UK 2026 – Day 13 (Ullapool to Durness)

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Today we drove from Ullapool to Durness and back again via Drumbeg. It rained during the night and the morning. So we drove straight to Durness. Hoping that the weather would improve.

Part of the road to Durness is single track. It worked well apart from a tourist bus that apparently didn’t understand the meaning of ”Use meeting points to allow overtake”.

Once we reached Durness we first went to Balnakeil beach. It was a bit chilly but very beautiful.

The second stop was Smoo cave. We didn’t join any guided tour. Instead we just walked down to the cave and looked at the waterfall. It’s worth a visit.

On the way back to Ullapool we drove via B869 ”Drumbeg loop”. The visibility was still poor. So we missed out on some of the scenery. It’s a much more challenging road compared to Applecross pass. But not on par with Hardknot pass.

Driving B869

We planned to have lunch in Lochinver but everything was closed! Lochinver larder was closed on Mondays, the local grocery store was closed due to training of new staff and the cafe was closed due to maternity leave and lack of staff. So, we had a very late lunch back in Ullapool.

Before reaching Lochinver, we got stuck at some roadworks for one hour. But the warden handed out candies and we had a nice chat with some other drivers.

Most restaurants were closed in Ullapool as well since it’s Monday. But Sea Food Shack was open. We got some nice langusters under the watchful eyes of a gull.