Applecross to Inverewe Garden (Poolewe)
Explore Highland's beautiful coastline and countryside
Applecross to Inverewe Garden (Poolewe) Itinerary
Follow the route - Applecross to Inverewe Garden (Poolewe)
> Leave Applecross following the ‘Shieldaig’ sign. Turn left at a T-junction to rejoin the A896 north.
Visiting Torridon
The Torridon landscape has no peers in mainland Scotland, with shapely Beinn Alligin and its outliers soaring from the sea-loch and, further east, Liathach’s seven-peaked pinnacled ridge towering over Torridon village and glen. Both ranges are owned by the National Trust for Scotland, and a classic 9-mile (14.5km) walk on Trust ground explores the wild country behind Liathach. In summer, the Trust Visitor Centre explains the history, geology and wildlife of this glorious district, and there is an exhibition and audio-visual presentation on red deer nearby.
Places to stay in Torridon
> Continue on the A896 to Kinlochewe and turn left on to the A832.
Visiting Beinn Eighe
This magnificent mountain range, with quartzite summit rocks, which give the impression of a permanent dusting of snow, was Britain’s first National Nature Reserve. The Visitor Centre on the A832 illustrates the fascinating wildlife of the mountain – warblers and redstarts in the birchwoods, crossbills among the pines, otters and black-throated divers on the margins of Loch Maree. Two waymarked trails – one to 1,700 feet (518m) – offer tremendous views over the loch.
Walks near Beinn Eighe
Coire Lair and the Coulin Forest
> Continue on the A832 to Gairloch.
Visiting Gairloch
Gairloch is really a cluster of crofting settlements on the shores of an attractive sea loch, which has become a resort with fine sands, a fishing harbour and one of the most beautifully located golf courses in Scotland. Gairloch Heritage Museum has fishing boats in its courtyard, an old lighthouse tower installed at ground level, and indoor displays on the fishing, crofting and archaeological history of the heartland of the MacKenzies.
> Remain on the A832 and pass through Poolewe.
Visiting Inverewe Garden
This is perhaps the most famous garden in the whole of Scotland. Its Victorian creator transformed a bare, windswept promontory into a pine-sheltered woodland where, helped by the benign effect of the Gulf Stream, a spectacular collection of rhododendrons, primulas, deep blue meconopsis and hundreds of other plants and flowering shrubs now flourishes.
