Roadtrip 2011; Faraid Head

The penulsia of Faraid Head is a 2 1/2 mile Headland sticking out into the Atlantic and is covered for 2 3rds on one side by drifting sand from the beach creating the largest sand dunes in the UK,


The headland has a conctete road accessed from the beach at Balnakeil House and the old church...






The road leads to the edge of the headland where there is located a small radar station built in the 1950s to house a ROTOR radar system to provide radar coverage of Scotland's north coast.
After the Cold War The main building was renovated as a control tower for the Cape Wrath and Garvie Island bombing ranges used by the M.O.D,
The dunes are still growing in size and height here, sand was being whisked up the dunes in the strong wind blowing...










I have been wanting to ride up here with the pugsley for a while, its amazing...



It was after 9pm in the evening, mid June and no one around again!...




It takes about 15 minutes to ride up the road which is covered in sand following 4x4 tracks of the local shepherd until the road re appears and leads up to the MOD base...



The base is used around once a month and is the only live fire range in the UK, 1000 lbs bombs are dropped on Garve Island by the RAF, Today all is quiet, there are a lot of pictures on flickr of bombing pratice here, and some of the MOD base`s monitering tower...
















Good views from the point...






East of the Base is the summit with again fantastic views...






Flying back down the road to the dunes i went exploring on the pugsley...


Not every day you wait for cattle to pass by when out beachriding...






Dune paradise...












































Here there is no problem riding on the dunes,
i rode and filmed for over 3 hours and sunset untill i was knackerd,
Lots of different descents to the beach, one of them took 1 min 18secs!
Due to my PC lacking power i made a mess of editing the HD footage and published in the wrong setting so is film is not HD or wide screen, and i did not keep the Go Pro files as they clogged my 1G PC, now the PC has been upped to 4G there is no probs!, So just need to go back sometime and re film!, worth the 5-6 hour drive to the opposite end of Scotland,
Maybe you can do something to stretch the screen out on your PC to watch,
Probably the best days cycling to date i have ever had...




3 films from this amazing place,

Non cycling film, music is `Macquarie ridge` by Boards of Canada...





Beachride...some big dune surfing from half way on...
music is `Lady labyrinth` by Ludovico Einaudi...





And unedited 18 mins...