What is there to do?

Do you really need to ask? If you are not sure, you could...

... play cello on the roof, be arty, go fly fishing with James Curley ..take a boat trip on the "Isabella" or go kayaking. There are loads of hills to climb. If you are looking for a guide, ask Tim Hamlet You could of course always just light the stove and look out of the window. You never know what might appear.

Surrounding The Brochs, there is wildlife in abundance. After a short leisurely walk to the shore you might see seals, an otter or the elusive Great Northern Divers of Arthur Ransome fame. There are also killer whales, aka orcas.

And there are all kinds of fairly rare birds in the vicinity. Gannets, Eider ducks, Arctic terns, Oyster Catchers, Great Skuas, Shags, Cormorants, Puffins, Black throated Divers, Red throated Divers, Widgeons, Sandpipers, Reed Buntings, Herons, Red-breasted Mergansers, Dippers, Wagtails, Meadow Pipits, Red Grouse, Ring Ouzels, Wheateaters, Skylarks galore, Snipes, Whinchats, Stonechats, Golden Pöovers, Greenshanks, White-tailed sea eagles, Golden Eagles, Kestrels, Merlin’s, Buzzards, Falcons, Sparrow Hawks, Owls, Robins, Warblers, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Swallows, Swifts… just to give you a taste. Some of them build their nests in The Brochs‘ stone walls.

On the sea mammals front, pods of dolphins appear from late summer right into October, also the occasional minke and humpback whale. The picture below was taken by a passenger on Shearwater Cruises, who operate out of Ullapool.

Some of our guests are very active. Others amuse themselves mostly by taking photos right in front of the Brochs‘ windows like this wonderful shot by G.Griffin of a stag during the rut taking like a showjumper after a hind.

Mind you, one of the best things to do is just a walk on the beach without the stress of "doing things". Just you and nobody else. We think this beautiful poem by the Scots writer Nan Shepherd describes better than we ever could what you might experience, if if you do that.

Be warned, though! There is no television in The Brochs. There are too many other things to do than to watch TV. With us, you don’t need a David Attenborough show to see soprano pipistrelle bats hunting midges in the dusk. They do that outside the windows.

But there is a first class WiFi connection, so you don't have to go without Facebook or whatever else you use to download or upload or share your experiences with.

Foodie stuff

If you want to be your own master chef, there is a superbly equipped kitchen in each Broch with complimentary goodies and gourmet ingredients. We provide you with finest Cullisse Highland Rapeseed Oil and Orkney Craft Vinegar.

On the other hand, if you’d like others to do the master chefing for you, there is

It is a posh kind of place where dinner can take up all evening with five or six courses. It’s quite pricey. They’ve also got a gastro pub at the side of the hotel.

The Summer Isles Hotel is about 2 miles to the east of The Brochs. Two miles to the west, you’ll find the

It’s a genuine Scottish bar with tables at the back where you get honest pub fare of the best kind, including excellent lobster, langoustines and hand dived scallops.

Recently, a true gourmet kind of place opened in nearby Ullapool, The Dipping Lugger. That is, of course, if you count 25 miles mostly over a single track road as nearby. As we do.

CROFTING

Despite being super sophisticated, The Brochs are also part of a small sheep farm. You can experience, or at least see, how we get on with our animals and how they live with us. We’ve had guests who thought one of the highlights of their stay was helping with triplets being born and bottle feeding orphan lambs. So you are getting everything with us, from rugged nature to art, from wildlife to farming. What more do you want?

The chap below is one of our rams having an evening rest during tupping, which is called his “work”.