Ullapool

Ullapool - always a favourite place of ours. I spent a few days at the Youth Hostel there which has the advantages of hot showers, friendly staff, good cooking facilities and a gorgeous location on the seafront. The disadvantage of the place is that it is adjacent to a pub. Not that I object to a good pub, it's just that there is a direct causal relationship between the proximity of the pub and the volume of the snoring that takes place in the hostel dorms. On the last night I was there a middle-aged hippie returned from the hostelry to the hostel in the middle of the night, crashed in waking everyone, collapsed on his bunk and lay on his back and proceeded to snore at levels which seismologists across Europe tracked as their instruments trembled.

The remnants of our much depleted sea-fishing industry can be observed close at hand in the harbour at Ullapool. Lobster pots like these are taken in and out by small vessels during the day, while large trawlers land huge catches late into the night - which are frozen on site and driven all across Europe. Langoustine landed here will be in Spain within 24 hours, the fisherman told me.

Four Star at Three Pounds and four shillings a Gallon? You've never had it so grim!

From the door of the Hostel

Ullapool, lovely Ullapool!