An Cala Bunkhouse and Café

An Cala is one of the workhorse stay options in Lochinver, a bunkhouse and café on Culag Road, near the harbour and the start of the path along the Culag Wood. The accommodation is bunk-style with a mix of shared and private rooms, geared to the walkers, cyclists and NC500-touring travellers for whom Lochinver is a natural overnight stop on the route round Sutherland.

The café operates as a daytime stop independently of the bunkhouse, and is a useful breakfast or lunch option in a part of the country where café provision is thin. Soup, toasties, baking and the usual hot-drinks range turn over through the day; the small cluster of shore-side businesses behind the building (Lochinver Larder for the pies, the pottery showroom and a couple of cafés) is two minutes’ walk away if An Cala is full at lunchtime.

The wider Lochinver area is the practical base for the major Assynt walking objectives. Suilven, the most distinctive of all the Assynt mountains, the isolated sandstone hump that looks dropped from the south, is climbed by the long approach from Glencanisp Lodge, an eight-mile round trip on its own before the ascent starts. Stac Pollaidh is shorter and easier, the steep eroded ridge above the Drumrunie road. Cul Mor and Cul Beag round out the day for walkers prepared for less-trodden ground.

Bunkhouse beds book up reliably in summer; early reservation advised through the NC500 peak.