On the north west coast of Lewis, gazing out over the Atlantic, there's this secret bothy ...

If I told you where it was I'd have to shoot you ...

August 2008

There's a lot of Ross-shire on the mainland, from Gairloch on the west coast to Portmahomach on the east, but it also includes the Isle of Lewis - whose joining to Harris makes it more interesting, if somehow less of an island.

From the stark stones of Callanish, and the nearby Broch, through the Black House village at Garenin, from the moors to the coast, this is a remarkable place.

A highlight was a walk over the hills to a savage coastline where steep cliffs, eaten by wild seas, also hide this wonderful secret bothy (above).

Built with stones from the cliffs themselves and with only a couple of windows and a hidden door to mark it from the bare cliffs surrounding it, this is somewhere you could pass by without seeing.

And what a view you would miss!

A broch: fortress against the weather as well as the invading neighbours? Castle of prestige? Sheep shelter? Read the possible explanations here or just stand in awe of these remarkable and magnificent dry stone wall double-skinned towers dating back to the first century BC.

And what about Cromarty? Well, under a strict interpretation of my "ancient counties" rules you could say that as Cromarty-shire was merged with Ross-shire in 1890, the joint "Ross and Cromarty" counts as a single county.

You could also say that as Cromartyshire existed mainly as a series of fragmented enclaves previous to that, joining them together was a sensible thing - and anyway it's sometimes tough finding the areas now that count as old Cromartyshire (I've counted more than 20 separate bits!).

So what I did was to visit the town of Cromarty, the sea port of The Black Isle, which was the county town of Cromartyshire.