Sunshine can never be guaranteed in the Highlands, but visitors over the years have become used to donning wellies and having a great day out, whatever weather comes their way. Luckily for us, there was plenty of sunshine at the nature reserve which is an ancient pine forest overlooking Loch Maree. It is also home to a multitude of spectacular wildlife, including red deer and the golden eagle.

Any holidaymaker with an eye for nature would be overjoyed with the abundance of flora and fauna that the Highlands offer. Spring is the best time to see the many species of wild flowers which bloom in the glens and leafy avenues while among the feathered residents you may find song thrushes, dippers, buzzards, herons and, with luck, a Peregrine falcon or two. Early evenings and early mornings are also the best times to see families of shy badgers or wily country foxes. Don gave us an excellent book on the birds of the Highlands, which we thumbed through trying to identify the birds we saw perched on trees around us.

There was more excitement in store as we took one of the highest roads in Scotland — to Bealach na Ba, the Pass of the Cattle. It is said to be the steepest road in Britain and provides breathtaking views of Alpine grandeur. Don skillfully drove past the hairpin bends and precipitous cliffs which made up the only road linking Applecross with the rest of the country until the late 20th century. Applecross, whose Gaelic name, a’Chomraich, translates as ‘the sanctuary,’ dates back to the building of a monastery by an Irish monk in the area in the seventh century. Today, nothing remains of the ancient monastery of St Maelrubha. Its site is marked by the much more recent Old Parish Church at Craig, built in 1818, near the north side of the bridge over what is now called the River Applecross.

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