Balmacara Estate

Balmacara Estate covers 2,500 hectares of the Lochalsh peninsula, three miles short of the Skye Bridge, and is the National Trust for Scotland's showcase of a working Highland crofting landscape: moorland hills between lochs, oak and birch woods and crofting townships such as Drumbuie, Duirinish and Plockton along an intricate coast. Coille Mhòr is a fragment of Scotland's temperate rainforest thick with lichens and ferns, 13 orchid species flower on the croftland, and red squirrels, pine martens, otters and dragonflies share the ground with Highland cattle. Seventeen miles of trails include the Lochalsh Woodland Walks, the Coral Beach of crushed maerl, the coast path from Duirinish to Port an Eorna and Murchison's Monument looking across Loch Alsh to Skye. Reviewers rate the woodland walks and their views highly and say most drivers race past on the way to Skye. Tips from visitors: start at Balmacara Square, where the free car park, shops, cafe and Steadings Gallery are, and expect steep drops on some woodland paths.