Kinlochbervie

The Harbour and Its Table

The fish auction still runs daily at the harbour, and if the boats and tide are both in you can watch it from a respectful distance while seals are often seen in the water. This is the centre of Kinlochbervie: a working port built in the 1970s, spread thin across the ground between Loch Clash and Loch Bervie, with the mountains of Arkle and Ben Stack standing off to the east. One Walkhighlands visitor called it "a curious place - very industrial and not at all similar to the other villages in this part of Scotland." By the mid-1980s it ranked among Scotland's top three whitefish ports, and the ice, stores and refrigerated lorries that keep that trade going remain visible around the harbour.

The Kinlochbervie Hotel sits above the harbour, with the Garbet Bistro and a public bar looking across Loch Clash and out to the Minch. The kitchen works with locally landed fish, venison and lamb off the hill. Dogs are welcome and there is a garden, and the hotel also sells fishing permits for the Rhiconich and Sandwood estates and the local angling club.

Provisions Along the Coast

For supplies, Bervie Stores at the harbour is a SPAR, and the same business runs the filling station, the hardware counter and the Post Office; the branch up the road sells not just petrol and diesel but coal, fencing and animal feed. The Kinlochbervie Fishselling Co chandlery stocks tackle and outdoor clothing alongside the practical harbour gear. A few miles north at 142 Oldshoremore, the Highland Charcuterie and Smoke House makes smoked meat, cheese and fish, along with homemade pates and hams. Oldshoremore Crafts carries work by makers from the surrounding area. South at Inshegra, the Old School Restaurant and Rooms occupies a schoolhouse of 1879; it does not take pets.

Three Walks into the Wild

Most people come for the walking, and Sandwood Bay is a major destination. The path leaves from Blairmore and runs eight miles there and back across level moorland and past freshwater lochs before the dunes give way to a mile of sand, cliffs and the sea stack Am Buachaille. There is no bus to the trailhead. Closer to home, a four-kilometre circuit from the war memorial loops through the churchyard and open croft land beside Loch Innis na Ba Buidhe, with views back over the port. The three-beach circuit linking Oldshoremore, Polin and Sheigra is longer and rougher, and a high tide can close the Oldshoremore crossing.

Telford and McBeath

The church above the village is one of Thomas Telford's Parliamentary churches, built in 1829, harled and T-plan with a small west bellcote; the manse he raised beside it the same year is now a ruin and shut off. On the hill a cairn overlooks Loch Innes, dedicated in 2009 to Robert Gordon McBeath, brought up here, who won the Victoria Cross at Cambrai in 1917 and was later shot dead on duty as a Vancouver policeman at twenty-three.

The Long Road to Loch Clash

Getting here takes some doing. Lairg, the nearest railway station, is around forty-five miles off along single-track road that comes in on the B801 from Rhiconich. Down at Loch Clash pier there are two picnic areas and a small beach where you can put a kayak or paddleboard in easily. The seals often come back to the jetty when the tide and boats are in.