The north and northwest Highlands - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 255

ACTIVITIES
EcoVentures Off Bank Street, opposite Sutor Creek
T 01381 600323, W ecoventures.co.uk. Sails from the
harbour in a powerful RIB out through the Sutor stacks

to the Moray Firth to see the resident bottlenose dolphins
and other wildlife up to three times daily (2hr; £25).

ACCOMMODAT ION AND EATING
Royal Hotel Marine Terrace T 01381 600217, W royal
cromartyhotel.co.uk. On the seafront just behind the
harbour, this traditional inn provides fairly bland but
perfectly acceptable rooms which overlook the Firth.
Superiors provide the most character through a mi x and
match of antique furnishings and more modern decor. £110
Ì Sutor Creek 21 Bank St T 01381 600855, W sutor
creek.co.uk. A lovely café-restaurant full of laidback
seaside charm. It focuses on local and seasonal food,
whether light lunches (£6-10) or excellent dinners like

Shetland scallops with black pudding. The same ethos
carries into posh pizzas, best washed down with Black
Isle Brewery beers. A gem. May-Aug daily 11am-9pm;
Sept-April Wed-Sun 11am-9pm.
Sydney House High St T 01381 600451, W sydney
house.co.uk. Antique wood or iron beds and pretty
dressing tables are typical of the furnishings picked up over
the years by the owners to lend character to the three
en-suites in their smart redbrick house just off H igh St.
The best rooms look out over the rear gardens. £70

Strathpeffer
Visitors first came to this leafy Victorian spa town to take the waters. In the 1970s
and 1980s they arrived with coach tours to wallow in its faded glamour. Now
STRATHPEFFER is restyling itself again as a place for activities in the surrounding hills,
with a focus - ironically - on “wellbeing” that sees it return to its origins as a renowned
European health resort . All manner of guests disembarked from the Strathpeffer Spa
Express train: George Bernard Shaw, Emmeline Pankhurst (who caused a scandal with a
lecture on women's rights) and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt on honeymoon.
Renovation has transformed the town's Victorian grand hall into an arts centre and
upgraded the adjacent Upper Pump Room (April-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun
2-5pm; donation), where displays narrate the spa's history.
For all the appeal of the village's faded grandeur, it's the hills that will make you stay.
Within striking distance is Ben Wyvis , an approachable Munro usually scaled without
complication from GARBAT , six miles west of Strathpeffer, in five hours. Another excellent

4

WALKS AND RIDES AROUND STRATHPEFFER
Ordnance Survey Explorer map 437
From the southern end of Strathpeffer, a two- to three-hour walk leads to the remains of a
vitrified Iron-Age fort at Knock Farril . The first part of the walk is through woodland; after
a mile, turn up onto the ridge above and follow it northeast along the crest of the hill known
as the Cat's Back. The trees thin out to offer great views of the Cromarty Firth as you reach the
hillfort. Before you get to the ridge is Touchstone Maze , built as a local arts project in 1992
- its eighty stones are intended to represent the rock types of the Highlands. A path also leads
directly to the maze from near the old train station in Strathpeffer.
The Rogie Falls are two miles north of Contin on the main A835 to Braemore. They're well
signposted and it's a short walk from the car park to where the Black Water froths down a
stretch of rocks and mini-gorges, in one place plunging 26ft. Salmon leap upriver in high
summer, particularly at a fish ladder built by the toughest rapids. A suspension bridge over the
river leads to some waymarked forest trails, including a five-mile loop to View Rock , at a point
only 160ft above sea level, but which has great views of the local area. Contin Forest holds
several fun mountain-bike trails too, including a rooty, rocky, red-grade ten-mile track.
The most ambitious hike in this area is up Ben Wyvis , a huge mass of mountain just north. The
high point is Glas Lethad Mor (3432ft), which means, rather prosaically, “Big Greenish-Grey Slope”.
The most common route is through Garbat Forest, leaving the road just south of Garbat itself,
staying on the north bank of the Allt a'Bhealaich Mhoir stream to get onto the southwestern end
of the long summit ridge at the minor peak of An Cabar.