#lochinver

[bergsmotiv]

The Northern Highlands

Stoer Point                   Quinag

Lochinver                     Over Stoer Bay to Mountains

[windandwater]

I hitched a ride with the wind, And since he was my friend, I just let him decide where we'd go. When a flower grows wild, It can always survive, Wildflowers don't care where they grow.

–Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt, Emmylou Harris, “Wildflowers”

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[juniorformulamotorsport]

Travel 2024 – North Coast 500 – Day 11 (Lochinver to Gairloch)

Tuesday 8th October, 2024 – Lochinver to Gairloch Distance driven: 86.0 milesTime at the wheel: 2 hours 26 minutesHeiland coos spotted: 0 (Normal service has resumed) We’d done two nights at the Old Coach House (Cosy Highland Fireside Escape) so again it was time to move on to our next two-night stop. First, though, we wanted to pop to Lochinver Larder to buy some pies, and just nose around a…

[justforbooks]

Long before Dave Myers, one half of the TV duo the Hairy Bikers, was hairy, or a biker, he was a cook. While still a child, he prepared family meals when his mother, a former shipyard crane driver, became so debilitated by multiple sclerosis she was scarcely able to leave her bed. “Dad and I became Mam’s carers, muddling through each day,” said Myers, who has died aged 66. “Sometimes I got out a cookbook and made a pie or a stew out of whatever ingredients we had in.”

His mother had been “a fabulous cook and was often preparing food while I played at her feet”. His father, the foreman of a local paper mill, would put little Dave on the saddle of his motorbike so he could pretend to ride. “I loved the smell of oil and machinery and rubber; just one whiff would set my pulse racing.”

But it was only half a lifetime later that Myers, after many years of working as a television makeup artist, managed to make an onscreen career by combining these two childhood passions. In 2004, when he was 45, Myers and his friend Simon King, a locations manager on the Harry Potter films, pitched their idea for a TV show focusing on motorbikes and food to the BBC. “It was midlife crisis time and you can’t have more of a midlife crisis than going off on a motorbike,” said Myers.

The show’s premise was that two burly, hirsute motorcyclists would visit foreign locales, often getting off their bikes to cook by the roadside. In the first episode of The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook (2006), the pair motored through Namibia, stopping off to cook crocodile satay and oryx rolls.

This culinary travelogue ran across three series, taking them to Portugal, Vietnam, Turkey and Mexico, and became such a hit with the viewers that a memo circulated the BBC praising the two men for winning over “a difficult-to-reach audience”. “Basically a ‘difficult-to-reach audience’ translates as ‘normal people’,” said King.

The two self-taught cooks had a disarmingly unpretentious love of food and easy on-screen banter redolent of Keith Floyd, if less bibulous, or Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson, if less posh. In a sense, Myers and King were the male northern riposte to the Two Fat Ladies. What’s more, their two fat lads were refreshing fare in the age of telegenic cooks such as Nigella Lawson or angry chefs like Gordon Ramsay.

Spin-off shows followed, including The Hairy Bikers’ Food Tour of Britain (2009), The Hairy Bikers: Mums Know Best (2010), The Hairy Bikers’ Mississippi Adventure (2012) and The Hairy Bikers’ Asian Adventure (2014), along with allied cookbooks and a 2015 memoir, The Hairy Bikers Blood, Sweat and Tyres.

What was the secret of their success? “We are mates, it’s not something that’s been manufactured,” said Myers. “We’re not snobby about food. We’re very happy with egg and chips, as long as it’s very good-quality eggs and good-quality potatoes. About 95% of good cooking is good shopping.”

They met by chance in a Newcastle pub in the 1990s when Myers was working there as makeup artist and prosthetics technician on an adaptation of Catherine Cookson’s The Gambling Man starring Robson Green. King, an assistant director on the project, was at the bar ordering a curry. The barman told King that if he ordered two curries he would qualify for a special offer: four poppadoms instead of one. “I just stepped up and said, ‘I’ll have the other curry’,” Myers said.

The pair cemented their friendship with road trips up the west coast of Scotland, travelling with a pan, a single-burner stove, some butter, a lemon and some brown bread. “We’d go up round Loch Assynt, up by Lochinver, and catch wild brown trout.” The idea for the television series was born from these trips.

But, while the Hairy Bikers became celebrated and their cookbooks successful, some worried that their recipes were unhealthy. Their banana French toast recipe, consisting of brioche, bananas, peanut butter and cream, was ominously dedicated to Elvis Presley. One critic suggested that their full-English shakshuka, featuring sausages, lardons and black pudding, “looks as if it should come with a diagram on how to administer CPR”.

Indeed, as their fame expanded, so did their waistbands. By 2012, Myers recalled, he was taking tablets for high blood pressure and to lower his cholesterol, and both he and King were diagnosed as being morbidly obese during a medical. He weighed 17st 12lb, with a 49in waist, while King weighed in at 19st 6lb, with a 50in waistline. “I was prediabetic; human foie gras, basically,” Myers said.

The diagnoses pushed them to make the series The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight. Both men lost 3st 7lb during filming and published their most successful series of books afterwards under the general title Hairy Dieters. “Doing it publicly was the thing that encouraged us to make it work. People admired the honesty. We sold about 1.3m copies of our first book. We learned an awful lot from it.”

The following year, 2013, Myers appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, performing a “Tartan tango” to the tune of The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) with his dance partner, Karen Hauer, and becoming, in the words of the show’s judge Len Goodman, “the people’s champion”, winning the weekly popular vote despite sometimes low marks from judges and armchair critics deriding his “ungainly boogying”. He didn’t win, but the Hairy Biker received the longest standing ovation for, fittingly enough, a Meat Loaf-themed paso doble.

Myers, the only child of Jim and Margaret, was born in Barrow-in-Furness ( then in Lancashire but now in Cumbria) and attended the town’s grammar school for boys, where an inspirational teacher, Mr Eaton, encouraged him to develop his artistic skills. He took a fine art degree at Goldsmiths, University of London and a master’s degree in art history.

His first job was as a trainee makeup artist at the BBC. He worked there for 23 years, including a stint on Top of the Pops, before the Hairy Bikers got together. While filming the show in Romania, Myers met Liliana Orzac. “In our hotel there was a striking woman on reception. Nudging Si, I whispered: ‘I fancy her!’” They married in 2011.

In 2022, Myers announced on the podcast Hairy Bikers – Agony Uncles that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He and King made a moving return to the screen in The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas in December 2023, in which they discussed his illness and treatment; and had filmed a new series, The Hairy Bikers Go West, which is currently screening on BBC Two, and which King described as “a celebration of a joyous and creative friendship”.

Myers is survived by Liliana and her children, Iza and Sergiu.

🔔 David James Myers, chef and television presenter, born 8 September 1957; died 28 February 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[iainsarjeant]

Lochinver, Sutherland - 17/07/23

[scotianostra]

Good Morning from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Achmelvich Beach, near Lochinver, Sutherland.

📸AlittlebitofClarie on Instagram

[pajjorimre]

Azt figyeld.

[vizcart]

We have come to the end of the series dedicated to Scotland. The exploration of Great Britain, however, goes on. Wales and then England. Today we look at Ullapool, in the Scottish highlands. And yes, personally visited this place too! Credits to NLS (Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland).

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[househuntingscotland]

3 bedroom house for sale on Lochinver Drive, Cathcart, Glasgow

Asking price: £275,000

Sold price: £365,123

[bikepackinguk]

Day Forty

Getting up out of the tent to behold the same sunny view across the water is quite a start to the day. It's easy to forget when sat at home just how damn beautiful so much of the country really is.

So let's go see more of it! Out of Drumbeg it's mostly downhill to warm up the legs before the stiff ascents begin once again, with a steep climb up the hills over to Clashnessie Bay.

The road here feels like it's been carven out of the cliffside by giants, with the bones of the mountains forming the shoreline until reaching the beautiful beach by Clashnessie.

Climbing back up from sea level once more, I swing a right turn off the road to head past Achnacarnin and Clashmore to stop by Stoer Lighthouse. The view down the coast is incredible from here, with some of the Hebrides visible in the distance and the ever-present mountain ranges looming all around.

After the 4 mile ride out here, it's another 4 back again to get back to the B869 and keep heading south. A few more climbs and the path sweeps down for some nice flats past Clachtoll.

There are plenty of big clouds further unland, but it's a lovely sunny day by the sea and the beaches along here are filled with holidaymakers making the best of the weather and multiple stunning beaches and bays.

Not for me though! Hitting sea level of course means one thing - another big climb is about to begin. And as our American friends would say, this one is a doozy.

Starting off with a few steep hills past Maiden Loch, the road begins twisting up sharply into the hills which causes as much work for me as it does for many of the vehicles heading by.

A long slog up is rewarded finally with views of the next valley which look like entering another world. After the emptier moors previously, it's a descent down into a deeply forested valley which thankfully grants a little shade from the beating sun. The road of course quickly throws some more climbs in along the way, so it's still a good bit of work before emerging from the other side of the woodlands and heading into Lochinver, with a nice view across the waters of Loch Inver.

Whilst at the hostel in Inverness, there was a poster in the kitchen highlighting various Scottish foods, of ehich the only one I'd not yet tried being Cullen Sink. I'd resolved to ensure I tried it on this journey, and given all the hard hills on this stretch I felt a decent late lunch here was a good plan. I've been very generously sent some tips from the wonderful @annatrekkie and @danieldddddddda here so a hearty fish chowder, new potatoes, and a well earned ale have been on them. Thank you my friends!

Whilst enjoying a good feed and a rest of the legs, the weather does take a turn and the clouds start rolling in to throw down some heavy rain. It's on with the waterproofs once more, and exiting Lochinver into yet another climb up past Loch Culag.

The winding road out here is off into some true wilderness, with it being possible to go a fair ways between isolated dwellings, and the hills keep coming and coming. The weather does manage to clear up at least, and despite the sloggery of the ascents I'm still smiling at the views of the untamed countrysides.

Passing Loch An Eisg-brachaidh, I bump into a hiker also heading around the whole coast! It's only the second person I've encountered doing the same journey now, and we have an enjoyable chat sharing experiences and joys of the journey we've been having. Good luck on the rest of it Chris!

The road past here swings inland once more, and it's back up into the hillsides again past Rhegreanoch. It's a twisting, turning path as the route heads up and down the hillsides.

I'm a little shy of Badnagyle at around half 6 when I stop for a break just shy of the next summit and, checking the forecast, it looks like the clouds rolling in ahead are set to chuck the rain down for a good few hours. Given all the work today so far, and still being in a good bit of sleep debt, I figure it's probably wisest to get pitched up and shelter rather than jeep moving through the rain and have to set up later in the midst of a downpour.

The rains start coming in just as I finish setting up, so having clambered in I'm now safe and dry on a nice patch of grass as the rains heave down around the tent. A successful end to a hard day!

That said, I'm pretty happy with today, even if it's just been 25 miles of progress made. Whilst it seems obvious, it's interesting to observe how this long on the road has been getting me quite a bit fitter than I was, and I've been able to slog my way up a good few gradients that, a minth ago, would have had me getting off and pushing up. The journey so far has been a hell of a workout!

TTFN!

[ruthlivingstone]

480 Lochinver to Achmelvich

[This walk was completed 16th July 2022] I cycle to Lochinver, and chain my Scooty bike up in the car park, then walk along the main road towards the bridge over the River Inver. What a lovely old bridge. (more…) “”

[landscape-lunacy]

Lochinver, Scotland - by Mitchell Coyle

[juniorformulamotorsport]

Travel 2024 – North Coast 500 – Day 10 (Around Lochinver)

Monday 7th October, 2024 – Lochinver, Ardvreck Castle, Ullapool, Drumbeg, Clashnessie, Clachtoll, Lochinver Distance driven: 89.0 milesTime at the wheel: 2 hours 39 minutesHeiland coos spotted: 0 (Looks like we’d had our quota) After a good night’s sleep we decided to set off to explore Ullapool and possibly add another loop of spectacular driving, time and weather permitting. On the way there…

[zoeys-travels]

[ramzoozi]

® Presents ⠀ UNLIMITED SCOTLAND ® 📸: @stephenwardlaw 📍: #suilven #lochinver SELECTED BY| @ramseyselim 🌟 FOLLOW US l @unlimitedscotland TAG US l #unlimitedscotland #scotland ____________________________________________ Love Edinburgh? ♥️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏰 Follow us @unlimitededinburgh ! ♥️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏰 ____________________________________________ FAMILY HUBS @unlimitedhubs 🌎 ____________________________________________ AMBASSADORS 🎖 for some of the best traveller photos of Scotland @jaxfrost._ 🌟 @jamieneillscotland 🌟 @mybonnietravels 🌟 @paulwilsonsphotography 🌟 @eddiefitz7 🌟 @stephenwardlaw 🌟 @scottishstoater 🌟 Become an ambassador @unlimitedambassadors 🎖 ____________________________________________ ADMINS | @ramseyselim & @jaxfrost._ ____________________________________________ #igersscotland #visitscotland #loves_scotland #bestplacestogo #instascotland #scotspirit #ilovescotland #Girlsdreamtravel #escocia #ecosse #beautifulscotland #schottland #scozia #szkocja #ig_scotland #thisisscotland #travelgirl #sheexplores #igersscotland #scotlandsbeauty #igscotland #dametraveler #lovetheworld #liveauthentic #wearetravelgirls #hiking #thescottishcollective 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ☥ (at Suilven) https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-31LCDMB2/?igshid=horjnqpi0d6k

[scotianostra]

Clashmore, Midwinter Sunrise

An astronomical survey of about 70 Orkney-Cromarty round cairns in the Northern highlands suggested that the remains of the Clashmore burial chamber was aligned towards the midwinter sunrise. This was photographed at 9:20am on the 20th December 2013. 

Clashmore is a scattered township in Assynt, in Sutherland, in the Highlands. It is situated on the Rubha Stoer, 10 km north west of Lochinver.

Pic from Canmore Rcahms  but the original linkI posted years ago is now dead.