otherwise, visit
W
helmsdale.org.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
On our last visit the once-excellent
Bridge Hotel
was awaiting sale. Hopefully, a new owner will restore its restaurants
and accommodation.
Helmsdale Hostel
Stafford St
T
08701 553255,
W
helmsdalehostel.co.uk.
Snug from panelled walls
and wood floors as much as a woodburner in the lounge,
this is a friendly wee hostel with room for fourteen guests
in two dorms or tw
o roo
ms, m
ost w
ith single beds. Closed
Oct-Easter. Dorms
£17
; twins
£45
.
La Mirage
Dunrobin St
T
01431 821615.
Not quite “The
North's Premier Restaurant” as it claims, but possibly the
most bizarre due to the decor of a former proprietor who
styled herself after Barbara Cartland. The menu, although
dated, is solid: fish or scampi and chips, gammon steaks,
even chicken Kiev (average £9).
Daily 11am-9pm.
12
Lybster and around
Another neat planned village,
LYBSTER
(pronounced “libe-ster”) was established at
the height of the nineteenth-century herring boom. Two hundred boats once
worked out of its picturesque small harbour, a story told in the
Water Lines
heritage
centre here (May-Sept daily 11am-5pm; £2.50 donation requested).
Grey Cairns Of Camster
7 miles north of Lybster on a side road (to Roster)
Prehistoric sites litter the coast north to Wick - evidence of a past as fertile farmland
before it was smothered by a blanket of peat bog in the Bronze Age. he most
impressive are the
Grey Cairns of Camster
: surrounded by moorland, these two
enormous reconstructed burial chambers were originally built five thousand years ago
with corbelled dry-stone roofs in their hidden chambers.
Whaligoe staircase
On the A99, at the north end of Ulbster
Go ten miles north of Lybster to the north end of the village of
Ulbster
, then turn
towards the sea opposite a sign to “Cairn o'Get” to find the little-known
Whaligoe
staircase
. Its 365 uneven steps lead steeply down from beside a car park to a natural
harbour surrounded by high cliffs. It's an atmospheric spot that feels far more remote
than the road suggests, all wheeling sea birds and empty sea. Just be glad you don't have
to haul baskets full of herring back up as the village's fisherwomen once did.
Wick
Since it was founded by Vikings as
Vik
(meaning “bay”),
WICK
has lived by the sea. It's
actually two towns: Wick proper and, south across the river,
Pultneytown
, created by
the British Fisheries Society in 1806 to encourage evicted crofters to take up fishing. By