Ullapool

Ullapool is a fishing and ferry town on the shore of Loch Broom, about 45 miles north-west of Inverness, and by some distance the largest settlement in the North-West Highlands, though its population is only around 1,500. It was built in 1788 as a planned herring station by the British Fisheries Society, laid out on a grid that still shapes the town today, and it remains a working harbour as well as the ferry port for Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.

Why base here

The North-West Highlands around Ullapool, Assynt and Coigach to the north, and the hills around Loch Broom, are built differently from the hills further south and east: isolated sandstone peaks rising alone from moorland and lochans, rather than connected ridgelines. Two of them, An Teallach and Suilven, at 731m, are full mountain days, and Ullapool is the natural base for the first and a long drive from the second. Ullapool is the only town of any size for a long way in any direction, which makes it the natural base for exploring this area, and its ferry adds a day trip, or a longer one, to the Outer Hebrides.

On foot versus by car

Nothing of note is walkable directly from Ullapool itself beyond the town’s own harbourside and a stretch of the Ullapool river; the area’s best-known features, Stac Pollaidh and Corrieshalloch Gorge, both need a car, roughly 25 to 30 minutes’ drive in different directions.

The two big hills start from other roads. Walkhighlands starts the An Teallach traverse in a layby on the A832 by the Dundonnell Hotel and ends it at Corrie Hallie, 20km and 1,415m of ascent later in nine to ten hours, so it is a day for a car at each end rather than three kilometres of road walking back. Suilven begins at the end of the public road beyond Lochinver, which the Gazetteer for Scotland places about 30 miles north-west of Ullapool, so it is a long drive out and back for a hill that Walkhighlands puts at 20km and 947m of ascent; anyone planning Suilven should read Lochinver first and sleep there instead.

Practicalities

Ullapool has never had a railway; the nearest station is at Garve, on the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh line. A Citylink coach connects the town to Inverness. CalMac ferries to Stornoway run all year; check sailing times with the operator.