Dingwall to Muir of Ord

18 August 2012 - Dingwall to Muir of Ord

Distance - 8.4 miles

Weather - Sunny

We stayed at - The Priory Hotel, The Square, Beauly, Inverness-shire, IV4 7BX

We set off from home in the car with the weather dull and promising rain, but by the

Glimpse of a dolphin

time we stopped at Inverness for a fuel top up, the sun was well and truly shining.

As we crossed the bridge on the other side of Inverness, Alistair commented that we were crossing the Beauly Firth. I remembered that the Beauly Firth was one of the best places in the world to see dolphins, so I asked Al to look out of the passenger window and report what he saw. "A boat. Another boat. A ripple in the water I could if I was being optimistic, say was from a dolphin. No, it is a dolphin! And a another one! Two, three, four, five, six, seven!" There was a bus stop just on the other side of the bridge, and we could see two cars stopped in it already. So we joined them and quickly made our way back to where we could see the Firth properly and I actually got to see in Scotland, what I never saw in New Zealand! Shortly, we went back to the car and set off again, passing the official dolphin centre about 50 further down the road! A bit further along the road we saw a Red Kite flying above the road. It seemed it was going to be a interesting holiday.

  

We got to Muir of Ord train station at 12:20. We were a bit early for the 13:55 that we'd planned to catch, but a quick look at the timetable showed us there was one at 12:36. We unhurriedly changed into walking boots and crossed to the other platform. Some helpful boys asked if we were going to Dingwall, and confirmed we were on the right platform. There was moment of drama when the train appeared and the station clock still said 12:35. "Let it be early," one of the boys said hopefully as the train came to a stop. The clock clicked to 12:36 just as the train stopped and the other 2 boys gave it a rousing cheer.

  

Muir of Ord Station & tearoom

The train pulled up at Dingwall some 10 minutes later, and our door opened fortuitously at the station tea room. Just in the nick of time. We sat outside enjoying our tea and bacon rolls, watching the waitress attempt to shoo away the seagull and chick that had been skulking around looking peckish. Alistair noticed, belatedly, there was actually a pub further along the platform. As we sat though, it filled with football fans. There were a lot of Celtic strips, which I thought was a bit odd. We didn't know who was playing who. At one point we heard the crowd on the TV or radio roar as, we assumed, a goal was scored. Looking over, there seemed to be one person regaling the celtic fans with a song unknown to us, while they looked at their beers. After finishing our nutritious lunch (and the cake) we set off walking south towards Conon Bridge. It wasn't very far along the road, but there seemed to be a lot of police cars around, more than we'd seen on the rest of the walk.

At Conon Bridge we stopped for a very nice pint of Trade Winds - it would be rude not to - at the pub. In the other bar they were evidently watching football, and we heard the chants of a few people, "Come on Ross County!". They were clearly relishing the game they were watching. Later we discovered that Ross County were indeed playing Celtic and had very nearly won, with Celtic only equalising in the 93rd minute. No wonder they were celebrating.

  

Road near Newton of Ferintosh

Duly replenished after our arduous two mile journey, knowing we

Scenery near Muir of Ord

wouldn't see civilisation for a good five miles hence. Tina had found a route that avoided main roads, first running parallel to the very busy A835, then crossing it at the B9169 and then heading south along some little windy roads. In fact this whole area from Conon Bridge to Muir of Ord is more like an extended housing estate for the well-off. The houses are generally large, in large plots of land, some were previously farmhouses. There are some placenames for the general areas - Balvaird, Ord Muir and Newmore, but outsiders like us can't tell where one starts and another ends. We reached Muir of Ord after a nice easy walk, with more colour about us than when we started. A great start to the holiday.

Remains of Beauly priory

Beauly is quite a big village, big enough to support a deli, Indian restaurant, clothes shop, art place and two small supermarkets. It has a ruined priory, which our hotel was named after. The chip shop next door is called "The Friary". I love it when a pun comes together.

Beauly sits on the side of the River Beauly, which was, when we were there, a large, spectacular river with a wilderness on the other side, but the council don't make anything of it at all. We only knew it was there because of our maps. It is hidden behind bushes and a rusting iron fence like some embarrassing industrial zone and we had to search for a spot to see it properly. Perhaps we saw it at its best, maybe its tidal and becomes a horrible mud hole when the tide is out...