October in the Highlands

October came and it was finally time to go on our holiday. By the time October arrived, all I needed is somewhere quiet, no traffic, no road noise, no people (sorry people, you know what I mean). We found a cottage in the middle of nowhere, packed our bags and headed up to Scotland for two weeks.

On the way. And then arriving.

We spent a night in an old hotel, something out of Faulty Towers, near Haddington in East Lothain to break up the long journey. We woke up to frost. Obligatory Bostock bakery cardamom bun. (On our way back, many more of these were consumed.) After the night, we headed up north. We reached Inverness from where it was another hour and a half drive until we arrived to our cottage. There, we did find peace and quiet and amazing views. These views were different every time we looked ouf of the window, every sunset and every sunrise was different. No sound other than that of birds, sheep and deer.

The mood of our days was something like this..

We went for long forest walks and beach runs and we took two longer day trips too. My absolute favourite was the Assynt day. It took us nearly an hour to get to a decent road from the cottage so already, driving through those forests was always magical. At the beginning of this journey, we spotted a stag* surrounded by his ladies, absolute dream view of them standing like that, then an obligatory stop at Clachtoll beach - yes, Finn absolutely loved it but us too - and then just driving on that single track road with countless hairpin bends and sharp inclines, it was the most stunning drive ever. I would go back there right now. Anytime. Always. Absolutely beautiful, rugged, unspoilt.

*they were right by the side of the road and I only spotted the does first. They didn’t move, didn’t run away, just watched me, I watched them and suddenly, from the bracken, a stag appeared and elevated the deer show just a bit. It was so beautiful.

The Assynt tour