So yesterday we decided to walk to the lighthouse near us, it’s about 4 miles away down the coast and we’ve heard the locals talk all week about the traumas of driving down the road there. It is, apparently, a dangerous way littered with unforeseen obstacles that will definitely render both you and your car helpless while your cries for help echo fruitlessly of the treacherous cliffs below. And therefore, we walked. Driving seems lazy when your fairly close after all.
It starts out as a fairly nice day, looking back over Melvaig as we walk out of the village.
And then we reach The Road…
A perfectly serviceable, tarmac, road. At this point, in hindsight I would have turned round and brought the car. But full of the hope of seeing eagles, whales and dolphins, we walked anyway. Not to say this a boring walk, but one way is enough!
Some pretty glimpses down to the cliffs below.
First sighting of the lighthouse in the distance. Ever the optimist, there’s also the shorts out.
Rua Reidh itself.
Now according to our guidebook the lighthouse operates a visitor centre, cafe and lookout point for the local wildlife. Unfortunately, as went learnt in the pub, it has been recently sold, by the owners of the pub, to someone else who has turned into a private B&B with no access. Clearly they get lots of wandering walkers strolling in and asking for scones as there are several signs along the way which definitely state that “THERE IS NO VISITOR CENTRE”.
Still, if you walk down towards to lighthouse, past a track the goes off the right (this is a continuation of the walk), then you can go right on another lower track by an information board that explains how the lighthouse was built and operated.
You can then stroll down to the jetty where the tracks and pulleys are still evident from the previous unloading of fuel and building materials.
Out on the rocks here is the only wildlife I’ve seen so far, a Cormorant I believe.
Climbing down the side of the jetty, it’s possible to walk back up the little valley from the bottom and theoretically hit the previous mentioned path that continues around the coast.
A small cave on in the rock face near the jetty, and I promise you I haven’t fiddled with the contrast here, the rock really are that colour.
Climbing up and out of the valley, you can see the cave at the bottom in the middle, we aimed for the coast path that leads around to the beach of Camas Mor.
In reality, we spent some time looking for the footpath, and then eventually found it after climbing much higher than necessary. I’d recommend retracing your steps to the lighthouse rather than going our way.
But over the crest of the hill and there is an absolutely fantastic view of the beach, in fact we overshot it a bit as if you walk back slightly, you get to see the natural sea arches and stacks too.
It is worth the walk. Even more lovely if you have time to walk around the headland and find a way down onto the beach, which as far as I could see looks like it is only accessible from the beach behind.
We then retraced our footsteps back along the perfectly lovely road to Melvaig, where these incredibly fluffy lambs were.
The Kombi Chronicles 