Located 40 miles north of Inverness, the village of Embo has a population of a few hundred people and lies in the sprawling Highland county of Sutherland. Fishing was formerly the main industry but the harbour is now abandoned and a large caravan resort - Grannie's Heilan' Hame - draws many tourists to this beautiful seaside location today. The nearest town is Dornoch, just over three miles distant.
I have great childhood memories of Embo. My parents took us up to Grannie's on caravan holidays and I would spend hours playing on the beach and in the sand dunes. Later on, my folks purchased a static van on the site and the now grown-up Fraser kids all booked at least one time slot per year. The caravan was later moved down the coast to Monifieth and finally sold to a local farmer. The site owners place limits on the maximum permitted age of a static caravan, usually somewhere between 15 and 25 years. You are then "invited" to upgrade or instructed to move elsewhere. As these deadlines came and went, my folks were by then in their 70s and decided to cash in their chips. There was a family return to Embo two years ago when we all headed north to celebrate my parents' golden wedding in a place that was special to them. Nicole and I decided this year to make a weekend pilgrimage and keep the tradition going. This meant departing straight after work on Friday and hopefully arriving at our Air B&B before the darkness descended. A straight drive to Embo takes around 3 hours 45 minutes but we always include a brief stop en route. As I finished at 15.30 and with our landlord requesting that we arrive by 8pm, we had no time to dally. The journey ran to schedule and I noted the dualling works in progress on the A9 carriageway just north of Perth. We halted at the House of Bruar country stores for a refreshment break. Our digs in Embo were in an end terraced house. The room was comfortable and we had use of our own toilet and shower. The landlord was a pleasant chap who told us the doors were never locked and we could simply come and go as we pleased. Perfect!
Fatigued after the long drive, we crashed out and enjoyed a breakfast of toast and cereal the following morning. Dornoch was the first port of call on the day's itinerary. The town has a lovely bookshop and I headed straight there. It's the kind of place I would never visit without buying something and I treated myself to a couple of books. One offering a humorous look at maps and travel and also the new release from Max Hastings, a weighty account of the Vietnam war. Hastings is brilliant at writing about major conflicts and I learn a great deal from his meticulously researched work. The shop cat Gilbert slept in a basket on the counter in bygone days and it's great to see a business like this still thriving. Next up was a visit to the Cocoa Mountain for a mug of their self-proclaimed world's best hot chocolate - an assertion I tend not to challenge too rigorously. Their original premises are in the far-flung craft village of Balnakeil, right in the northwest corner of Scotland. A few drives up there were undertaken in the past but it's certainly useful to have a branch in Dornoch. After this refuelling stop, we wandered around the old town, formerly the seat of local government in Sutherland. We located the Witch's Stone and read the rather gruesome tale of Janet Horne, the last woman in Scotland to be burned at the stake.
A short drive up the A9 took us to Golspie, apparently the first town you cannot realistically avoid when travelling from south to north in the UK. We passed through in search of Carn Liath, an iron age broch close to the shoreline. It was an impressive sight and the excavations have revealed the complete extent of the structure. We drove back into Golspie for lunch at a very blustery pier. Warming beverages followed at the Coffee Bothy. Well, we were on holiday and Nicole was still celebrating the remarkable achievement of securing a first-class honours degree. The rest of the day was spent viewing the birdlife at Loch Fleet and wandering along the colourful sands of Embo Beach. We enjoyed a nice dinner at the Eagle Hotel in Dornoch, an old haunt of ours. My chicken curry was washed down with a pint of Orkney Red McGregor. Afterwards the local pipe band did their usual Saturday night performance on the High Street, much to the delight of the visitors.
Sunday's long homeward trek was punctuated by several nature stops. Leaving Embo, we saw the seals slumbering on the sandbanks in the sea loch and a forest walk near Golspie yielded an impressive haul of chanterelle mushrooms. We caught sight of a bird we thought might be a crossbill but it was gone in a flash. Insufficient evidence to place that tick on the list. Three firths have to be crossed on the A9: Dornoch, Cromarty and Moray, the latter two demarcating the Black Isle, which is actually a peninsula. A quick stop at the Storehouse of Foulis proved a mild disappointment as they no longer have a deli counter. Chocolate (with sea salt) and oatcakes it was then. Not that I protested too heavily. It was a fairly relaxed drive down the spine of Scotland, the mad tourist season having passed. We cut off the A9 near Aviemore to visit the RSPB Loch Garten Osprey Centre, famous for being the UK location chosen by the majestic fishers for breeding purposes in the UK, after a long absence.
The ospreys weren't in attendance at this time of year but the reserve itself remains open. A major draw is the presence of the crested tits, who come down from the treetops to feed. There are flighty and notoriously difficult to photograph but I got lucky after training my camera on the scattered seed and waiting patiently. Nicole also managed to hand-feed coal tits and another welcome sight was a tree creeper doing exactly as its name would suggest. Ditto the woodpecker. I must admit I'm more of a bird photographer than a twitcher but it's always interesting to observe the behaviour of our feathered friends, especially at close quarters. There was a funny moment when a red squirrel appeared on the scene, scaring the birds away and helping itself to the nutty contents of the feeder. Everyone has to eat.
Time to hit the road again and head for home. It was perhaps a tad ambitious to go as far north as Embo for just a two-night stay. However, we wanted to visit one of our favourite parts of Scotland and sitting for hours in the car is part of the deal. The chanterelles made a delicious meal served with pasta and a creamy sauce. Food always tastes better if you've actually picked it yourself. I put my feet up and savoured a chocolate-infused stout I'd bought along the way. The plan is to make the Embo run an annual excursion. I won't put up much resistance to that.
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