Rubha Carrach

Rubha Carrach is a headland about two kilometres to the northeast of Sanna, along Ardnamurchan's beautiful north coast. With the weather continuing fine, we walked to it on Sunday, approaching through the abandoned village of Plocaig.

The Diary isn't at all sure of the meaning of Rubha Carrach. Rubha is a headland, but carrach, according to the Gaelic dictionary, means 'scorbutic, itchy, mangy' - which can't be right. Carraig means 'a rock, a cliff, a headland', so maybe this is an example of where the OS got their names wrong: it should simply be called Carraig.

The headland forms the eastern arm of a wide bay which contains some of Ardnamurchan's best beaches, small, enclosed, secret, the haunt of otters, and only exposed at low tide - so they're swept clean twice a day.

The end of Rubha Carrach is often called The Cat's Face from the three white marks formed by guano from birds nesting on its ledges. At the inner corner of the headland there are caves, Glendrian caves, though the one time we visited them we were unimpressed.

If the walls of the headland are vertical, the top is as flat, the vegetation close-cropped grass and stunted heather. We sat at the very end to eat a picnic, surrounded on three sides by vertical drops, the seabirds wheeling below us.

This is the view eastwards along the cliffs towards Fascadale, four kilometres away as the crow flies. For most of the way the cliffs are almost vertical, with few paths up or down. It was along here that, a few years ago, one of a party of three kayakers overturned in choppy weather. She was lucky that one of the Rescue helicopters was on another call-out nearby, so it was able to pluck her from the sea. Kilchoan Coastguard later rescued her kayak from the base of the cliffs.