Before leaving this picturesque little bay, the view up the Flowerdale glen, with the rocky Craig a Chait rising above the woods immediately behind the house, ought to be particularly noted. Think of Donald Odhar's wonderful shot recorded on [page 46]. Looking out towards the sea-loch, Fraoch Eilean is seen, celebrated for the slaughter of so many Macleods in the affair of Leac nan Saighead, the story of which is told on [pages 45 and 46].
It is about a mile further to the Gairloch Hotel. Mounting a "brae," we pass the Caledonian Bank on the right, and a little further the Established church, also on the right. Just below the road on the left, alongside of the Established church, is the hollow in the turf-covered sand called the Leabaidh na ba bàine, or "bed of the white cow," where the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is dispensed twice a year. The gathering on these occasions is well worth seeing; it is described on [pages 118 et seq.]
A little further, to the left of the road, in a flat hollow in the sand hills, is the Gairloch churchyard or burial-ground, where lie the remains of the older lairds of Gairloch, and of many of the bards, poets, and pipers mentioned in this book, as well as of a great number of the less-known inhabitants of Gairloch. Here also was formerly the church of St Maelrubha, probably a thatched edifice. Perhaps the most remarkable gravestone in the churchyard is that of John Hay (see [pages 82 and 83]), said to have been the last manager of the Letterewe ironworks. Outside the entrance to the churchyard some fragments of slag may be seen ([page 95]). Between the churchyard and the road is the monument erected to the memory of John Mackenzie of "The Beauties" ([Part II., chap. xxii.]). The road now mounts the shoulder of the hill called the Crasg (mentioned on [page 40]); and fine views open out of the largest sandy beach at Gairloch, and of the wide expanse of the bay or sea-loch of the same name, with the hills of Skye, and some smaller islands further north, in the distance. At the south-west end of this sandy beach, a little to the right of the volunteer targets, is the hillock on which the Dun, the ancient castle of Gairloch, often named in the traditions given in Part I., and described on [page 98], formerly stood. Some traces of its foundations are still to be seen, as well as slight remains of a vitrified fort, which is supposed to have occupied the same site before the castle stood there. On the side of the Crasg overlooking the churchyard, and a few yards west of the high road, is the Cnoc a Croiche, or "gallows hill," overhanging a steep ravine (see [page 116]).
Surmounting the Crasg we rapidly descend, and passing the new Free church (which actually contains a stained-glass rose window) on the left, and the Free church manse with its well-kept garden on the right, we reach at last
The Gairloch Hotel.
This hotel was erected in 1872, and enlarged in 1881. It has a large coffee-room, a good drawing-room, a reading-room, a smoke-room, a billiard-room, and several good private sitting-rooms, whilst nearly one hundred and fifty beds can be made up. The hotel is conducted on the best modern system, and no one should object to the charges, for when the highest degree of comfort is provided it should be ungrudgingly paid for. The season is short, and the crowds of visitors it brings are necessarily a great tax on the resources of the establishment.
During the season services according to the form of the Church of England are conducted in the house, whilst those who prefer the Presbyterian churches will find the Established and Free churches in close proximity.
There is a stall in the hotel where Gairloch hose, photographs of the district, and other souvenirs can be purchased.
There are excellent gardens and hothouses on the slope behind the hotel, which is well supplied from them not only with vegetables in season, but with grapes, flowers, and decorative plants.