Ardnamurchan

View across Eilean Chaluim Cille bay to Ardnamurchan Point and lighthouse.

Welcome sign at Kilchoan ferry terminal

Ardnamurchan (Scottish Gaelic: Ard na Murchan) is a 50 square mile peninsula in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, noted for being very unspoilt and undisturbed. It contains an abundance of wildlife. Its remoteness is accentuated by the main access route being a single track road for much of its length. Ardnamurchan has one of the highest concentration of Gaelic speakers on the mainland.

Historically part of the former county of Argyll, it is now part of the Lochaber committee area of the Highland unitary authority.

Strictly speaking Ardnamurchan covers only the peninsula beyond the villages of Salen (in the south) and Acharacle (in the north), but nowadays the term is used much more generally to include the neighbouring districts of Sunart, Ardgour, Morvern, and even Moidart (which was part of the former county of Inverness-shire, not Argyll).

Ardnamurchan Point, which has a 36 metre tall lighthouse built on it, is commonly described as the most westerly point in the British mainland although Corrachadh Mor (a kilometre to the south) is a few metres further west.

The population of the whole peninsula is around 2000.

Villages in Ardnamurchan:
*Acharacle
*Achnaha
*Glenborrodale
*Glenmore
*Kilchoan
*Kilmory
*Laga
*Ockle
*Portuairk
*Sanna

Ardnamurchan is widely considered by many who visit it to be one of the most stunning natural parts of the Scottish coast. It is beautiful, utterly wild and unspoilt. The most stunning of all perhaps, is Ardnamurchan Point, which is also the furthest westerly point on the British Mainland. Here there is a lighthouse, and in addition, a view from a sheer rock face of the open Atlantic Ocean with only the wind and sun for company.