Wednesday 9th October, 2024 – Gairloch, Inverewe, Badachro

Distance driven: 36.0 miles
Time at the wheel: 1 hour 14 minutes
Heiland coos spotted: 0

After the previous day, Wednesday started out looking like it would be an easy day without much in the way of driving. The initial plan was to go a few miles in one direction to visit Inverewe Gardens and Pool House, and then a short drive in the other direction to the local museum, and thereafter a distillery visit. Over a light breakfast in the hotel, we considered the weather and check the forecast. It was pretty gloomy but the rain was meant to stop early on. We decided that as Inverewe is National Trust for Scotland, we’d head there anyway because it wasn’t going to cost us to get in. That meant we could always go back the following day if we got rained off. As we arrived at the visitor centre there was a short, sharp downpour, but then it stopped and the weather gradually brightened.

Inverewe gardens were created from scratch by Osgood Mackenzie starting in 1862, and cover 850 hectares (2,100 acres). You would have to be mad to even think about planting a garden in such an exposed location, but Mackenzie started by planting a shield of large trees and shrubs around the perimeter to provide shelter for a massive collection of exotic plants, around 2,500 of them. He kept right on going for a further 60 years, and then his daughter, Mairi Sawyer, inherited it, eventually giving in to the Trust in 1952. We had arrived out of the main season, but there was still much to see, especially in the walled garden where dahlias and sunflowers and even sweet peas were still going strong. The rhododendron walk was not exactly a riot of colour in terms of flowers and I would love to see it in the spring, but with autumn exposing the trunks, I was struck by just how intriguing their shapes were, and the bark is beautiful and tactile. I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to visit at any time of year, even though the house and gallery were closed for the winter. I got chatting to the staff and I’m told the visitor centre closes at the end of October, but the café (Oscar’s) and the garden remain open. Apparently there’s an “honesty box” for visitors to donate should they wish to during the winter.

Pool House proved to be a no go. We had thought it might be but their description of their opening hours on their website was so convoluted we couldn’t figure out if the place would or would not be open. As it was so close to Inverewe we didn’t mind too much. Seemingly it’s not open on Wednesdays, possibly it’s not open at all unless you book a guided tour, possibly there’s a separate exhibition about Mary, Queen of Scots, but it may be in the actual house. After several read throughs I’m still no wiser. Maybe if you go, you’ll have better luck. We headed instead for the splendid Gairloch Heritage Museum. This is housed inside what used to be a nuclear bomb proof Anti-Aircraft Operations Room (AAOR), built in the 1950s as the Cold War ramped up.

The conversion is relatively new, the museum moving from its original, too small, home in July 2019. It’s a really good museum, with exhibition space, a café, and it even offers free genealogy and research services. And as with every museum we visited, the staff were wonderfully helpful, and very keen to make sure we didn’t miss anything that might interest us. There was a lot of local history, some of it quite alarming. For example, there is material about Gruinard Island, half a mile off-shore. Because of the way the area round Loch Ewe was under the control of the military, the island was use to experiment on sheep using anthrax in the early 1940s. This was done to test the potential of anthrax for chemical warfare! The information placards informed us that Gruinard Island was not cleared of contamination until 1990. There is also another lighthouse lamp inside – this one from the Rubh Re lighthouse. 

There is also an outdoor section to the museum leading to the sites of a number of Iron Age roundhouses, the first one very close to the Museum, the others requiring you to take a couple of hours walking. Sadly, as the weather was now so much better than at the start of the day, we didn’t have time to cover that as well. We needed to make our way to Badachro Distillery for a tour. We’d missed out on the first week when we were on the east coast where most of the distilleries are, largely because we didn’t want to go encourage the corporate players (many of them are owned by the same company, Diageo). Instead we opted for this small business (with big plans) in the tiny village of Badachro.  Instead of cod, the local fishers now catch lobsters, crab and langoustines while tourism also brings money in. Apparently Queen Victoria visited the Shieldaig Lodge Hotel in 1877, but never made it to Badchro because the roads were too bad. I’m not wholly convinced they’re any better now. It’s only about three miles from the main road, but it took us around 12 minutes driving time to get there and there were some distinctly white-knuckle moments.

The distillery is run by a couple, Vanessa and Gordon, who met at the local pub. Neither of them had a background in drink production (he worked in advertising, she worked for the German Foreign Office in London) and they probably never intended to start a distillery. However, they currently make gin, vodka (the wonderfully named Dancing Puffin), and rum, and they age whisky rather than distilling it. There is a plan to start making whisky soon though. Vanessa led the tour and we started with a taste of their products (or in my case a glass of water because I knew I’d have to tackle the road back out of Badachro later), followed by an explanation of how they’d ended up running a spirits business. Then we were shown around the stills and the bottling and packing area, where raspberry vodka was being decanted into bottles. After that we returned to their tasting room, with its stunning views, and tasted our way through almost everything they make. I was very cautious and also very glad that they offer a drivers dram, where you get given a small bottle of the spirit of your choice to enjoy when you’re not driving. Vanessa was a terrific communicator and very interesting to listen to. And the whiskies are really good so I look forward to seeing what they can produce when they are in charge of the process from start to finish.

After the tour we headed back to the hotel to get organised for the following day, and then headed back to Badachro for dinner at the Badachro Inn. As we set off it started to rain, and by the time we’d found somewhere to park, it was pretty bad. As we took our seats in the pub’s conservatory, it absolutely lashed it down, and showed no sign on stopping any time soon. The conservatory, so their website claims, offers “a great view out to the bay beyond”. Not in that weather it didn’t! For a horrible night, it was packed in the bar and the dining area so they’re doing something right. And that something is again locally sourced seafood done well. The menu is written on a pair of blackboards and once something is sold out, that’s it for the night. Of the starters that were available, we had squid, and prawns, and then moved on to a plate of really good langoustines, and a not quite so good risotto that was packed with prawns and crab. The problem with the risotto was not the seafood, but the rice which was quite seriously overcooked for my tastes. That was a shame, because it could have been so good. They do have a cracking wine list, by the way, with reasonably priced options that are very well chosen. We went for a German Riesling, at a sensible 9.5% which meant I felt I could have a glass. 

By the time we’d finished dining and paid up, the storm had blown itself out, so the drive back was easier than it could have been. Even so, we were both on high alert because again there were sheep and no fences or walls to prevent the woolly idiots for wandering out into the road.