Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Near as I can figure it, the most likely answers, seem to me to be:

Q1. Tarbet

Q2. Ru Stoer  aka Stoer Head lighthouse

(NB for question 2, there is a light marked on some maps next to Soyea island but from the directions given this is in the wrong location to be the lighthouse in question and the construction date and height make Ru Stoer a better candidate for the answer to this question. Some references call it Rhuba Stor lighthouse but most of the ones I looked at call it Ru Stoer).

From the initial clues given, the puzzle author is likely to be standing at a junction on the A894 where it loops around Loch a Bhagh Ghainmhich, in the northwest Sutherland region. Travelling northwest on the road leading from the junction with the A894, could lead you to the first hamlet of Tarbet, from where a ferry sometimes runs to Handa island, which is according to some sources, a nature reserve. On checking the OS map, the highest point on Handa island at 123 metres or around 404 feet, is found to be Sithean Mor. The island is reported to be around 764 acres in area. There is also a tiny dorp along that road called Fanagmore which has some islands next to it but there is no ferry marked on the map from there and the heights of the highest points on those islands don't match the information given in the clues (Eilean Ard 71 metres and Eilean a Mhadaidh 35 metres).

Around three miles southwest of the junction lies the second hamlet of Scourie, which is on a piece of land between Scourie bay and Loch a Bhadaidh Daraich. It was here that Bill Forsyth shot some of the scenes for the 1994 film 'Being Human' which was set over several historical periods and had Robin Williams, Ewan McGreggor and Robert Carlyle in it, to name a few of the actors in the very large cast.

From the description given, the third hamlet is most likely to be Kylestrome or Kylesku. The distance from Scourie looks to be around eight miles as the Aerospatiale SA 315B Lama flies but again if measuring by the car odometer, the road is twisty and turny and may well show a distance of 12 miles. The Kylesku bridge was constructed c1984 and from the photographs I looked at, there does seem to be a memorial cairn to the 12th submarine flotilla there. The submariners were a courageous bunch and travelled in tiny X-craft submarines (loaded with tonnes of Amatol high explosives) to Norway and did a bit of damage to a battleship called 'The Tirpitz'. Many of them did not survive this raid.

The distance measurement again is a little off but at this point (three twisty miles south of the third hamlet) I believe that the author was most likely at the junction of the A894 and the B869 close to Loch Unapool and around 14.5 miles west of this location would bring you to the vicinity of Stoer Head lighthouse (also known as Ru Stoer). The northern lighthouse board's web site claims that it was built c1870 by David and Thomas Stevenson and that it is around 14 metres or 46 feet high. There is another light near Soyea island in Loch Inver but this would be southwest of the junction described and seems to also be a radio beacon. There are reported to be dangerous Bonxies in this region, which swoop down from above on the heads of unwary travellers in the vicinity of the Ru Stoer lighthouse, not to mention fierce shape shifting Kelpies that inhabit the lochs and streams in this part of the world (Kelpies can be spotted in their human or other shifted forms, because they are always dripping wet, so don't let them borrow your I-phone, if you encounter one on your hiking trip)

Driving roughly two miles south from the junction of the A894/B869 brings us to a car park next to loch na Gainmhich and the cousin of the small waterfall there, which lies around three miles south east of the car park  and claims to be the largest cascade on the big British island, is most likely 'Eas a Chuall Alluin' at around 658 feet. Continuing down the A894 takes us to the A837 and Loch Assynt, to the east, dort auf dem schloss am meer (by yonder sea washed castle) of Ardvreck, to the west, towards the junction at the other end of the B869. The author would then likely follow the A837 west/south west, until it again meets the B869 and take that road to the Ru Stoer lighthouse.

Link to the competition

Sunday Times Where Was I?