Undiscovered Scotland

 

If you are observant as you drive north across the Kessock Bridge from Inverness, you can catch a glimpse of a small village to the north-east, on the shore of the Moray Firth.

This is the tiny hamlet of Kilmuir. Actually finding it via the maze of single track roads on the north side of the A9 takes some doing, but if you've got a good map and know how to read it, it's only about three miles from the junction on the A9 near North Kessock and around the flank of Ord Hill to Kilmuir. (Continues below images...)

 

The final stretch of road doubles back on itself at a farm to descend to the parking area at the east end of the village. Before descending to Kilmuir itself, it is worth parking near the farm and walking a hundred yards or so along a track heading north-east, parallel to the shore.

This leads you to the remains of Kilmuir Church. This was probably built in the late 1400s, and ceased being used in 1764. It was then converted into a burial vault and enclosure in the 1800s. Today it is difficult to believe you are looking at a church, so deeply overgrown is it with ivy.

But it is still possible to see the graves within the church, and if you are prepared to find your way under the mass of ivy, you can also see into the burial vault at the eastern end of the church: not an experience to be recommended for the easily spooked!

Kilmuir itself is just a single row of cottages and houses looking across the narrow road to the shoreline beyond. There was a time when the village's isolation placed a question mark over its future. However, the opening of the Kessock Bridge in 1982 put Kilmuir within six miles by road of the centre of Inverness, which means that today it is a pleasant, very quiet, but thriving little community.