Tourists to Caithness should be welcomed, not discouraged
OUT AND ABOUT WITH RALPH: Far north attractions are once-in-a-lifetime experience for visitors, so let’s open our arms to them
When you’ve been away, however wonderful the destination, you always find that the far north beats it all.
That amazing big sky, which even a skyline of turning turbines cannot obscure. The incredible blues of sky and sea and loch, the birds and wildlife which greet you for real when you’ve just been watching them on Springwatch… only the occasional mean-spirited local or landowner who wants to keep everyone out and have it all for themselves can detract.
It’s just an hour’s cycle from home to the most northerly point on the mainland and using an e-bike means that I can enjoy the ride even in a strong head-wind.
Nowadays there are often quite a few campervans parked up by the road or near the lighthouse, it’s a shame that the rare irresponsible tourist tends to give them all a bad name.
We live here and can go and see these places whenever we like. It may be their only visit and they probably come from a busy, overcrowded city. Let us be generous and welcoming!
Clifftops and islands are at their best now, with amazing displays of flowers and sea-bird colonies. I always make my way round the back of the Dunnet Head lighthouse wall to a little clifftop viewing area where you can look down on the kittiwake colonies and across the tide-races to distant Hoy.
This year the pink and white thrift on the most northerly point really were like a carpet. But to be honest, unless you are a mountaineer, stay on the safe side of the wall with the other tourists!
Vehicles have no right of access on private roads, so signs such as “Private Road, no unauthorised vehicles” are quite allowed. However, signs such as “Private. No vehicles” tip towards the unacceptable, deterring anyone from exercising their right under the Scottish Access Code to walk, cycle or ride a horse along any private road or track.
The troublemakers won’t be put off anyway, why not just be friendly? There is now such a sign at Dorrery, where the track heads for Dorrery Hill and towards the RSPB land at Loch Caluim.
Again, I can reach the top of Dorrery Hill in an hour from home on the bike, the cycle ride round the end of Loch Calder and up the hill with growing views out over the county is as good as anything in Britain.
In my fittest days I could just ride the bike up the steep track, now I appreciate electric assistance! The top of Dorrery Hill is a last outpost of the Highlands proper, with spectacular views out over the Unesco Flow Country of peatland and lochs as well as eastwards across Loch Calder. An osprey platform a little way from the top appears to be unused this year.
And then there is the sea. Having missed much of the calm weather, I managed to snatch a morning before the wind picked up, to sea-kayak from Sandside out to the puffin colony below Drumholistan.
I’m always on my nerves here, having had a nasty incident a few years ago, big swells can break unexpectedly over hidden rocks and there are few landing places under the cliffs. But the scenery of stack, cave and seabird colony makes the effort worth it, with puffins galore on the sea and a wonderful paddle in through a narrow cleft to land on the stony beach under the main puffin colony high on an isolated sea-stack.
Briefly this spot became quite famous as an NC500 attraction, many cars would park and visitors walk the wet track to the clifftops from where the puffins could be watched with binoculars.
The route down to the stony beach, however, is steep and rough and not suitable for inexperienced walkers and you would see folk struggling. What should be done (with wind farm money?) is to create a proper car park with information boards, improve the path and erect a clifftop viewing hide with a short stretch of fence protecting the cliff edge and barring access to the dodgy descent.
Instead, that typical mean-spirited approach was adopted – bulldoze the parking areas and put in a locked gate so nobody can stop and go to look at the puffins without a long dangerous walk along the main road.
And now more unfriendly signs at Sandside Harbour. Not to mention the troubles at Strathy Point… Why can we not just be thoroughly welcoming to tourists in our wonderful part of the world?
If they can manage it fine in Cumbria, with 18 million visitors each year to the English Lake District, surely we can be friendly to a few tens of thousands?
