The Rock Spot

As predicted, the weather was dire today so we had a leisurely get up and drove over the hills into the Geopark as Tony had found a geology exhibition at The Rock Spot with a cafe which promised lunch!

The exhibition was informative with creative displays showing the geological ages and history and examples of the different rock types to be found in Assynt.  It didn't take very long to look around it and to view the video so we retired to the cafe which took very long to make two bacon rolls and two cuppas.  Good job the bacon rolls were tasty when they finally arrived.  I think the chef needed some multi-tasking training!

Stopping still for a while was, however, a sensible thing to do.  We had nabbed the table by the window and Tony spotted a small flock of goldfinches feasting on the grass seeds below us whilst I saw a thrush seeking out snails and knocking them on a paving stone to access the meaty goodness (well to thrushes!)

After lunch we drove back over to Lochinver and parked up at the Old Coastguard Station, our holiday home, and took a walk into the village to suss out one of the new restaurants as a possible evening meal destination.  We received a lovely welcome into a modern and comfortable interior and ordered cuppas whilst we perused the evening menu.  The seating areas were divided by local mountain landscape screens, difficult to describe but if you are interested, you can see one here.  They are very attractive, each displaying a different mountain scene.  When we spoke with the owner, she told us they were created by her father-in-law, a renowned Scottish landscape artist, James Hawkins, who has his studio near Ullapool.  We had noted his works on our travels in several locations.  He manipulated photos on computer to create the final images and they were transferred on to perspex.  The 'frames' were then built around the screens, very original and eye catching.

We decided against booking an evening meal because the menu was a little too 'stylish', not sure that is the right word, for our taste.  The food served to the French Family across from us did look delicious but it wasn't for us.  Instead we have booked into Peet's, on the recommendation of JeanneB53.

Reluctant to return to spend the afternoon reading, we took a walk up the road to the Primary School, following the Inver River which, after the rain, was raging.  Across from the School (who wouldn't want to teach surrounded by mountains on the shores of a loch?) was the way in to the local community woodland so we returned to the village via one of the tracks.

We picked up some shopping from the Spar, dropped off bottles at the bottle bank and called in at Lochinver Landscapes to spend Mary's Christmas money (thank you Mary!) on a smashing photo print of Suilven.

Our last stop before home was to pick up pies for tea from the Lochinver Larder.  We fell into line behind a large group of American women tourists who were eager to sample the 'famous' pies. When it is open, the Larder is rarely short of a queue!

My blip is taken from the Rock Spot looking down the loch to the Stack of Glentoul, a bit tricky to see in the low cloud.