Things to do
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Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve
Britain's first national nature reserve, created in 1951, protects old Caledonian pinewood on the slopes above Loch Maree. Two waymarked trails start from the Glas Leitir car park: a woodland loop and a rougher mountain trail climbing to a high cairn. The mountain trail is steep and rocky, and the visitor centre near Kinlochewe opens only in season.
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Gairloch Museum
Set in a converted Cold War bunker on the edge of the village, this museum shows the great glass lens from Rubha Reidh lighthouse, a reconstructed croft house and displays on fishing, crofting and Gaelic life in Wester Ross. Hours are longest from April to October, with fewer days in winter.
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Inverewe Garden
Begun in 1862 by Osgood Mackenzie on a bare peninsula at Poolewe, this garden grows rhododendrons, eucalyptus and Himalayan plants in the shelter of planted woodland, helped by the mild sea air. Paths wind to viewpoints over Loch Ewe and a walled garden by the shore. Opening hours are shorter in winter, when the café and shop keep fewer days.
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Loch Maree
Scots pines and wooded islands crowd this freshwater loch below Slioch, which rises from the north shore in a steep wall of sandstone. The A832 follows the south shore past lay-bys and a viewpoint, and Isle Maree holds the remains of an early chapel and an old wishing tree studded with coins. Stopping is only safe in the marked lay-bys along the A832.
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Mellon Udrigle Beach
White sand and turquoise shallows curve round a small bay at the end of a single-track road north of Laide, with views across to the Summer Isles and the hills of Coigach. Families come for the sand and the rock pools at either end. Parking is limited at the road end, and the water stays cold all year.
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Rubha Reidh Lighthouse
At the tip of the peninsula north-west of Gairloch, a white lighthouse from 1912 looks across the Minch to the Outer Hebrides. The public road stops at Melvaig, and the last stretch is a private track, so walkers reach it on foot along the cliff tops. Minke whales pass the point in summer, heading through the Minch.
