Stoer Lighthouse Split Rock. The loop road around North (Asainte) Cnoc an lochan glaciation with Red Boat. is a wonderful driving or cycling route and by Annabelle, P3 The light and dark banded Lewisan gneiss by Katie, P1 A894 there’s plenty of ‘hidden gems’ on the way to can be seen at most places along the stop for a tea and cake! Passing by white sandy route. Remember most of the crystals you beaches and archaeological culture spanning are looking at formed at extremely high Eddrachillis Bay the past four thousand years of Norse and pressures and temperatures, over 25 km deep, Gaelic history, there is so much to see here. Oldany Island Loch à Chairn Bhain approaching 3 billion years ago. Watch out The area is also famous for its community for places where the banding has been bent ownership. In the early 1990s the crofters and buckled under pressure. Some of the Clashnessie Drumbeg Unapool Stoer Lighthouse Loch Gleann Dubh Stoer Lighthouse. Old Man of Stoer. Bay managed to buy the land for £300,000 best examples can been found at Achmelvich by Millie, P4 by Caty, P6 A894 following a big fundraising campaign and beach, especially if you follow the footpath Clashnessie contributing their own savings. Although north to a second, smaller beach. PebbleRoute modern crofting has its origins in the 18th Along most of the route the Torridonian century, small scale agriculture like this has sandstone has been removed by the passage A894 3 been practiced on the North Atlantic Fringe of ice. Particularly in the last 2.5 million years, Clachtoll A837 for six thousand years. Today many crofters exposing the underlying Lewisian gneiss. There depend on their animals for much of their are remnants of pebbly sandstones and fine A837 A837 livelihood so please be really careful with your grained mudstones to be seen at Clachtoll and Achmelvich Beach Sron Stoer Lighthouse dogs around livestock. Stoer beaches and in the mountain sentinels A837 Loch Assynt at Sunset. A837 Pebble Route 3 takes you on a winding journey standing inland to the west. by Callum, P6 through a series of peaceful crofting townships Gneiss is very resistant to erosion, so when on the edge of the Atlantic. If you want to 2 km ice broke through the softer sandstone it met really take your time on this route, almost much tougher material. It smoothed over low every township has some form of accommo- lying hills (cnocs) and ground out shallow Paintings by the children of dation from camping to hotels and many hollows. The hollows now fill with water to Stoer Primary School RocksThe Rock from Stop the • Unapool, dawn Kylesku, of time , IV27 4HW crofting families also run a B&B. form the lochans.

(T) 01854Granite, 622754 syenite, • (E) porphyry: [email protected] Coarse igneous rocks, rich • inwww.nwhgeopark.com Moine Rocks: Metamorphosed sandstones and mudstones; For localfeldspar information: and quartz; www.discoverassynt.co.uk various ages. c. 980 million years old. Durness Limestone: Pale and dark grey limestone, commonly Lewisian Gneiss: A stripy, pink to grey-green rock, with distinct with caves, clints and grykes; c. 480 million years old. Scourie Dykes. At c. 3000 million years old the oldest rocks of Britain. Basal Quartzite and Pipe Rock: White to pink quartzite with Thrust faults worm burrows (‘pipes’) in the Pipe Rock; c. 500 million years old. Torridonian Sandstone: Red-brown, coarse sandstone; Evoke a Sense of Place c. 1000 million years old. Explore Deep Time Island Mountains Buried landscapes On old man watching whales? Endless exploring Pull into the carpark just before the top of the in the world and there is always a steady stream At Clachtoll you can visit the remains of an Iron is mudstone, look carefully for cracks formed as Look out to sea and you may be lucky enough Continue your journey past Clashnessie beach The view out from Drumbeg is over Eddrachilles footpaths and discover ancient Duns, Iron Age hill at the Sron (nose), here you can see why the of future Earth scientists studying the rocks at Age broch tower. There’s a Ranger hut here with wet mud dried and shrunk, known locally as to spot some dolphins, or head out to Stoer and Oldany Island. Oldney is Old Norse for ‘fruit bay and the islands you can see are Eilean an fridges (Souterrains) and old sheilings? The hill landscape in Assynt (Asainte) is iconic. The hills the side of the road. Call into the Rock Stop at information about the wildlife and history. You ‘Frankenstein stitches’. North west of Stoer Lighthouse for whale watching. There are some island’, a delicious concept! The island has been Achaidh (the field island) andCul Eilean (the back that now dominates the landscape to the east is here rise up like blips on a heart rate monitor, Unapool to find out more. can’t miss the curious ‘split rock’ but if you look beach you can see a thin spit of land sticking out more remnants of sandstones along the roadside uninhabited since the 1700s, but there’s a large island). You might be able to see the salmon farm, the (coon-yak) which is named after its the last roots of long gone mountains. Glaciers carefully you might find the contact between the into the sea called Stac Fada. This has been burial ground called Baile na Cille (the town by nestled between the islands. Continue your route narrow tip that resembles a cuinneag (milk-pail). From left to right in the photo we have Canisp, to Stoer Lighthouse and if you choose to walk have carved out these striking ‘inselbergs’ gneiss and sandstone at the far end of the beach. attracting attention recently and is shown to be the church) which suggests this hasn’t always along past Nedd, why not explore the many Suilven, Cul Mor and Cul Beag. around the peninsular at Stoer you will see a (island mountains) and each has its own This is the moment that vast rivers carrying sand material ejected from a massive asteroid strike sandstone sea-stack called ‘The old man of been the case. distinctive personality. At its heart Assynt has and pebbles began to bury hills and valleys made 1.2billion years ago. Stoer’. He’s popular with rock climbers! some of the most complex geology anywhere of gneiss. The outcrop in the centre of the beach Encourage Stewardship

Torbreck (from Sron) NC075255 Drumbeg NC119329 Photography: Lochinver Landscapes Lochinver Photography: