The Village
Founded by the British
Fisheries Society in 1788. It is a
beautiful Highland village (population - including the
surrounding area - is about 1700) set on the shore of
Lochbroom, a sea loch running directly into the Minch.
Within 100m of Woodlands
A wide variety of shops: -
a Somerfield Supermarket,
a Costcutters, Boots the chemists,
Parletts
newsagent,
The Frigate bakery and
wholefood shop, Captains Cabin
hardware and fancy goods store, two bookshops,
several woollens shops, outdoor clothing shops
including a designer knitwear shop, an Organic and
wholefood shop, a Builders Merchants
a Post Office and two Banks and several gift shops.
Just a little further and we have the Internationally known
Highland Stoneware with its beautiful and individual
hand made and painted ceramics of every kind.
In the village there is also a Police Station,
a petrol station, two motor repairers
one boat builder and repairer.
Plenty of fine pubs, restaurants and cafes
(menus are in the room files)
The
Public Library is in the
Ullapool High School
in Mill Street, which has
free Internet access.
Live performances of concerts and plays etc take place in
The MacPhail Centre within the
High School as well as
in the
Village Hall
Many Local pubs have live, traditional musicians to
entertain their customers
Shore
Street
There are many fine walks locally
The
5.5 km beach walk
to
Rhue Point Lighthouse
the
4.8 km walk on the well
set up
Ullapool Hill Path -
both of
these
start within 200m of Woodlands.
The excellent
footpath round the
Knockan Crag
(about
8 mile - 13 km -
North)
is
highly recommended,
easy
1 to 1 1/2 hour walk with
spectacular views
Click here for
other local
walks
(then click
the Tourism label on the page you get)
Ullapool News
is the long
established local community newspaper -
on sale every
Friday at
Lochbroom Hardware and
several other local outlets.
Ullapool News is a weekly,
and has been running for 38 years, making it one of
the very longest established such paper in the UK. I
t's a great read - taken by almost all the locals and
packed with information of what's been happening
or is about to happen in the district.
A great many copies
are sent away from the village to be
read by friends and
regular holidaymakers, enabling them
to keep up
with
Ullapool news and activities.
Ullapool
also
has its own
Radio Station, Lochbroom FM
(broadcasting on
102.2kHz.), once reputed to be the
smallest Radio Station
in the world. Located in its own
purpose built premises
on
Mill Street Industrial Estate
It is run
entirely by volunteers. In the summer it is
famous around
the world for its unique, daily
'midge
count' !!
Fancy
training as a Radio Presenter ?
Get in touch with
Lochbroom
FM - they run
holiday
excellent courses !!
(photo
LBFM)
Visitors
are very welcome at
Lochbroom FM
The Pier
In the tourist season there are pleasure boat
trips to the
Summer Islands and
MacBraynes
Ferry to Stornoway
It is only about
75m from Woodlands
The
Ferry "Isle of Lewis" leaving Ullapool
Despite being
built as a
herring port,
Ullapool has few fish
landings these days
- all the fish sold while the ships
are at sea.
Ullapool
Junior Pipe Band
Thursday
evenings at 7.30pm in the summer
season,
the renowned Ullapool Junior Pipe Band
( gained a
Queen's Award for Voluntary Services in 2005)
marches with
pipes and drums from the
Village Hall in
Market Street, down
Quay Street to
the
MacBraynes
(Ferry) Car park, where, with the
young
Scottish Dancers, they put on a fine, 1 hour
performance
delighting large numbers of visitors and
regular
local supporters.
It's well worth taking the trouble to be
there.
Passing
Woodlands on their way to their regular
Thursday evening
performance
in the Ferry car park
Highlands
Before Pylons
Ullapool
is also the base for HBP,
the organisation campaigning against spoiling our beautiful
countryside with overhead power lines
An
Teallach from Loch Droma
(photo Iain Roy)
Loch
Droma sunset
You
can't save the environment (via renewable
energy)
by
destroying it with pylons and turbines !!!
Eating
Out in Ullapool is Excellent !!
We have a
large variety of Restaurants and pubs
offering high
quality local produce.
Try : -
The
Morefield - Large bar
specialising in local seafood
The
Ceilidh Place - Local produce
and fine vegetarian
and wholefood meals
The
Arch Inn - Local produce
with lively and varied menu
Evening
meals are also available in
The
Argyll Hotel, The Ferryboat Inn,
The Royal Hotel
(Italian), The Seaforth,
The Caledonian Hotel,
The
Frigate, The Tea Store,
The Broom Bar. The Jasmin (Indian)
Restaurant
Lunches
and light meals are also available
in
The
Ceilidh Place, The Frigate,The Tea Store,
Dal Na Mara(Tea
by the Sea), Mountain Man
The
Jade House (Chinese
takeaway)
Award winning
Fish and Chips
BBC's
Food and Farming Awards
1st Prize 'Small takeway'
all
ensure you won't go hungry in Ullapool
ALL within easy
walking distance of Woodlands
Market
Street in Springtime
Watch the Isle
of Lewis(Stornoway Ferry) embarking or
disembarking
lorries, cars and passengers.
Wednesdays and Fridays, in
the summer season, you can
take a day trip on the Ferry,
giving you 6 hours ashore,
and including a coach trip
round Lewis visiting the
Calanish Stones, a Broch and a
'Black House',
before returning to the Ferry for the
evening return to
Ullapool.
You can
board
The Summer Queen for spectacular
cruises
down beautiful Lochbroom, past
Rhue Point Lighthouse,
round
Isle Martin and out to the
stunning
Summer
Islands, landing
on
Tanera Mohr
View
from Tanera Mohr
Visit the
seals (Grey and Common) and
the
Salmon
Farm and see
Harbour Porpoise and
very
occasionally
Bottlenosed Dolphins.
If you are
very lucky
Sea Otters and
Orcas can
be seen.
There are also a very large variety of
sea birds. After a
storm, one of the finest sights
in the area, is to watch
the Gannets plummeting
into the sea from 20m or
more.
Our roads are
still uncongested, and the unspoiled
and unsurpassed
beauty of
our
countryside -
the last true Wilderness in the UK -
with
its abundant wildlife, is sure to entrance you.
Motoring
is still a pleasure up here, and with open
eyes you can
spot
Red deer, Golden Eagles,
Red Kites and, if you're
lucky, an
Osprey, not far
from
Ullapool.
In
the spring there are frolicking
lambs in the
fields,
the
hedgerows are full of
primroses, violets and
bluebells
and the
hillsides are golden with flowering
Gorse and
Broom
Many
visitors come back again and again
to our lovely unspoiled
area
(We, ourselves, came every summer from 1977 to 1993 -
then
we had the good sense to move here in early 1995 !!
Most
sensible thing we've ever done !!)
Two
of our regular visitors have stayed every
spring since we
moved here !
Nowhere
else in the North West Highlands offers anywhere
near the
variety of eating out, quiet relaxing pubs
(and pubs with
Scottish music) and such a variety of
pleasant walks in
such a spectacular environment.
Within easy day or
half-day range of
Ullapool there are
an
enormous range of
Places to See and
Things to Do
Lochbroom
Sunset
So make
Ullapool
the
centre
for your Highland Holiday
© 2006 Ike Gibson Contact Me