The mountains of Torridon are among the oldest in Britain, and they look it. The great ridges of Liathach, Beinn Eighe and Beinn Alligin rise straight from the glens in terraces of red sandstone, capped in places with white quartzite, and the rock is about a billion years old, laid down as sediment long before there were plants on land. The Torridonian sandstone sits on even older gneiss, and the whole landscape has been scoured by glaciers into steep corries and sharp ridges. From the road along Glen Torridon, the cliffs seem to lean over you.
The area is protected, and much of it belongs to the National Trust for Scotland. Beinn Eighe was the first national nature reserve in Britain, declared in 1951, to protect remnants of the old Caledonian pine forest that once covered the Highlands, and you can still see ancient Scots pines on the slopes near Loch Maree. Red deer roam the hills, golden eagles hunt along the ridges, and pine martens live in the woods, though a rider is more likely to see deer at the roadside than anything else. The air smells of peat, heather and wet rock.
The road through Glen Torridon is a joy. It is a single-track road in places and wider in others, with long, open bends that follow the glen floor, and the surface is generally decent, with some rough patches and frost damage. Traffic is light, apart from the occasional camper van, and passing places are frequent. The view at every turn is of mountains, and the light changes constantly as cloud shadows sweep across the cliffs. In autumn the bracken turns orange and the hills glow, and in winter snow turns the peaks white and the road can be treacherous.
Weather is the great variable. Torridon is among the wettest parts of Scotland, and rain can come in at any time of year, often sideways. A waterproof suit is not optional. Midges are fierce from June to September in still air, so a head net can be a mercy at a lay-by. On a clear day, however, the visibility is superb, and the colours of the rock and the heather are rich.
The village of Shieldaig on the coast has a shop and a small hotel, and Kinlochewe has a few services, but fuel is best bought at Lochcarron, Gairloch or Kyle of Lochalsh before you come this way. The visitor centre in Torridon explains the geology and wildlife, and it is worth a stop if the weather is bad.
Stop on a verge, switch off the engine and look up. The scale of these hills is humbling.