The Back Of Beyond

Nestled along the west coast of Scotland are wild peninsulas and isolated communities that give a taste of island life without the hassle, says Madeleine Silver

- Madeleine Silver

TAKING the turning off the A835 north of Ullapool, signposted for Achiltibuie, you wind along a 12-mile single-track road, navigating the passing places as you go and, just when you think it might never end, the sprawling, white, sandy beach of Achnahaird appears before you like something from a storybook.

‘When you see Achnahaird, you feel as if you’ve arrived in another world,’ says artist Fiona Pitt, who bought a cottage with her husband on the edge of the Coigach Peninsula’s main village, Achiltibuie, nearly 20 years ago. ‘We never considered buying on the Hebrides because it’s just too far and you have to rely on the weather to get there, but where we are is just like being on an island because there’s only one way in. Once we’re here, we don’t want to go anywhere else.’

Scattered up and down the west coast of Scotland are hidden communities much like Achiltibuie, at the end of single-track roads, as well as wild peninsulas where houses perch in enviable isolation. ‘Buying a property on mainland Scotland can be just as magical and remote as on the isles—and a lot less hassle,’ explains Edwina de Klee at Garrington Property Finders in Edinburgh (0131–564 1156).