The next day I climbed Stac Pollaidh which lies just north west of Ullapool in the Inverpolly Forest. Of course the forest is a forest no longer. It's a vast, bare, open landscape of lochs and lochans, peat bogs and isolated mountains. Though Stac Pollaidh ('Peak of the Peat Moss') is little more than 2000 ft, it seems higher as it's not hemmed in by other hills. From the top the views are tremendous. To the west are the sea and the Summer Isles; to the north, south and east stretch the wilderness areas of Assynt, Coigach and the Cromalt Hills. And you can clearly pick out the mountain peaks of Suilven and Canisp, Cul Mòr and Cul Beag.
Stac Pollaidh is easily accessed from the road which runs along Loch Lurgainn at its foot. There's a well-maintained path to the top which I climbed without too much difficulty. I'd obviously got fitter since my travails on Ben Nevis! The eastern top is simply reached, but the higher, western top can only be gained by a scramble up rocky gullies, slabs and pinnacles. I enjoyed the scrambling - the Torridonian sandstone was firm and grippy - but I'm afraid fear got the better of me in the end when I came to a short, but exposed, near-vertical rockface. So I didn't quite make it to the highest point. (For an experienced scrambler this would have been a piece of cake - there were plenty of holds - but I didn't want to take the risk, as I was wary of getting into trouble, being on my own. I would have gone for it if a mate had been with me.) Anyway, that's quite enough talk about my sensible discretion (or cowardice? Afterwards I wished I'd gone 'all the way'...) Let the pictures now do the talking...
Before returning to my Ullapool campsite, I drove west a few miles and came upon this superb, pristine sweep of sand at Achnahaird. Here a shallow river runs from bogland into one of the narrow inlets of Enard Bay. The sun had come out and the water sparkled, changing colour from light to dark as your eye followed it to the sea, first sandy brown, then turquoise, finally aquamarine. Near the shore purple patches of water shimmered over submerged, weed-encrusted rocks. The subtle spectrum of colour and constantly shifting light in North West Scotland is simply astonishing; no wonder so many artists are attracted to this place...
