Kyle of Tongue

We had had quite a few early starts so we opted for a leisurely breakfast which ultimately became more leisurely when Simon spotted the campsite 'Breakfast Bar' on his way back from his morning shower. We enjoyed our breakfast baps and lattes overlooking the bay.

Our first stop today was just down the road at Smoo Cave. You could have a look around the first chamber of the cave for free but for £10pp you could hop in a dingy to explore further into the caves which we decided to do and it was totally worth it! The guides were really knowledgeable and it was great to see inside the cave. There is usually a waterfall however as Scotland has been having such amazing weather recently, there wasn't one today. Despite being not far from the sea, the water inside is freshwater which flows down from a nearby loch and is also home to some resident Scottish piranhas, latin name 'brownus troutus'.

Afterwards we headed to the Balnakaeil Craft Village. Originally constructed in the mid 50's as a MOD Early Warning Station, the buildings intended as barracks etc. were repurposed to create the craft village of today. We had a mooch around the numerous galleries, ceramic and crafty shops before finishing up in Cocoa Mountain, famous for its indulgent hot chocolates. We both decided on a Mocha Mountain Chaser which is a huge chocolately coffee, drizzled with more milk and white melted chocolate, accompanied by a 4 chocolate chaser. It was intense! Especially as we had got very excited in the shop and come out with a salted caramel and white chocolate croissant and a raspberry and white chocolate blondie too!

Feeling a bit sick we headed off to our next destination Tongue. Tongue isn't far from Durness so we had a little pitstop at Skinnet Beach and Ard (still not sure what an Ard is?!) After getting told off by a grumpy local for parking in her parking spot we went for a stroll, past lots of cute lambies along yet another beautiful beach.

Our campsite today is on Kyle of Tongue surrounded by gorgeous scenery. It's also an amazing campsite with great facilities and the best showers of the trip! For dinner we had booked a table at the Tongue Hotel which was just under a 30 minute walk away, albeit at the top of a humongous hill! We gave ourselves a little longer because you never can trust how long it is going to take you to get there and we set off at such a pace we ended up power walking it in 20 minutes! It was a bit of a fancy hotel and the dinner was divine. Simon opted for Cullen Skink for starter (a Scottish fish soup speciality) and Scrabster (a local port) lemon sole with crushed new potatoes and roasted veg for main. I decided on the trout tarlet with horseradish for starter and a veggie burger with fries for main. Feeling stuffed, we didn't have any room for dessert so we headed off back down the hill to the campsite to walk off our dinner. Having escaped the midges on out trip so far, they were out in force this evening however that didn't stop us from enjoying the beautiful sunset on the way.

Campsite: Kyle of Tongue Campsite
Number of nights: 1
Price: £27Read more