A few months ago, I shared a blogpost about all the places I hoped to visit this year in the Scottish Highlands. I was feeling a bit blue thinking about how few of these things I was actually able to do over the summer months, what with working full time and visiting family and friends elsewhere in the country. However, last weekend we were able to tick another goal off the list and visit a part of the Scottish Highlands I was so excited to see: Gairloch.
Gairloch is a beautiful seaside village situated in a beautiful bay in Wester Ross. It's only about an hour and a half from our home and a lot of our friends and neighbours recommended we explore Gairloch, but we just had not managed to make the journey until a few weeks ago.
By the time, we arrived in Gairloch, we were pretty hungry. It was already quite late in the afternoon, so we stopped at the recently opened Gairloch Museum to have some lunch at their cafe, Am Bàrd. By the time we arrived at Am Bàrd, they had sold out of all of their food offerings (a sign of busy Saturday in a Highland cafe) but what they had was absolutely delicious! I had a prawn cocktail open sandwich which came with a mountain of beautiful fresh and local salad. It felt indulgent and yet fuelled the rest of my day. Finlay enjoyed a slightly adapted version of the black pudding mac and cheese toastie without any bread and said it was some of the best mac and cheese he'd had in Scotland.
Unfortunately, because we only had a few hours in Gairloch, we did't have the opportunity to actually take time to explore Gairloch Museum. However, the little bits and pieces I saw of the displays on offer showed a really intriguing place full of quirky exhibits and interesting tidbits about the history of Gairloch and the surrounding area.
After a spot of lunch and a quick cup of tea, we headed out for a walk along the front at Gairloch. Before we arrived in Gairloch that day, I really had no idea what was here. I hadn't done any research about what kind of things there are on offer (other than finding somewhere to get a nice lunch). So I was pleasantly surprised by all the wonderful sights on offer in this wee village on the west coast.
One of the biggest surprises to me about Gairloch was all the wonderful little shops we found there. The biggest highlight for me was stumbling across Hillbillies Bookshop and Trading Post. What a unique little bookshop in the Highlands! I love books and supporting little bookshops wherever I go, so it was such a treat to be able to explore this little shop. They had a real mix of Scottish books, fiction books and non-fiction books on a wide variety of topics such as the exploring the mountains, different cultures around the world and living more sustainably. I bought a book on the history of Native Americans (a topic I've always found fascinating) and a little postcards of one of my favourite Native American quotes.
Gairloch really surprised me in so many ways. It was a beautiful little seaside village with was a real joy to explore. The food we tried on our trip and the shops we explored were really wonderful and definitely a highlight of my day trip to Gairloch. I also feel like we only just scratched the surface of all the things we could do in Gairloch, so I can not wait to get back and explore more of this area soon!
Some Tips
We ended up arriving in Gairloch at about 3 o'clock and we still needed to have lunch. I probably wouldn't recommend doing that if I was you. Although we had an absolutely delicious lunch at Am Bárd, we were probably the last people to be admitted. In future, I'd probably enjoy a nice picnic outside with views out to sea
Gairloch is on the North Coast 500 route. This means that there is often a lot of traffic on the windy and narrow roads, particularly in the summer months. Do take extra care on the road. Make sure you're aware of how single track roads work and factor in any delays in your journey when you are planning your day.
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