NC500 - Farais Head & Home

We woke, surprisingly well rested after the windy night we slept though, to our final day on the NC500. We had only once place left to explore and set off for Farais Head after filling up our thermos with coffee.

We arrived at Balnakeil Bay for our wander up Farais Head. There was a dusting of snow here on the beach too. The morning sun had begun to melt it away, but the parts in the shade were still frozen when we arrived.

We walked along the beach and up towards the sand dunes. They were so tall that snow stayed in their shadows and puffins apparently nest at their tops in the summer. Topped with grasses, the dunes were undulating and we twisted our way through them, sticking to paths so we didn’t cause more erosion.

The sand sat in layers through the whole, high dune. A sign of the constant build up and erosion of the place. In one dune, a red sand lay underfoot and could be traced through the wall of the dune. The solid red sand must’ve held stronger in place than the softer yellows, holding in place to before the floor in some places.

We walked as far as we could on Farais Head as some of it is reserved for military use. It was a beautiful and calm place where we saw no one else.

As we walked back to the car, we talked through the few days just gone. The west coast of the NC500 has some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The mountains were spectacular, the roads windy and interesting, the company perfect as ever. It is a drive I hope to take again to revisit the amazing places we found, and to discover some new corners of the north.