Plockton and Duncraig Castle

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Plockton

After diverting onto other topics for a few posts, I’m back to our summer trip to the north-west highlands. Eleven miles up the coast from our base in Dornie is the village of Plockton. It’s a bit of a film star having appeared in, amongst other things, The Wicker Man and Hamish Macbeth, a popular British TV series of the 1990s in which it played the fictional Lochdubh (pronounced Lochdoo). Hamish, the village policeman, was played by Robert Carlyle, and his love interest was Shirley Henderson: both have gone on to greater stardom.

After two sunny days for our Applecross and Glenelg jaunts, this day was cloudier and cooler. It made the views over Loch Carron beautifully atmospheric.

In the photograph above, you can see a large house, Duncraig Castle, near the top right. We would walk to it later (6km there and back), but spent the first part of the day wandering the village (and enjoying coffee).

Small person’s bench
Bird sculpture on the roof
Polly’s House

We then set off up the road to find the path round the bay to Duncraig, stopping to look at Plockton’s open air church.

Open air church, Plockton
Open air church, Plockton
Open air church, Plockton

This dates from a time known as the Disruption (1843) when a number of Church of Scotland Ministers left to form the Free Church. The slopes of this natural amphitheatre were terraced to form seating and services were held here until a Free Church was built in 1845. An annual communion service was held until 1936, and since then it continues to be used occasionally and is classed as a monument of national importance because, although many congregations were forced to use open air preaching sites, few remain.

The path to Duncraig took us along the side of the loch, with views back to Plockton, with the Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness railway line close by. We crossed this a couple of times.

Plockton
Kyle to Inverness line

As we got closer to Duncraig, we could see it had its very own request stop on the line! That’s what you get when you’re rich enough. The castle was originally built in the 1860s as the country seat of Sir Alexander Matheson who made his fortune selling opium to the Chinese.

Duncraig Castle request stop
Duncraig Castle request stop

The castle too has had TV fame, in 2003 when the then-owners took part in a reality TV series. The current owner is renovating the castle as a Bed and Breakfast and wedding venue. While writing this post I checked its website and the B&B is due to open in Spring 2020. I rather fancy the octagonal Tower Suite at a mere £350 per night!

Duncraig Castle
Duncraig Castle

Interestingly, the masonry company is called Loch Dubh in a nod, I presume, to Hamish Macbeth.

After the castle, we passed the stable block with its inscription Fear God, work hard, be honest. Then there was a bit of road walking till we could cut down a forest path to rejoin our original route back to Plockton.

Duncraig Castle Stable Block
Duncraig Castle Stable Block

By this time, it was mid-afternoon and we were very hungry. The Plockton Hotel was a welcome sight. We were interested to see that one of the houses which made up its accommodation had once been the home of poet Sorley MacLean.

Plockton Inn
Sorley MacLean lived here

This was my birthday, and we had originally planned to have a celebratory dinner that evening in the hotel in Dornie. However, as lunch was both large and late I was happy with that. In fact, I ate the best veggie haggis ever!

Veggie haggis
Birthday cards

Not only that, thanks to several clever people posting their cards early so that I got them before we left home, I had a birthday display to look at in the apartment. It had been a lovely day altogether.

Scotland, UK ,

79 Comments »

  1. Lovely to see the place through your eyes. Your celebratory meal sounds interesting. I’m sure that, if it had been open, you would have been treated to a night in the castle! Or… maybe not 😄

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  4. Belated Happy Birthday – clever to get the cards early to you! Love the idea of veggie haggis while the other veggie look delicious … an ideal meal after your long walk. Pretty area and so interesting to read about – cheers Hilary

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  5. Bummer, I missed your birthday so happy belated one and may this year ending and next ear be one of happiness and many more walks. Great pictures and would love to visit this place.

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  6. “The castle was originally built in the 1860s as the country seat of Sir Alexander Matheson who made his fortune selling opium to the Chinese.”
    Yes, quite a lot of fortunes were made from the proceeds of what we would today consider to be more than a little dodgy activities – drug pushers and people traffickers (i.e. slave traders). We lock them up these days but in the past they were the ruling class – and many of their descendants still are. (Party political broadcast over!)

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  8. Yikes, I’m not sure I would want to visit the village in The Wicker Man! I only saw that film once, and that was enough, frankly. I’m always a little uneasy in rural locales anyway, and it pretty much confirmed my worst fears. It does look attractive though, I’ll give it that!
    I’ve only had veggie haggis once, and it was too spicy for me, but the one you had doesn’t look bad!

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  9. I’d love to visit the Highlands sometime, especially after reading M.C. Beaton’s books about Hamish MacBeth. I’ve never seen the television series, though, so perhaps that wasn’t shown in the States? Were those books popular in Scotland? PS: Lovely photos!!!!

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  11. Hi Anabel, I am fond of cloudy days, like you say “beautifully atmospheric.” Heartfelt happy birthday wishes for you, Anabel! I enjoy your witty, entertaining, informative posts. I wish you many more birthdays!🙂

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  20. At last, some names I can relate to. I was a fan of the Hamish Macbeth series way back when so the area could be familiar to me should I ever get there. I’m also a fan of Sorley MacLean but of course, I’ve only read him in translation. A very belated Happy Birthday to you and I’ll raise a glass to you later on! I’ll pass on the haggis though, if you don’t mind.

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  23. Wearing short sleeves on your birthday, and doing some sightseeing, walking, castle-gazing and eating out… that sounds like a lovely birthday, Anabel! Mine falls on US Thanksgiving this year and Mark has to work the nightshift, so the fun will have to be had later or earlier… 🙂

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  25. Stunning Pics Anabel, thanks for sharing. Belated happy birthday. It sounds like you had a good one 🎉🎂 I am ashamed to say that I have never eaten haggis. Haggis is our family owned town butcher’s speciality and I must try it next Burn’s night.

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  26. Happy belated birthday, Anabel! That veggie haggis looks delicious. And your photos are very atmospheric and dramatic. I love the Open Air Church. I can’t believe that room is 350 pounds per night. But then I’m always amazed that people toss that kind of money around for a night’s accommodation!

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  31. It looks like it was a good birthday day out, though I do hope there wasn’t a train coming while you were standing in the middle of the railway track 🙂 Plockton looks really nice, I had a calendar picture of it several years ago and thought it was a place I might visit while camping at Arisaig but it seemed to be a bit too far up from there – maybe next time though 🙂

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