Kinlochewe

Kinlochewe (Scottish Gaelic: "Ceann Loch Iù") is a village in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. It is in the parish of Gairloch, the community of Torridon and Kinlochewe and the Highland Council area. It lies near the head of Loch Maree in its magnificent valley, and serves as a crossroads between the main Ullapool road north, and that which heads west to the coast at Loch Torridon. Loch Maree was at one time also known as Loch Ewe, hence the village's apparently confused name.

Kinlochewe has a couple of shops, a hotel and bunkhouse, mountain chalets, several bed and breakfasts, a post office (with internet café), and one of very few petrol filling stations for many miles in any direction.

Buses connect the village with Gairloch and the railhead at Achnasheen, with a small number running through to Inverness. A post bus service runs in from Torridon.

The village contains two churches, Kinlochewe Free Church, built in 1873, and the Church of Scotland.

To the north of the village, by the car park, is a First World War (1914-18) memorial. Two sergeants from the Seaforth Highlanders are remembered. Both were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and both later died of their wounds. Others from Canada and New Zealand are also remembered.

The village is also at the south-east corner of the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve, centred around the mountain of that name, which includes some surviving areas of natural forest, the majority of which was cut down from the 1500s onwards for iron smelting which was the major industry in the area. A short but steep woodland trail runs through pine forest on the lower slopes of the reserve, giving fine views over Loch Maree and the mountain of Slioch on the other side of the loch. A longer, rougher mountain trail climbs further up the slopes of Beinn Eighe.

In 2005 and 2006, the narrow, winding A832 road that snakes into the valley and the village from Glen Docherty in the south-east, was widened and improved for easier access.

External links

* [http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kinlochewe/kinlochewe/index.html The Undiscovered Scotland] page for Kinlochewe gives good coverage of the village and its facilities.

* [http://www.nnr-scotland.org.uk Scotland's National Nature Reserves] website.