Sites for Sore Eyes - an occasional celebration of perfect places to pitch up. 1: Grummore/Altnaharra

I really am in two minds about this post. There's  a bit of me that loves this place so much that I just want everybody to know about it. There's another bit of me that loves this place so much I just want all of you to stay the hell away so that me and Mrs Snail can have it all to ourselves. However, the Caravan Club has been promoting the bejeezus out of the place this year - so if I'm ever going to talk about it, now would appear to be the time...

We discovered the place about five years ago and were instantly smitten - there is real magic here, so I'm making it the first of an occasional series where I talk in depth about the actual sites where we stay. I don't normally do that, preferring to concentrate on the places to see and places to eat in the area. But some sites are special and deserve some extra attention. Grummore is one such place. 

The Caravan Club site at Grummore*, sits on the banks of Loch Naver about four miles east of the little village of Altnaharra, and twenty odd miles north of the town of Lairg in the Northern Highlands. The site occupies a narrow strip of land between the road and the Loch, offering one of the best views I can imagine of Ben Klibreck - one of the 282 "Monros", or "Scottish Mountains over 3,000 feet". When the weather is calm - which is surprisingly often given the location, Loch Naver becomes a perfect reflecting pool, offering a double view of this extraordinary peak. Whatever the weather the constant changes of light make the view endlessly fascinating.

Facilities are spartan, at least by club standards. Only about half of the pitches have electric hook up, there is no shower block, no laundry, no toilets. Just a chemical closet emptying point, a waste water drain and two taps. Oh, and unless you're carrying a portable satellite system (which we do not) there's no TV signal. Even the FM radio reception isn't perfect. Oh, and you have to drive over twenty six miles on single track roads.

For me and Mrs Snail, there is more than enough. We would be quite happy to park up the 'van here and just sit and watch the ever changing view. But even if that's all you do, that's not all there is. Interest is added by the vast quantity of wildlife which frequents the place. There are the ever present sheep (the warden is often to be seen patrolling the site with a small shovel and a bucket clearing up after them), the groups of red deer which can be seen on the hill behind the site and on the opposite shore, and the astonishing abundance of bird life.

Our bird feeder has attracted Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinches and Siskins in great numbers. At the right time of year you will see huge quantities of Swallows and Swifts and while you may not always see them, in late spring and early summer the distinctive call of the Cuckoo is pretty hard to miss. You're also guaranteed to see larger specimens.

If you've been reading this blog from the start you'll know that I have a thing for Raptors; one of the earliest editions of the blog went on at some length about a falconary display. There is just something about the larger Raptors that makes your heart race when you catch a glimpse of them wheeling and soaring in the distance. Well, around Grummore you will not only see Buzzards doing just that, there's every possibility you will see them up close and personal - I've been within three feet of one which just sat on a wall and looked at me.

There have been sightings of Golden Eagles in the hills around nearby Loch Loyal - although I confess I've never seen one - and when we were there last (Whit Week 2013)we learned that one of the people staying at the same time as us had seen our largest bird of prey, the White Tailed Eagle, on the opposite shore of Lock Naver not once but twice. Ironically at the time we were parked up by the shores of Loch Loyal scanning the sky for Golden Eagles... We've also seen pairs of the rare Red Throated Divers, and their even rarer Black Throated cousins. Herons, Tufted Ducks, Geese, Plovers, Dunlin (see below), Oyster Catchers - it's a veritable bird watching paradise! 

Birds aren't the only things flying around either. While they're not frequent enough to become a noise nuisance, you will also get to see the RAF's fast and not so fast jets doing their thing. I don't think we've ever stayed there without having at least one low flypast from either a Tornado or a Typhoon skimming the Loch - and by low, I mean low enough to make out the profile of the pilot - and slightly more in the distance you can often see pairs of Tornado GR4s dancing between the hills as they rehearse their ground attack/force protection routines.

Seriously, if watching stuff that fly is your thing, you may never want to leave the site!

Indeed, in some ways there's no need to. Grummore sits almost literally in the middle of nowhere. the nearest towns are Lairg, twenty off miles southish and Bettyhill, twenty odd miles to the north at the mouth of the River Naver. With no disrespect to these little towns there is very little reason to visit either - although there is a rather good museum in Bettyhill, about which more in a later post...

Lairg and Bettyhill are probably the closest shops - don't get excited, they're pretty small and will only be able to supply the basics - but if you plan well before you set out you probably won't need them unless you're staying awhile. The absolute basics - bread, milk, etc, can be obtained from the warden's little shop, which will also provide ice-creams - and does a roaring trade on hot days as cyclists pause for a wee rest by the lochside.

There is a good day out to be had in the town of Dornoch on the Eastern Coast, and in the town of Ullapool on the Western Coast, but they're both something of a hike from here and easier to get to from almost anywhere else. The space inbetween these places however is full of beauty and wonder, so a certain amount of "getting out there" is highly recommended.

Then there's the history. The valley of Strathnaver, where Grummore is to be found, and the surrounding areas possibly drip with it. Not all of it is happy. Grummore, the village after which the site used to me named can still be seen on the hill immediately above the site. Well, the remains of it can. The Village of Grummore was cleared rather violently at the height of the notorious Highland Clearances - a violent and shameful sequence of events which have both shaped and scarred the Highlands of today. There are many clearance villages along the valley - now largely empty of people but once positively humming with communities. As a result we'll keep coming back to them as we explore the place in future postings.

But the history of human occupation in this valley goes back much further than the tragedy of the clearances. On the Loch shore at the edge of the site itself sit (for they are far too collapsed to be called "standing") the remains of an Iron Age Broch - a sort of fortified farmhouse/tower unique to the north of Scotland and the Islands. The broch at Grummore is little more now than a ring of rubble, but there are better preserved examples both in the valley and in the surrounding area.

And it is the area around this amazing little site that we'll be exploring in the next post.

*Now officially called "Altnaharra" as part of the Club's efforts to make the location of their sites clearer. Because obviously everybody knows where Altnaharra is...