Last week I posted about the village of Lairg, which is a hidden gem in the heart of the Highlands. I was originally going to include the trips that we did out of Lairg into the Kyle of Sutherland, but it would have been a mammoth post, so I decided to create another post to cover the rest of our exploring Sutherland!
As Mr B was on study leave, we were looking for places where he could work in, while meantime I could explore or walk the dog in, and our first place to do this was at the Falls of Shin.
From the huge car park, you simply cross the road and follow the zigzag path down to the viewing platform.
In the summer months, visitors are treated to a display of Atlantic salmon, who return to their place of birth for future spawning. When we lived in Inverness another site you can drive to is Rogie Falls if you are heading west in the direction of Ullapool, you will be able to see salmon jumping up a ladder built into the river.
Around the Falls of Shin there is a myriad of paths to follow around the forest. Huge trees tower above you as you navigate the paths. The paths are suitable for the most part for pushchairs and bikes.
While I was busy enjoying the scenery, Mr B set up an office in the Falls of Shin Visitor Centre, which is sadly now closed as a cafe.
The outside space is amazing. It's very spacious especially when you pull in from the small single-track road, and a birds-eye view of the top of the site shows that the building and walkway actually appear in the form of a salmon!
A Highland stag greets you, there's a huge play area, and the all-important pitch and putt course which is an automatic competition between Mr B and I (he won).
The second trip we made was an evening walk in Rosehall Forest. which isn't too far from the Falls of Shin so you could easily explore both sites in one day. There's a log cabin built by the community with lots of local information.
There's a few different trails through the woodland. We followed this trail which partly goes through the Rosehall forest before heading toward the Achness/Cassley Falls.
The falls were at the halfway point of the walk, and they were impressive, even on quite a grey evening.
The falls covered a fair bit of distance and there were definitely good spots to get closer to the waters' edge.
Other popular tips from fellow Instagrammers in Sutherland featured another local walk at Raven's Rock Gorge, and even where to buy good local eggs from the roadside.
I'd definitely recommend exploring Sutherland. There was some beautiful scenery and it definitely facilitates an intentional slower-paced 'off the beaten track' break where you are unlikely to see many other visitors!
