North Coast 375

Living as far north as I do, the daylight hours at this time of year are already starting to grow short. To make it worse, I've been stuck at work for almost all of them this week. Happily, I'm on late shifts for most of next week, meaning I'll be able to get out and play for a few hours each morning. After a week of only seeing daylight through a window, I desperately needed to hit the road and soak up some sunshine on my days off. As luck would have it, I had wall to wall sunshine for the entirety of the first day and although the second day was a bit grey and drizzly, it was nothing too bad. I headed north and somehow ended up driving the majority of the North Coast 500 route! 

 

Early morning view looking westwards from Knockan Crag

I'm not sure of the names of the various peaks in the images, apart from Stac Pollaidh which is in the middle of the lower image, but I think one of them is Cul Mor. Cul Mor is where Norwegian Mugwort grows and I need to get myself up there if I want to see it, which I obviously do. Will 2024 be the year I finally make the effort? I'll have to see if my partner in crime fancies it, he's after alpine and montane riverflies and stuff. I reckon this area must be massively under-recorded as far as inverts go. Maybe I'll twist his arm. 

Random castle...

This is the saltmarsh I explored for an hour or so

This saltmarsh is located a few miles West of Laxford Bridge. I decided to explore the fringes, and in all fairness it was pretty bleak and rubbish. I expect it will be far more bustling in the height of summer but right now, a week from November, it was less lively. I took one step onto the mud and my boot promptly sank, after that I stayed on the grassy stuff. Despite that, I did find one species I was rather pleased to see

It's the very (very) small yellowish stuff...

Here's a massive crop, you can see it looks like tiny yellowish fingers sticking upwards

This is Moss Wrack Fucus cottonii, which is a type of brown marine alga (seaweed) found growing around the base of saltmarsh grasses, thrift, plantains, etc. It's undoubtedly under-recorded, even where it does occur, but in Britain it appears to be restricted to the NW coast of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides and Shetland. 

I decided to check out the other wracks present. There weren't many. 

Channelled Wrack Pelvetia canaliculata at the top of the shore

Bladder Wrack Fucus vesiculosus lower down the shore

And that was it. I told you there weren't many. But Moss Wrack was a nice one to find, I don't see it very often at all. 

This is Semibalanus balanoides, a common barnacle

Glacial features kinda excite me more than they probably should. I love this area

I discovered something that is new since I last came this way, there's a huge great zipwire strung high above a beach somewhere near Durness. It wasn't manned today, so I had a quick mooch around while nobody was looking

Probably 200ft of zipline - and that was the short one! 

There's a cliff jump thing too, which I guess is a bungee. Not high enough for a base jump. There's also a second longer zipline which has got to be 100ft above the beach, maybe more. It all looks good. I've already suggested the venue for a future work's do. Certainly I'm coming back here next summer, regardless of whether or not my colleagues join me. There's a short vid from the company's website here.

No idea what the huge bunker is about. Thunderbirds are go???

Continuing eastwards across the fabulous coastline I approached Invernaver Nature Reserve. Parking up, I headed across the sheep-munched meadows until I hit sand. That's when things became botanically interesting

Sand Sedge Carex arenanaria marching in lines across the open sand

Hoary Whitlowgrass Draba incana 

I've only previously seen this plant growing on Skye and Raasay, and always on a rocky ledge rather than in sand dunes. I was surprised at how very diminutive these plants were, and very surprised to see them flowering this late into the season! But Invernaver is full of unexpected plants, montane species down to 20ft above sea level. Like these, for instance

Yellow Saxifrage Saxifraga aizoides

Crowberry Empetrum nigrum

Juniper Juniperus communis, I suspect this is probably ssp nana?

Pride of place, in my eyes at least, has to go to this little beauty. I've only ever encountered it here, at Invernaver. This is Purple Oxytropis Oxytropis halleri, a very rare plant in Britain and again restricted to mountains. Apart from here, where it grows at about 25ft above sea level.

Purple Oxytropis Oxytropis halleri

And here it is in its habitat. Distinctive, but not as easy to spot as you might think...

I headed across to Dunnet Bay in yet another failed attempt to find Magellan Ragwort at the mouth of a burn. I don't know where I'm going wrong, maybe it's been recently eradicated? Maybe I'm just a numpty? All I know is that I keep trying and I keep failing to find it. 

I headed southwards (not an especially difficult thing to do when you're within spitting distance of John O'Groats) and eventually hauled up in a layby just outside of Elgin. Tomorrow would find me wandering a woodland in search of a new plant, but for now I hit the sack (well, the car-seat) and despite the noise of yet more millions of Pink-footed Geese managed a decent night's kip.