Virtual Tour Across A Billion-Year Shore: Otters, Garnets and Gneiss

Join Ranger Donald for a fascinating virtual guided walk around Scourie Bay in northwest Sutherland, a coastline shaped by time, tide, and the tracks of otters. From the comfort of your own home, follow Donald as his talk explores the 3-billion-year-old Lewisian gneiss, streaked with dark dykes and glinting with red garnets, and hear stories gathered from years of Ranger life along this wild Atlantic shore. 

Through photographs and first-hand tales, you’ll discover how to spot the signs of otters, their spraints left neatly on rocks, smooth runs through seaweed, and slides into the sea. Donald will share his encounters with these playful, elusive creatures, describing their habits, feeding grounds, and the quiet joy of watching one rise and roll through silver water at dusk. 

You’ll also pause along the virtual path to admire cliff-top wildflowers, listen to seabirds calling over the bay, and enjoy sweeping views across to Handa Island, the distant Assynt hills, and, on a clear day, all the way to the Isle of Lewis. 

It’s a journey through deep time and living landscape, rich in geology, wildlife, and local lore, told in the easy storytelling style of a ranger who knows every rock and ripple of this remarkable coast. 

This talk will be on Microsoft Teams 

We ask for donations for this event to help with our work, which goes towards education about and protection of the nature of the Highlands. Please give what you feel you can afford. We suggest a minimum donation of £5 per person to cover our costs or £10 per person to further support our work. 

* Please be aware that there is a minimum donation of £1 required to book on via Eventbrite. This does not go to the Ranger Service but is to cover Eventbrite Fees.*