Saturday 24th June 2023
The weather is due to get very hot today. Unfortunately we have a long set up because we are moving on. We drove to Crovie and left the Volvo in the viewpoint car park above the village then we drove to Cowhythe near Portsoy to resume walking. It was nearly 10.00 before we got going.
We followed the road to the entrance to the quarry. Here there is a designated footpath alongside the track to the quarry. The entrance to the quarry has a notice excluding all unauthorised persons from entering. It looks as if the quarry has expanded in recent years with new buildings at the road head as well. The quarry itself appears well fenced off with a secure gate.
We walked down the footpath and at the end are steps to the beach. It was slightly unclear where the path should be. There was a sort of path up a buttress of rock involving some careful footwork and when I got up that, the descent the other side looked a little dangerous and I was not sure that Jill would agree to do it and so I decided we should try going along the cliff top. The map very definitely shows a path along the top of the cliff at this point.
When we got back to the end of the path beside the track, we started to follow along the outside of the fence. It was very overgrown and not very wide. Jill went ahead and with some difficulty reached the far side of the narrow section but then we came to a fence and a gully which was going to be very difficult. Also there was no certainty that the path ahead would be walkable.
From where we turned back, we could see down to the rocky buttress I had abandoned the lower route. Jill was not convinced it would have been that difficult but she accepted she had not looked down it as I had. What was more irritating was that the onward path was fairly obvious from there and looked no worse than many others we have done.
Having been defeated by both the lower and upper route, I decided that we should return to the road and follow the tarmac into Whitehills.
Once we came to Whitehills, we could readily follow the coast. We paused for coffee overlooking the harbour.
By the marina in Whitehills is a memorial to Fishermen and Seafarers who have lost their life at sea. It was unveiled in 2015 by the Duke of Kent. It specifically has no names or dates; it encompasses all.
The route to Inverboyndie was an old railway line which presented no problems. We walked across Inverboyndie beach and then came to Banff.
Banff has a fair at this time of year which was setting up. From here we crossed the road bridge over the R Deveron and came into MacDuff. Then a funny thing happened. Drops of water started falling from the sky and so we stopped to put on rain covers and waterproof jackets and by the time we had done that the rain had stopped.
We had lunch overlooking the sea. I had plotted our way on along the cliff tops. As we came the end of the road there was a path continuing along the coast to an old Lido which is fenced off. Then a path climbs steeply out of the little bay and then there are two options; first to climb down to the next beach and an uncertain way on and the other was stay high. We stayed high fortunately because the path into the bay appeared to come to a dead end even if the map suggested otherwise.
We were now in the Tarlair Golf course and we could follow around the edge of the golf course. Interestingly there had been a fire on the cliff face beneath Tarlair Golf Course the smell of which still hung in the air. At the end of the golf course progress ceased.
We had to get over a barbed wire fence but the space between the field fence and the cliff was very overgrown and there was no path. We found we were losing our feet into holes or having to hold on to the barbed wire fence to prevent slipping down the cliff.
The solution was to climb over the fence into the field of barley.
It was a huge field. It had clearly been managed by a computer/sat-nav-controlled tractor because there were parallel tractor tracks running 10m inside the the field fence and no seed was sown where the tractor wheels go. Jill spotted the opportunity, took the shortest route to the nearest tractor track and then we at last began to make progress; we could walk very readily around the field without damaging any crops.
There is a deep gorge from Silverhillocks to the sea at Old Haven that cannot readily be crossed and so we continued in the tractor tracks up to the road and managed to climb out over the fence to the road.
There is no hint of a path along the next section of cliff and so we stuck to the road until a turning to Easterton of Whitehill. This turned out to be a recently re-furbished path presumably with statutory funding because the path is a six foot wide motorway constructed with recycled tarmac perhaps to make it wheel chair friendly though the gradients would argue against that.
It is very walkable. It is a blot on the landscape. As we progressed I could see down to Gardenstown but to my dismay the route along the shore to Crovie was obstructed by a huge rock buttress and the tide was lapping at the base.
I was in deep shit now and was rehearsing how I was going to break the news to Jill and find an alternative route. Then, ahead, I saw three people talking earnestly. I butted in on their conversation and the two who were local indicated the route down to Gardenstown and told me that there was also a walk through to Crovie. That was a huge relief because Jill was very tired and was not going to be enthusiastic about finding diversion to the end of our walk.
The walk down to Gardenstown took us past the remains of St John’s church after which we left the “motorway” path for a grassy path which winds down the gorge crossing Kirk Burn twice and then comes straight to the beach which is delightful.
The village sits on the shore. The cottages open directly onto the unguarded concrete sea wall which is just wide enough for single cars to drive along and there is a turning area where the sea wall ends. Further along, the village widens out and at the other end of the village under the cliffs there is a car park. It is clearly a very popular place with holiday makers. Unfortunately we were too late to find the café open and there were no ice-cream vendors, though there was a mobile fish and chip van doing a roaring trade.
We followed the path to the beach where one can walk above the normal high tide line to reach a some steps which climb to a passage cut through the rock buttress. On the other side the path continues on a stone platform around the cliffs to come to Crovie.
Crovie is even smaller than Gardenstown and has even less space for cars and so there is a car park just above the village (sounds a bit like Clovelly but there are no admission charges).
We climbed the steep quarter mile to the village car park; we were both very tired but it was another day done.
Just Coasting 