The area surrounding Clachtoll Beach Campsite includes a variety of different habitats.
Travelling around the Assynt area you will notice the landscape is diverse and varied; moorland, lochs, bogs, mountains, woodland, sea cliffs, machair, rocky beaches and of course, sandy beaches such as the one at Clachtoll.
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Minkie whale on surface |
Basking shark feeding |
Rangers hut |
Basking shark alongside |
Seal |
The Ranger's Hut situated in the the beach car park at Clachtoll has display boards with information about the area and some of the things you might expect to see during your visit. |
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With such a variety of habitat, it's no suprise that the area boasts a wealth of wildlife and marinelife, plants and flowers. Schools of dolphin have regularly been spotted from the campsite as they pass along the coast, as have porpoise, basking sharks and minke whales. Seals and otters are also seen regularly playing around the coast.
Land and sea birds are in abundance and the woodlands in the area are home to badgers, deer and pine martins.
This area also boasts some of the most unique and oldest geology in Britain and in some cases Europe; sandstone, quartz, dolomite, limestone and Lewisian Gneiss all play a part in the make up of the landscape. Lewisian Gneiss is the oldest type of rock found in the area at about 3 billion years old!!! The last ice age, 10,000 years ago shaped the landscape into the way it looks today.
Knockan Crag Visitor Centre
The Moine Thrust runs from Durness to the south of Skye and was formed some 400-440 million years ago when Scandanavia collided with Greenland (which was attached to Scotland at that time). For the next 20-40 million years they continued to move at approx 10 cm a year and formed what is considered to be one of the most famous thrusts in the world, the Moine Thrust, part of which can be seen at Unapool and Knockan Crag. Look out for information panels at various laybys in the area which will explain the view you are looking at and how it was created.
