B8057

Boor

The B8057 is the most northerly of the B-roads that wiggle along the Wester Ross Coast near Gairloch. The 1923 MoT map marks the road as little more than a track but it was obviously important enough to have gained Class II status by 1932, even though the road serves nowhere of importance today.

The road starts on the A832 in Poolewe, and runs past the shops and hotel in the village, before a sharp left-hand bend turns it along the coast. The first mile or so is quite rugged, the road hugging the contours along a steeply sloping hillside with few houses, but as the contours relent, houses and villages are dotted along the roadside on the journey north. The road climbs up the steep, rocky slopes of Boor Hill to a summit of 54m, before dipping back down to Naast. It takes another miles to reach the coast at Brae, from where the scattering of villages stretches north through Midtown, Inverasdale and Coast, each offering spectacular views across Loch Ewe. There is then a break in the houses as the road crosses a low hill, and curves behind the stunning bay of Firemore Beach, with its vast empty sands stretching out into the loch.

The final village along the road is Cove, again strung out across the landscape either side of the road for about a mile and offering spectacular views inland to the hills and mountains of Wester Ross. Finally, just after a farm north of Cove, the B8057 comes to an end and an unclassified road continues ahead into a car park. From here paths lead up to WW2 gun emplacements on the hill, or down to the rocky bay beneath. On a clear day, the view across the Minch may show the Isle of Lewis on the horizon.

Across the water of Loch Ewe are the villages of Aultbea and Mellon Charles, seemingly more densely populated than the villages along the B8057 and yet strung along an unclassified road. On the way back, you may wish to pause in one of the small car parks to explore the small harbours, bays, and wide beaches that you have passed along the road. They are worth stopping at on a fine sunny day, but perhaps not when it's blowing a gale and raining!