Fabulous views and lungfuls of Atlantic air in the Scottish Highlands

‘There’s nowhere I’d rather be than the remote Applecross peninsula, perfect for solitary hikes, canoeing and peat fires’

The idea of a home “trip” can depend entirely, savagely so, on what age you are. Growing weary in the back of an Austin Allegro as a child, you simply long for entertainment. As a teenager, taking up too much room in the Renault, you damn everything with faint, bored praise. And then, suddenly, you hit your 20s, meet someone, and the idea of a day trip to a coast or castle or canal becomes embroidered with the idea of adulthood, paying for things on your own, with unique laughter and a dusting of lust.

Now I’m older still, the place I am drawn to, increasingly, rather than Tassie’s Bay of Fires or the Big Sur’s late golden light, is close to home: Applecross peninsula, Wester Ross, where my brother rents a but-and-ben, refurbished to grand enough if basic standards.