The north and northwest Highlands - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 227

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 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.

Lochcarron
With supermarkets, cafés, a bank and fuel, LOCHCARRON represents a major hub
hereabouts. While it's of more use than interest, two crafty 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 displaying and 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.

4

ARRIVAL AND INFORMAT ION LOCHCARRON

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 coordinated 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 the time you read this (Easter-Oct
Mon-Sat 10am-5pm).

ACCOMMODAT ION 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 a
tired pebble-dashed exterior suggests - spotless, comfort-
able 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