Sunday 18th June 2023

Last evening on our way back, we left one car at Tore to save us both having to drive in each direction and so this morning we drove back to Tore, collected the car and then drove on to leave a car at Newton of Petty before returning to Avoch.

We set off up the hill and along the track to Ormond Hill and through the woods of Wood Hill then followed a farm road to Balone. Whilst I was waiting for Jill to catch up, I heard a little clattering and turned in time to see a red squirrel running across a flat garage roof and into the overhanging trees. Despite red squirrels being the resident species they are still not that common in Scotland; in all our walking in Scotland we have seen only one or two red squirrels.

There was a good access road to follow but from the map this would turn inland and so, just beyond Bay Farm, we went through a field and down quite a steep bank to the shore.

Initially we walked just inside the fence but when the cattle got rather inquisitive we went through the fence to the shore itself which was opportune because we then spotted  the bull.

There is no formal path but it was easy enough to pick our way along. The tide was still some way out but we did not venture away from the high water line because the sandy silt in the bay is very soft.

The grassy foreshore was broken up by lots of small channels and we found ourselves stepping across these, zig-zagging our way along.

In theory there is a path going diagonally across a field planted with barley to the corner of the A832 and B9161. When we drove past this morning there is an obvious finger post showing the direction. We did not fancy taking a diagonal across the field through the well-grown barley nor did we fancy going all the way around the edge in the deep gully between the crop margin and the bordering low embankment.

At the end of Munlochy Bay we debated whether we might be able to cross the watercourse and then navigate our way along the next embankment heading south to take us directly across to Bayhead. There were trees and scrub growing all along the embankment which would be difficult to get through and we were not sure if we would be able to cross all the watercourses so we continued as far as we could then climbed over the fence into the field before Munlochy Mains.

We then followed the inside of the fence parallel with the shore and came to a farm bridge over a burn and then walked through the Munlochy Mains to reach the road by the church. That seemed a much better route.

We followed the B9161 to cross the Littlemill Bridge and then we started walking down the other side of Munlochy Bay. At Munlochy the John O Groats Trail rejoined us and so the path was quite reasonable and there were some way-markers. The local land owner seemed to run some sort of pony trekking concern because on both sides of some of the gates there were mounting blocks. In the absence of a bench the mounting blocks made a good seat whilst we had coffee.

The pleasant, wooded path continued along the coast until we were opposite Ord Hill where it turns abruptly inland.

The path joined a track and went past Craighowe Mains to reach a road. They appear to be major producers of Christmas trees because there were huge fields of them.

A short way along the road, a sign indicated the direction of the JoGT off to the right but we were following a route I had planned which continued around the edge of Taindore wood to Taindore House. It is quite possible that the JoGT route is easier than the paths we followed. I had remarked to Jill that the area was looking a bit like the Surrey Hills with smart houses tucked away with high fences and “Private” signs. (Though we lived in Surrey for forty years, this was not meant as a compliment.) As we turned the corner to Taindore House I could see ahead of us a smart, new brick wall and electrically operated gates opening through it. That was exactly where I had planned to walk. Dismayed but not deterred we walked up to the gates hoping there might be a pedestrian route but there wasn’t. The track on the map just went through the gates and grounds of the new house. We turned to the woods alongside the fence and noticed a feint track running through the wood adjacent to Taindore House and followed it; it seemed we were not the first folk to have had to find an alternative route. After a few hundred yards we were were back on the course I had planned where a track emerges from Taindore House marked with private signs. The track zig-zagged down the hill lined with beech trees and (in a complimentary way) it looked just like the North Downs of Surrey.

Near the bottom there was a a fence but there was a slightly elaborate but deteriorating stile. We crossed it, Jill first because she is lighter and I then followed, both of us safely.

Beyond this we came to a gate which we went through but were confronted by dense, tall vegetation rich in nettles. I let Jill lead the way again.

Fortunately the thick bank of bracken and nettles only extended a few yards before opening onto easier shorter pasture. We crossed the field following the course of the path on the map to where there should be a track but the way was blocked by dense gorse. We walked northwards a hundred yards or so to where we could get around the gorse and sure enough on the other side was a rather overgrown track running parallel with the shore.

This brought us to Kilmuir and since it was 1pm we found a bench in shade by the slipway for lunch. Conveniently there was a telephone box library right next door.

The tide was well in and when I consulted the tide times it confirmed my estimate that we were right on high tide. The next couple of miles were along a shore path to Kessock Bridge and I had already warned Jill that I thought it might a be (a bit) tidal. As we left the end of the road my suspicions were immediately confirmed; the sea was lapping over the path. At least, since it was just past high tide, it would not get any worse. We worked our way along, jumping across little inlets of sea. We came to a rock buttress which had a channel of water right up to it and it appeared to be several feet deep; enough to get very wet but not to drown (I hoped).

Fortunately the rock, though steeply inclined it had just enough foot holds for us to get across. On we went, weaving around the water’s edge including another tricky rocky traverse before we came to a mini beach where the water was coming right across and it was too far to dash between the little waves. We were both wearing walking shoes not boots so we put our festival-wellies on and paddled across.

After that all was well because we joined a proper vehicular track which went all the way to Kessock Bridge. As we walked along, I noticed four kayakers paddling towards the bridge. The sea was quite lively and, in a flash, one of the kayakers capsized. He got out of his kayak safely and one of his colleagues righted his canoe for him and stabilised it as he struggled to reboard his vessel. Eventually he was in and paddling again, apparently none the worse but lacking his hat. He will probably have a sunburned head because the sun was very strong.

The final seven miles of the walk were on on the A9 and A89 and was rather tedious. We crossed the Kessock Bridge which was fine but thereafter we just endured the oppressive noise of the traffic and oppressive heat of the afternoon.

Just before the retail park on the A96 there is a pub called The Snowgoose and so we called in for some non-alcoholic refreshment because we were both very dry. The barmaid asked where we had walked from and then corrected Jill’s pronunciation of Avoch to “och”.

Eventually the pavement along the A96 runs out and walking the verge is the only option. There was a lot of traffic considering that it was a Sunday afternoon and in places the verge was a bit narrow. We were back at the car by about 5.15pm. Though we were hot and tired it felt like another landmark ticked off being south, or more correctly east, of Inverness.

Saturday 17th June 2023

Having got the ferry across from Nigg yesterday, today we are starting from Cromarty. Originally I had planned longer distances for the first four days of this session but that meant we would have finished yesterday’s walk a few miles beyond Cromarty wasting a lot of time on a very long drive round to leave a car at the end of the walk. I therefore kept the distances closer to 15 miles and, given the heat, I think we were quite happy to finish each day when we did.

It was another warm start though the forecast suggested that it might be a degree or two cooler than yesterday later on.

There is an excellent path from Cromarty along the north shore to South Sutor. It winds up through pleasant shady woodland to emerge at the viewpoint.

From here there is a grassy farm track which roughly follows the cliffs. It eventually crosses a stile into a field of barley that was growing well but the path itself followed the field margin where the bracken had reached six feet high and so the walking was not very pleasant.

Fortunately there had been no dew and so the vegetation was all dry. Near the Marquis’s Cave, the path turns inland and, once we had clambered over several fallen trees, was easier walking as it went up between two lines of trees then followed the field margin to Cromarty Mains Farm.

Once we reached Cromarty Mains Farm, we turned left on to a track running south west toward Navity Farm. It was a very straight, dull and dusty track. After half a mile we joined the road to Eathie.

My original plan had been to take the track down to the old salmon fishing station at Eathie and then walk the shore path to Rosemarkie. It is a rocky shoreline path, with ammonite fossils to be found in the rocks near the start, then around a rocky outcrop and lots of sea stacks before threading its way on the sand between sea stacks and the cliffs at Scart Craig, to eventually reach the beach at Rosemarkie. I had been planning each day’s walk weeks and weeks ago so we could work out where best to stay and the lengths of the walks. What I had failed to do was to check at what time we would likely arrive at Eathie and the state of the tide. The shore path is tidal but I couldn’t find any information as to how long the window is between tides when it is possible to walk the route. Several accounts confirm that it would definitely be impassable at high tide. I anticipated we would be arriving at Eathie Salmon Bothy at around 11.30 and high tide would be at 12.39. It would not be fast walking along the rocky shore so it was likely we would reach the narrowest section below Learnie Hill at high tide and might not be able to retrace our steps to the bothy. As predicted, we arrived at the track to the Salmon Bothy at little before 11.30. There was no notice giving a clue as to the walkable window, just a sign warning that it was tidal. We sat in the shade under the trees to have coffee and shortbread but knew we were going to have to miss this interesting section of shoreline and commit to the road. The road was not all bad.

There was very little traffic and what there was did not come too fast. For some of the road walk we were shaded by trees though when we emerged from the trees, the heat was quite intense. The minor road we were following joins the A382 after about 4 miles but almost opposite there is a delightful path through the Fairy Glen where a burn tumbles over waterfalls. There was not a lot of water in the burn but it was still very enjoyable. This brought us right into Rosemarkie.

We found a bench on the front and ate our sandwiches looking out to the Moray Firth. The tide was well in at 13.30 and so we were glad we had not decided to walk the shore path because we might have had a long wait to get through. There was a good sandy beach at the north end where families were enjoying the warm weather and the sea.

After lunch we walked along the narrow band of exposed sand that runs up to Chanonry point, though we did have to resort to the path above the beach where the waves were still reaching the sea defences. Chanonry Point has a very short lighthouse but is perhaps better known for the dolphins which reside in the Moray Firth and regularly display just off Chanonry point. The south side of Chanonry Point had no exposed sand and so we walked on the footpath where we had to cooperate with golfers. In England golfers should give way to walkers; it is the reverse in Scotland.

In Fortrose we stopped at the IV10 cafe. It was not a great success. Having been welcomed in, a girl went to great lengths to check the reservations book even though the place was almost empty. Having got a table we waited for our order to be taken, we even had time to go and inspect the available cakes and desserts and still no one came for our order. There seemed to be a tractor rally going through the town and when Jill went to see if she could get some service she found the staff all watching the tractors and disinclined to bother about the clientele and so we left.

From Fortrose the most coastal route is the A382 but it is narrow and there is no pavement and has a rock face on the inland side and a concrete crash barrier guarding the seaward side. Fortunately there is an old railway track the runs parallel very close to the road but elevated by perhaps a hundred feet. This made the two mile walk into Avoch very painless.

Back at the car we drove through Avoch (pronounced “och”) and found that “No 19”, a cafe in the main street was open until 5pm and so we hurriedly went in and had some very welcome tea and cake. It more than made up for our disappointment in Fortrose.

Friday 16th June 2023

We set up today’s walk last night by taking a car to Nigg Ferry.  This morning we drove to Rockfield and left the car in the same place (but with the sunroof closed) then set off along the track from the village. It was going to be another very hot day and so I was pleased it was only 8.20 when we started. 

The village of Rockfield is situated on a raised beach and this beach continues all the way to our intermediate destination at Balintore about four miles on.  The raised beach has probably been formed by the land lifting when the ice cap over Scotland melted. We were walking on a level area of rounded, small boulders and stones about 20-30 meters wide, stopping at the base of cliff where the sea would have  originally been breaking. On the seaward side is the current beach about 2-3 meters lower. The platform is colonised by grass and brush especially close to the cliff but the boulders are exposed at the front edge.

The first half mile of the path had been mowed making for easy walking. Then we were walking through long grass and occasional patches of bracken. The map shows the track ascending the cliff near Tarrel Bothie but it was quite easy to follow the path through the rocky outcrops and then continue through the long grass to rejoin the official path further on.

A couple of miles further on, at Cadboll Point just below Glenmorangie House, there is another well-restored, private bothy and behind the bothy a steep, zig-zag path ascends the cliff to Glenmorangie House.

We continued for some distance along the path taking care not to trip on the rocks and stones half-hidden under the encroaching grass.

We passed through a gate and beyond that the entire foreshore which was more like a narrow field had been mown presumably for a small crop of silage. There was a tent pitched there and three bikes and a couple young women were in conference over a map. They must have come from Hilton of Cadboll nearly a mile further on. If they were planning to continue along the route we had come they would certainly have a hot struggle with their loaded bikes.

As we walked along, Jill spotted that she had some ticks on her legs and so we stopped at a bench so that Jill could do a proper “tick check”. After a thorough check, Jill removed about  a dozen ticks – all of them “poppy seed” ticks which is the nymph stage of the life-cycle.

I checked myself but there were only three on me. What was more alarming was the large number of ticks crawling around on Jill shoes. The life cycle of the tick is quite complicated but they are common in long grass, especially bracken and carry the borrelia bacterium that causes Lyme Disease; as the nymph ticks are so small and can go unnoticed for longer than the adults, it is often these that are responsible for infecting their host. Infected ticks are found in most of the UK but it is particularly common in the Highlands. Having picked up one tick alongside Loch Eriboll on our last trip, Jill had put a pair of tweezers in her rucksack in case she needed to remove any more and these worked well. The ticks were really too small to pick off with fingers and the little blighters needed careful disposal or they simply walked up the tweezers and back onto Jill’s hand. Fortunately none of them had been on her long enough to get really embedded and start blood-sucking when the risk of disease transmission is greater.

We continued on our way and came to Balintore where the Seaboard Centre, to my surprise, was open. It is a splendid new community centre with a library and café. The café was listed as not opening until 11am but it was doing a busy trade at 10.30 and so we went inside out of the sun and had iced coffees and cake and cooled off. We chatted to a couple of cyclists at the next table – we recognised them as the man was riding a recumbent cycle and had seen them two or three times over the last few days. They were just exploring the area so devising circular routes each day.

After half an hour or so we moved on but it was even hotter outside than before. A short way on we saw a stone-mason painting in the letters on a memorial to a former Presbyterian minister born of the village. It did look rather like a pilgrim kneeling, doing penance. The memorial is to a “John Ross a native of this place”. He was a Presbyterian minister who spent most of his adult life as a missionary in China and translated the New Testament into Korean and apparently introduced spacing to Korean punctuation. Nothing suggests he returned to his place of birth but the visitor centre is named after him and he lives on in local history.

We had a short walk along the front to Shandwick where we walked on the beach for a short distance then we took to the road.

There is no path along the coast from Shandwick to Nigg Ferry. A couple of coast walkers have managed to find their way along the cliff tops but both of them were almost thwarted by dense wood and gorse and that was five or six years ago so it is unlikely to have got any better since. We had decided in advance that we would take a road route as far as Nigg and then get back to the coast at Castlecraig. The road walk on such a very hot day was not much fun. We did find a bench in the woods by Nigg Old Church which was in complete shade and it was a very welcome chance to cool off and have lunch.

From Nigg Village we could see the drilling rigs harboured in Cromarty Bay, but we were going to walk two sides of a triangle and get back to the coast on the opposite side of the peninsula at Castlecraig.

After lunch we climbed over the hill to Castlecraig. Here there are the remains of a WWII anti-aircraft battery.

A path then follows the coast to North Sutor and on to Nigg Ferry. Just before descending to Nigg Ferry we joined the road to the sandstone quarry which has a steady stream of lorries going up and down.

The Nigg ferry was just drawing up as we arrived at the ramp. It is a seasonal heritage ferry only operating in the summer months as it is now largely usurped by the Cromarty Bridge. The ferry carries just two cars which drive on forwards on a bow ramp and then have to reverse off and up the steep ramp to a turning area at the top.

We took a return trip on the ferry so we have crossed the firth and tomorrow we will resume from Cromarty.

Some coast walkers do not use ferries, I think, because they want to walk the whole way. My aim is to walk around the coast and walking up river estuaries when there is a perfectly good ferry seems like unnecessary extra effort. Ferries have connected coastal communities long before bridges were built and ferries are fun, especially the heritage ferries.

Thursday 15th June 2023

Today was an easy start because, having used our early finish yesterday to drive round to Rockfield and leave a car there last night, we just had to set off from where we are staying in Balnagall. Another very hot day was in prospect and so we were glad to be off by about 8am so we could get a good few miles under our belt before the heat of the day.

We had a couple of miles on the B road which, being very straight, means vehicles going very fast.  Fortunately today all the drivers gave us a wide berth (unlike yesterday). We soon reached the turn off to Inver and then had only about a mile more on the road. We passed a bungalow with a profusion of lupins and a chap was mowing the grass. We waved and to our surprise he stopped his mower and came to chat. After telling him how wonderful we thought the lupins were, he told us the woes of farming when it is so dry. He had resown a field of grass twice and the grass failed both times for lack of water. He said he didn’t want our walk to be spoilt but they really were desperate for a lot of rain. He then went on to say that his wife and her friend had set off at 6am this morning to walk up to Tarbat Ness and back down the other side to Balintore – which we explained was pretty much what we were doing. He then explained that his wife was “trail testing” her dodgy knee before walking the West Highland Way with her friend.

Inver is a tiny village with a welcome sign big enough to grace a city. The village is very well cared for and looks prosperous even though it has no shop and the pub appeared to be up for sale. All the grass backing the shore was mown and there were lots of benches. 

From Inver we followed a good path and then dropped onto the sandy beach. We were a good hour ahead of high tide but the water of Inver Bay was so still it was difficult to believe that it was actually tidal. I felt fairly confident we could follow the beach all the way to Portmahomack even though the damp sand and vehicle tracks showed that the last high tide had come up much further than where it was now.

We looked out to the peninsula of Morrich More (yes, the OS map spells it that way) which is effectively a large area of sand dune. When the tide is out there is barely a ribbon of water separating it from the mainland but at high tide Inver Bay fills up it takes on a very different character. We have heard aircraft and heard the sound of training bombs for the last two days even though the MOD schedule states “No training activity and no firing”, though they do say “Subject to change; always observe Red Flags”. We could see red flags flying and so we presume they have changed their schedule but we were pleased we had not been tempted to try walking around the bombing range.

Shortly after leaving Inver we came to a “beehive” memorial. It records that “Here in a mass grave lie half the population of of the village of Inver who died during the cholera epidemic of 1832.” The Inverness Courier September 26th 1832 reported that there had been 100 cases of cholera in Inver and 53 deaths.

We chose to walk on the foreshore though there was a path on a bank beside the shore.

There is one small watercourse to cross between Inver and Portmahomack but there is a good footbridge.

As we came to Portmahomack the waves, such as they were, were just reaching the sea defences and so we stepped carefully over them. We were very hot and even though it was only 10.30 we called in at the village shop for a cold drink and ices which we ate sitting on a bench overlooking the harbour.

From Portmahomack there is no more beach to follow at high tide but there is a good path through the grass behind the low rocky cliffs.

Fortunately there was gentle breeze from the east which kept us reasonably comfortable. Not very far along the path are the skeletal remains of a whale. To be more precise, there is part of the skull and part of a lower jaw. They must have been there for very many years. Whale beaching is not uncommon in this area perhaps due to the very shallow waters of the Dornoch Firth.

The path continues along the low cliffs eventually coming to a fence with a warning notice regarding cattle. Today it was so hot the cows couldn’t even be bothered to get to their feet.

The path brought us to the Tarbat Ness Lighthouse which, being located on a low peninsula, is a good deal taller than most of the lighthouses we have seen on our last few walking sessions. Indeed, at 53 metres it is Scotland’s tallest mainland lighthouse. (Two taller lighthouses are to be found on Skerryvore and North Ronaldsay)

We walked down to the tip of Tarbat Ness then carried on a little south of the lighthouse and found a bench overlooking a sandstone geo, ideally located for lunch.

We watched what, at the time, we thought were sand martins, wheeling up and down, catching insects and disappearing into what looked like tiny holes and crevices in the cliffs. On closer scrutiny of the photos we took, we now realise they were actually house martins, with characteristic white rump, black not brown upper-parts and no collar. We could also see their trademark mud nests beautifully camouflaged being identical in colour to the rock they were constructed on.

The other interesting thing to see was where the pebbles thrown up by storms had lodged on ledges in the cliffs.

Just as we were preparing to set off, Jill spotted a pair of dolphins swimming towards Tarbat Ness tip.

We moved on, walking down the road for a few hundred yards to the old Salmon Bothy, now a holiday let. Here the path along the east side of the Ness starts. After a short walk across sand at Port Tarsuinn, a path meanders along the rocky shore until it turns abruptly up the cliff via a steep grassy path. We followed the path up and then along the cliff top through the long grass. Then, with the vegetation getting noticeably taller, the path went round the corner of a fence and ended abruptly in a thicket of impenetrable gorse. I had noticed a feint path descending the cliff fifty yards back and so we returned and descended the path to the foreshore where we found the “proper” path. Looking back, we could see we had missed it descending the cliff a hundred yards further back.

On pondering paths that end abruptly, it is quite understandable because wrong paths get walked in both directions for each walker that starts along it whilst the correct path only needs to be walked once.

We continued along the foreshore where there is quite a decent path. We came to a five bar gate with a stile and beyond this was a slightly wider track. We came to Ballone Castle perched on the cliff above us. This is a fully restored, castle residence.

Now it was just a few hundred yards to Rockfield. The village is probably a former fishing village and comprises a row of cottages along the front; mostly the cottages are now “done up” and there are a few new properties but they are all quite modest and there is nothing resembling a shop or a more wealthy house except of course for Ballone Castle.

When we drove here last night, I had thought we might need to leave the car near Bankhead beside the road at the top of the hill as, searching on Google maps, I could not find anywhere suitable to leave the car in the village. As it happened, we found there was one place where there just enough room to squeeze the car off the tarmac road in the long grass on the verge but took the precaution of checking with a couple of men working on the property nearby that it would be OK. They were fine about it so we had left the cardboard sunshield propped up inside the windscreen hoping it would not feel too much like an oven when we returned today. As one of the men was still working, I went to explain that we would like to leave the car here again tomorrow morning but that would be the last time. He mentioned that the car alarm had gone off once during the day – Jill had raised the sunroof yesterday to try to let the heat out and forgot to close it which is probably why the alarm went off. Good job there wasn’t a thunder storm.

Wednesday 14th June 2023

Yesterday was hot but today would be even hotter. Fortunately all we had to do was drive to Embo and start walking because we will finish in Balnagall where we are staying. The main concern for today’s walk is that we will be “hitting” the Dornoch Firth bang on high tide and according to the charts it’s a relatively high tide at that.

We got onto the beach at Embo where there was a narrow band of sand we could walk on though there was still an hour before high tide. We walked down the beach and around the jetty and continued along the sand. The waves were really very small and it looked an idyllic place to bring children for a beach holiday.

After seeing so many sea birds nesting on the spectacular cliffs further north, we were saddened to find a few dead guillemots and a gannet washed up on the beach. It brought back memories of the huge numbers of dead guillemots we saw last summer along the Mull of Kintyre and we could only hope the birds might be beginning to develop some resistance to avian flu which would reduce the devastation this year.

A little further on, the tide was in right up to some boulder coast defences which were only defending the Dornoch Golf Links but then in Scotland that is probably more important than protecting houses. Just before leaving the beach, Jill found a pristine golf ball and put it in her pocket. A short while later as we walked around the edge of the golf course a man wandered up with clubs, withdrew one and used it to further his search for an errant golf ball. Jill was just about to sneak up and magic up a golf ball for  him when he found his own. Never mind.

Once we were past the sea defences, the beach was entirely clear and we continued down the strip of damp sand by the water’s edge; we assumed that the tide was now slack. A spit of dunes protrudes into the firth as Dornoch Point and we stopped on a bench near the car park by the airfield to have a coffee – keeping adequately hydrated was going to be important in today’s heat.

We now had several miles to get to the Dornoch Bridge, so we could cross the Dornoch Firth; formerly there was Meikle Ferry. The JoGT uses a combination of road and inland paths to reach the bridge and the majority of coast walkers seem to have used the minor road from Dornoch to Cuthill. I was keen to try walking right along the edge of the Dornoch Firth. I researched it as best I could because there is no marked path on any map along here. We know of two coast walkers who have done it; Jon Combe walked it at low tide and had no problems which is not surprising because the firth is very shallow and at low tide there is a wide expanse of sand and mud. Alan Palin thought the tide was well up when he did it and seemed to manage well but cut up through the gorse to the minor road some distance before reaching the A9.

We cut across the dunes from the airfield rather than going right down to Dornoch Point because there are three or more creeks that run into the dunes and they would be full at high tide meaning we would otherwise have to walk back into the dunes to get around them. There was a track through the little airstrip and down to the shore where there was, at least here, an unmistakable path along the grassy edge of the firth.

I was considerably heartened by this because at this point the tide was right up and lapping at the grassy edge. Further on it looked as if there was some sand showing. We walked on and it really was very pleasant walking and vastly superior to being on a road.

I knew that there was one water course we would have to cross but, from the map, I was confident we could head inland to a farm bridge if necessary. As it turned out, due in part to the dry conditions for the last few weeks, the stream was very shallow as it spread out to join the sea and we could just walk across it in our shoes. I was only wearing running shoes and so a water ingress didn’t matter and dried fast in the heat of the day.

All the time we could see the traffic crossing the Dornoch Bridge and as we approached the toy cars grew into real cars. We had been striding along on the damp sand and mud margin when our luck began to run out. There was a band of small, rounded boulders covered in slippery seaweed; it was not enough to deter us but, after about fifty yards, Jill discovered that there was a perfectly good path higher up the bank close under the gorse bushes.

We cruised on and just where our path joined a track that comes from Cuthill, we found a bleached log on the shore and we sat there to have our coffee.

Though it was very hot and we had no shade, there was steady breeze blowing up the firth. Around 11am we heard the roar of jet aircraft and the crump of training shells being dropped on the ranges at Tain next to where we are staying.

After coffee we followed the track to the A9. Several walkers have reported difficulty getting up to the A9 but in fact if you back track along the embankment a few yards there is a stile crossing what would otherwise be a difficult fence.

Once on the A9 we knew it would be road walking for the rest of the day and it was about midday and it was not very pleasant. Fortunately on the bridge there was a good breeze and a footway but thereafter we just had to trudge along the edge of the A9, crossing over according to the availability of verge and visibility.

There were really no sensible off-road alternatives for the rest of the day’s walk and, with the Tain Bombing Range was in use, the road was the only option. We turned off into Tain but found nowhere very appropriate to stop for our sandwiches (by which I mean a bench in the shade). We continued through the village and eventually found a tree stump that was in the shade by the side of the road and sat there for some lunch. We now had a mere two miles to Balnagall.

As we neared Balnagall, a farmer in his Land Rover towing a sheep trailer, drove up from behind us and pulled over into the middle of the road to ask Jill where we were walking to. He seemed keen to chat and not at all keen to let the three of four cars that had come up behind him get past even though Jill initially stood back hoping he would. As the conversation ended he slowly moved off, returning to his side of the narrow road – at which point one of the cars shot past him at speed, barely a couple of feet from Jill who was quite shaken by the experience.

We were back at our Lodge by 14.40 but we had walked over fifteen miles and so we had no regrets about finishing early on such a hot day.

Tuesday 13th June 2023

We are staying in a holiday lodge in Balnagall, outside Tain. Today’s set up was was quite easy; we drove via Embo leaving a car near the Holiday Park and drove on to Golspie.

Yesterday, when we drove up to Scotland, it was extremely hot with 30ºC when we went through the Southern Uplands. Fortunately, after some thunderstorms yesterday afternoon, today’s temperature is forecast just to be in the high teens. We set off down Duke’s Street and onto  an easy track along the shore which led to the Golspie promenade. It is quite pleasant with several benches.

Where the promenade runs out, a path along the shore continues through the golf course and this was all easy walking. After the golf course the John O’ Groats Trail (JOGT) turned inland around the Karting Track.

We stayed on the seaward side where there was also a good path and this led to the extensive Ferry Links which go all the way to Littleferry. The tide was very high and initially we could not walk on the stony beach and followed a good path through the dunes.

Further south, where the beach widens, there was good margin of sand and we walked right down to the tip before starting to walk up Loch Fleet.

Here the tide was still too high so we reverted to walking the path through the dunes to Littleferry. This little hamlet seems a desirable place in which to live and is really quite smart. Loch Fleet is quite a substantial sea loch for this part of Scotland and we would have to walk around it.  We followed the JOGT route through Balbair Wood to the level crossing at Kirkton.

Here the path crosses the railway line and turns left following a path through fields. As we approached the level crossing, the lights started flashing and the barriers came down so that felt like very poor timing. It was not a scheduled service – just a solitary locomotive.

As we passed Pinegrove Cottage, a man gave us some advice on the route and told us to watch out for a pair of ospreys which were nesting in the trees alongside Loch Fleet. We were delighted when we first heard their call and then spotted a pair of ospreys and a buzzard which one of them was seeing off.

In my route planning I had considered taking a wider loop of Balbair Woods and coming to the railway at Pinegrove Cottage but I had been unable to find out it there was a crossing point of the railway here. I now know there is a crossing point though not one controlled with barriers and so we could have taken a slightly more coastal route after all. The path continues through some rough pasture (rather than walking the field margin as we did where we had to negotiate tall nettles and an awkward fence in the corner) and into some woods. It was pleasantly cool in the woods and so we found a log to sit on and have coffee.

We emerged from the woods and joined the A9 then walked along the verge to the bridge over the Fleet. It felt very hot having left behind any shade in the woods. The short bridge spans a single channel which appears to carry all the water from the River Fleet. The Mound is, I think, just a causeway which completes the crossing to the other side. We had to walk the verge along the causeway until a narrow path leads off to the left enabling walkers to avoid any more of the A9.

The path leads to the minor road that heads towards Skelbo. Though the tide was out, the estuary was not an attractive prospect for walking. The shore a mixture of sand and mud and retains a lot of water and so we followed the road which is right by the shore anyway. There is a view point where we hoped we could find a bench to sit on for our lunch. There were two benches, both fully occupied by twitchers, presumably hoping to see the ospreys catching fish in Loch Fleet. They also had camper vans parked right by the benches. We wouldn’t have wanted to sit with them anyway so we found a rock on the foreshore a little further along on which to perch for our lunch.

After lunch we had a short distance along the road before turning off on a track leading to the south jetty for the former Littleferry. There is not much of the jetty remaining but the ferry must have been important before there was a road bridge across the Fleet. A path then follows the shore and turns south where the Fleet meets the sea. The tide was probably fully out and so we had an uninterrupted walk all the way to Embo.

Though the day had warmed up, there was now a gentle breeze which kept us comfortable. Having finished our walk at 15.30 we drove on to Dornoch to a café called Milk and Honey which was recommended to us by our neighbours back in Yorkshire. It is indeed an excellent café but it closes at 4pm but we made it with twenty minutes to spare. After a very welcome pot of tea and some fantastic cake we drove back to collect the other car from Golspie.

Sunday 28th May 2023

Over the last 10 days we have managed to squeeze in two or three miles extra on several days; we are now ahead of schedule by a full day. Today our walk will be what would have been the first day of our next session – which means we have quite a long set up to leave a car at the end and then drive back to the start.

It was a cool start today and 100% cloud cover. Having delivered one car to Golspie we returned to Helmsdale to start walking. We are walking mainly on the seashore or on the dunes just behind. The last time I was here was about eighteen years ago. Then my son, Joe, and I ran from Helmsdale to Golspie supporting Joe’s friend, Andy, who was running from John o’ Groats to Land’s End to raise money for the hospital where he received leukaemia treatment when he was a teenager. Then of course we ran on the road.

We left Helmsdale walking along the A9 as far as Portgower where a track crosses the railway line by a level crossing, giving access to the beach. This was well-timed because we would be walking on a falling tide, with low tide at 13.30 which would facilitate crossing three rivers and a few minor burns. In truth there is not great deal to report because it was an uncomplicated walk and was much easier underfoot for Jill, fortunately her foot was now considerably less painful than it had been.

Initially we followed on the grassy bank above the stony beach. Later we were able to walk on the beach as there was good, margin of damp sand. We could see a number of seals hauled out on individual rocks  looking like slugs.

At Crackcaig Links there is large area in the dunes given over to caravans; all tourers though some clearly were not moved and had not been moved for a very long time. Leaving the caravan site, there was a large notice warning anyone offended by nudity not to proceed.

We hurried onward but it was clearly too cold for anyone to wish to expose themselves. Shortly after this we came to the Loth Burn which usually requires fording but being close to low tide and the dry weather meaning the burn was low so we could walk straight across it on the sand.

 A little further on we crossed another river, Allt Choll. There were some stepping stones which I used but Jill preferred the security of putting on her festival wellies.

There were some very attractive rocks, jelly fish, and shells.

Then we came to the beach at Brora. This is over 3km long and, apart from a stretch of boulders near the start, was very easy walking. Once we were over the boulders, we found a couple of comfortable ones to sit on to have our lunch. It was still quite chilly.

There were a number of people on the beach, mainly with dogs. This dog wanted us to throw his ball for him because his elderly master had difficulty with that. How could we refuse?

We continued along the beach to the River Brora which is too big to ford.

We turned up the river Brora past the golf Clubhouse  and crossed the River Brora on the A9. We returned to the beach on the other side. Jill spotted someone in a car eating an ice-cream but we couldn’t see from where it had been purchased and so we walked on.

We continued along the beach which was sandy at first but then there was a stony band we had to get around. Then we noticed a well-laden walker coming towards us. We stopped to chat and discovered that he is a Freemason from a motorbiking lodge in Skegness. I didn’t know such things existed but I suppose they keep it secret; well you would, wouldn’t you? Anyway the long and short of our conversation is that he is walking the coast of Britain going anticlockwise and he set off from Skegness on New Year’s Day. Leaving Skegness sounds like a good New Year’s Resolution. I have to admire people who carry all their gear including an iPad to keep updating their followers. Though I started off carrying all my gear and camping, I used cheap hotels in the short section from Sunderland to Saltburn-by-the-Sea and when Jill joined me in January 2020, I couldn’t really ask her to wild camp carrying the required gear on a recently-operated knee. I was quite happy to share the comforts of a proper bed at night with Jill.

We moved on and walked on the grassy path above the beach for a bit because the beach was a bit stony for easy walking, but we got back on the beach a little afterwards.

As we neared Dunrobin there is a good track which runs through some trees bordering the sea.

The castle has the perfect appearance of towers and turrets of a fairy tale castle. What is visible today is, of course, a Victorian confection, landmarking the wealth of the Sutherland Family whose history is more nightmare than fairy tale since they were the “Wicked Godmother” in many of the Highland Clearances. We were too late to consider paying a visit but we had good views as we walked along the broad track that runs between the castle and the sea.

Thereafter we had only half a mile of grassy walking to take us to the end of our walk at Golspie.

Saturday 27th May 2023

After our twenty-miler yesterday and a very late finish we ate late and went to bed shortly before midnight. I think I got off to sleep immediately but Jill was over-tired and her muscles were all twitchy and she took ages to get off to sleep. We are pretty much programmed to waken at 6am and so it was a short night. We had debated how to make today more manageable; Jill still has the big blister trying to recover and now has another smaller blister on the side of her big toe from walking on a camber all the time. After over 4500 miles of coast walking almost blister-free, she said it was very disappointing that it has been such a persistently dominant issue this time when she just wanted to enjoy the blue skies, the dramatic coastline, the multitude of birds and the wonderful flowers.

So our plan was to walk the JoG Trail from Dunbeath to Berriedale and review there whether to continue on the path to Badbea, the clearances village, and then use the road into Helmsdale to avoid some of the difficulties reported by other coast-walkers on the path nearer to Helmsdale.

By the time we had eaten breakfast and got ready it was nearly 8.30 and with a long setup we did not start walking until about 9.55, well after our usual time.

The path out of Dunbeath was easy and took us onto the old road past Dunbeath House, through some woodland and finally into the grass fields alongside the cliffs. I wondered if the estate had paid for some of the path-marking and other infrastructure such as a couple bridges over burns. In any event the path was marked, it was walkable and all the fences had a stile or other aids to crossing with protected barbed wire. What is more, all the gates functioned. This was just so different from yesterday. It was still the case that the exuberant spring growth of vegetation was beginning to drag on our feet but it was all manageable and there had been neither rain nor dew; it was all dry.

Shortly after regaining the coast we erred by following the wrong side of a fence/wall. Sometimes way-markers do not make it clear which side of a fence the path continues. Fortunately a short backtrack resolved the issue. We had excellent views of the cliffs and stacks which were teeming with nesting seabirds.

The path remained clear to follow even if was sometimes squeezed between a fence and a rather steep, grassy drop to the sea.

At one point Jill asked me to take a picture of her on one of these precipitous paths and I duly obliged but having taken it on my camera I realised she probably wanted an iPhone picture so could send it using WhatsApp.

Ahead we could see the road that dips sharply as it comes to Berriedale and we were chatting about going to the River Bothy café there for some lunch; I noted that we would be there at about 1pm. The path continues over a few stiles and bridges and then comes to a new gate; it still had the manufacturers label on showing it came from Froome in Somerset.

The path then descends steeply to the river and, as it does so, a good view is revealed and so I decided to take a photo. Unfortunately when I went to my jacket pocket to take out my camera, the pocket was empty. How could that be? I am so careful about pulling up the zipper on the pocket. So we knew we had to retrace our steps. The last time I was sure of having the camera was when taking the picture of Jill on the sheer, grassy cliff and that was probably a good couple of miles of steeply undulating cliff path to walk back. I could believe that in trying to take a second photo on my iphone that I forgot to zip up the camera pocket. Jill insisted that two pairs of eyes would be better than one if the camera had fallen away from the path into the vegetation and so followed me up the hill. Fortunately we didn’t have to go the whole way back – just over three-quarters of a mile from where we began retracing our steps, there was stile we had climbed over and there, lying unharmed on the grass, was my camera. I took a photo of Jill to check it was still working OK – it was!

Relieved not to have lost the record of so much of this section of our walk, we continued into Berriedale hoping the café would still be serving lunch by the time we got there.

The suspension bridge is a great alternative to walking on the road. It has a maximum capacity of two adults and no bouncing is allowed.

So it was about 2pm when we reached the River Bothy at Berriedale and went in for lunch, having walked almost two unnecessary extra miles. I was so angry with myself because this was a day when we really wanted to keep the mileage down and finish as early as possible. We had a good light lunch in the café and were setting off again by 2.30. Over lunch we discussed what to do and Jill was still keen to stick with the original plan and so we set off to walk to Badbea. As the morning’s walk had proved to be so much easier-going than yesterday’s, we had both been wondering if we might follow the path on from Badbea to Helmsdale – but we were now behind schedule and there might not be time to tackle what would be a slower route.

From Berriedale the path ascends across a grassy field with two short towers; one is round, the other is square. Their purpose unknown but are referred to as the Duke’s Candlesticks. After passing through a wall the path joins an excellent grassy track which crosses the moor. We both joked that this was very unlike the JOGT!

Not only is the track very walkable it follows a very direct route, not following all the ins and outs of the cliffs. Eventually the track passes through a gate in a stone wall and heads inland. The path leaves the track here and follows the inside of a stone wall across some potentially very boggy ground. Due the absence of significant rain for a month the ground was drying out nicely.

Near the old clearance village of Badbea the path crosses the wall and descends to some of the ruins of the former village. A short way further on is a fine monument to the former residents of the village. The monument was built by Donald Sutherland in 1911. His  grandfather, Alexander emigrated to New Zealand in 1857. The monument bears the names of many of the former residents of Badbea. One imagines that Alexander Sutherland’s successors made good in New Zealand to be able to return and erect such an impressive memorial.

It was almost 4pm so we knew we did not have time to try the coast path from here to Helmsdale where other walkers have encountered problems. So we followed the path to the car park on the A9 and headed along the road for six miles into Helmsdale. It was not a difficult walk and often we could walk on the verge behind the crash barrier.

So thanks to my carelessness,  a 14.5 mile day became 17.5 miles. Now that is two days running that I have “cocked up”.

Friday 26th May 2023

Having walked on further than I had planned on previous days, we were now only a few miles short of having gained a full day’s walk. I had already planned our next section so it would be much easier if we could finish this section at the end of a complete day. We agreed to try walking the extra miles today. That meant a very long day as we would still finish at Dunbeath but would be starting from Sarclet Harbour not Whaligoe, an extra three and a half miles.

Unfortunately Jill’s large blister was obviously still very sore; this was not a good position from which to start a very long walk but she thought the extra was better added to today’s walk rather than tomorrow’s.

We set up the cars and started to walk from Sarclet. The walking initially seemed reasonably OK; the grass was long in places. The path followed closely the cliff top and there a number of stacks and geos. Initially we found it a little irritating that there were one or two barbed-wire fences with no ready means of crossing. I had my length of pipe insulation which was pressed into service.

This is a walk that just keeps on giving, specially on a nice day.

Shortly before Whaligoe we encountered some unusual way markers in the form of castings in the style of the Lewis chess pieces. I am not entirely sure that they were appropriate; they are more suited to a theme park.

Our first target was Whaligoe which was a good three and a half miles into our walk but took over two hours. My GPS showed we were only managing 1.9mph. It was a relief to get around the steep geo and up the last few steps of the famous Whaligoe steps which go all the way down to the harbour. In its day, Whaligoe was a herring port but the safe mooring and jetty was down a steep cliff which precluded building a track up which donkeys or carts could carry the herring. A set of 365 steps were constructed so that the fisherwomen could carry creels of herrings top the cliff.

Somehow I thought that the path might improve from here but it didn’t. The path is generally a narrow ribbon which is visible most of the time but with the rapid spring growth was rapidly becoming a low-level forest obscuring the path. Once again the fences were a problem. This seems to be a particularly bad section presumably because one or more landowners refuse to cooperate with the John o’ Groats Trail to have a footpath over their land. There is a right to roam but presumably also a right for land owners to obstruct. Nearly every fence or wall was topped by barbed wire. There were some stiles and bridges but where there were stiles the barbed wire was still in place but with no effort to bend down or cover the barbs. It seemed odd that supporters of the path have been along with lengths of hose pipe with which to cover the barbed wire but rather inconsistently. Perhaps they have and they have been removed by the land owners (also the fence owners). We even found one new stile that had clearly been vandalised to make it un-useable by walkers. We carry a length of pipe insulation which we can put on and off barbed wire very quickly; it also works for electric fences. If landowners don’t like walkers on their land they should improve the stiles, gates and way marking to usher walkers off their land more quickly. Making it difficult just means walkers will pull, stretch or otherwise damage the fences trying to make a safe way through. That is my rant of the day over.

The cliffs along here are still very impressive with sheer drops to the sea, a number of sea stacks and natural arches. At times the path is very narrow and squeezed between a barbed wire fence and the sheer drop to oblivion. With our day-sacks it was not too difficult but a heavily loaded rucksack might easily snag on the wire.

The rocks here are still the horizontally-aligned flagstone rock which look just like courses of stonework.

Just before 1pm we arrived at Clythness Lighthouse. I was surprised by the need to have a beacon here because there did not seem to be any particular rocks to avoid. It seems it was built as an emergency measure during WWI to be an intermediate light between Noss Head and Tarbat Ness. In 2015 it was deemed to be no longer required and the light removed. More significantly for us, we found a good rock to sit on for lunch and to review our very slow progress. We were not even managing 1.9mph  and so at this rate we would finish very late at Dunbeath. Furthermore Jill was in a lot of pain from her feet. I looked at the options for shortening the walk and found that there was a single bus we could catch, either at Lybster (which was so close it would waste a lot of potential walking time) or further on at Latheron though we might have to walk fast to make it.

Lunch done we decided to head for Latheron. 

A few minute after setting off we met a solo walker heading towards us. He was not a walker but a bird recorder and had been counting cormorant nests and looking for black-backed gulls. He told us there was a row of cormorant nests we should look out for on one of the big stacks coming up. He was a fount of local knowledge and confirmed that the path from Sarclet to lighthouse is particularly bad from the barbed wire point of view but said the good news was that the worst was now behind us. Buoyed up by this news we continued with hope in our hearts.

Following the advice of the bird-recorder, we paused before Occumster where there are five sea stacks; as he said, one of them had several cormorant nests on the top. It was impressive to see so I took some photos while Jill made some necessary adjustments to her foot dressing; the unevenness of the path over tussocky grass combined with steep cambers and grassy ascents was not the ideal terrain for her today. But the flopped-out cormorant chicks made us laugh.

When we came to Lybster, we followed the path into the village but we would have a wait of over an hour for the bus and so we decided to head on for Latheron with the proviso that if we were getting late I would press on as fast as I could go and get the bus to Dunbeath and then return with the car to get Jill.

At one point there was a particularly steep gully to cross, getting down was not too bad but the other side was very steep.

It was not a fast walk from Lybster and I was concerned that the path route was not always very obvious so I was loathe to leave Jill on her own in spite of her protestations that she would cope perfectly well. Eventually, with only twenty minutes spare, I rushed ahead to get the bus. Fortunately from here the coast path has a good view up to the road and so I could watch for buses as I walked. I was slightly alarmed to see a yellow bus go along the road only five minutes later but clearly that could not be the bus I needed. Another five minutes passed and a white bus went along the road and I was a little more concerned that “our bus” was ten minutes early. And so it was that no other buses came along and we would never have got there in time for the bus. I did try hitching whilst waiting for Jill but to no avail.

Jill soon appeared and crossed the rickety bridge and gate and came up to the road. We decided that, in the absence of a bus, we would try hitching but what traffic came past was going too fast to stop and there were few places where it would be safe to pull over anyway. So we decided we might as walk along the road to Dunbeath which was only about three miles away and “catch up” on our schedule. Jill said she thought she could cope with doing it if she could take a five minute sit down break first and then just get into a plodding rhythm. There was nowhere to sit so the break didn’t happen and I wondered if we might fare better if we could get back onto the coast path. This road here is very close to the coast anyway and there were a couple of options where we might be able to divert. The first of these was where there was a loop of old road but there was no way into the field which was guarded by a high deer fence and to make it worse we could not get out of the far end of the old road loop and so had to retrace our steps. A frustrating few hundred extra yards Jill (and I) could have done without.

The next obvious place to get back on the path involved about 600 yards walk down to Uamh Ron. We descended (note) to the cliff edge and I confirmed that we were on the correct route according to the GPX file for the JGT but there was a difficult fence to cross but still no sign of a path on the other side. So we now had to climb back up to the road. I blathered my sincere apologies to Jill for the extra mile we had now walked trying to regain the path and from there on we stuck with road to Dunbeath. We have since discovered we are not the only ones who have ended up walking along the road here.

As we entered Dunbeath there is a good reliable shortcut to the harbour where we were parked and we took that successfully but it had become a very long day. Jill was totally exhausted by it and fell asleep as I drove us back to Sarclet Haven to retrieve the other car.

Thursday 25th May 2023

Today we awoke to a chilly start with a steady breeze and some cloud but although the cloud dispersed during the morning leaving a clear, sunny day, the breeze meant we needed jackets for the whole day.

We left one car at Old Wick Castle and returned to Auckengill to resume walking. Our prime target today was to get to the River of Wester soon after low tide so that it would be easy to cross. The path wound its way around the cliff top, up and down the sides of geos. Near the start of today’s walk we passed Mervyn’s Tower. This curious, stunted tower was apparently partly built with stone removed from the broch that once stood nearby. Quite what its purpose was seems unknown.

Very soon we came to the first of some relatively new stiles for walkers on the John o’ Groats Trail (JGT). We couldn’t understand why the barbed wire had not been removed or at least covered as is the custom with most stiles.

A mile or so later we came to Keiss Castle. There is an old castle and a Victorian replacement built in typical Victorian grand style.

The path then appeared to go along the top of a wall at the head of a steep gully. It was not very far but we had to take great care not to snag our clothes or rucksacks on the barbed wire nor catch our feet on the surplus fence wire that had been left rolled across the top of the wall or the remnants of rusty wire left embedded in the grass.

Shortly afterward we were at Keiss Harbour which remains in use. There is an impressive harbour building which has been restored as apartments.

We possibly missed a sign directing us away from the obvious path which continued down onto the beach where we had to stepping-stone across the large boulders.

Rocking over angular boulders was not helping Jill cope with her sore foot so, when it soon became too difficult to make sensible progress, we went up the bank and into a field via a gate but there was no exit to the proper path the other side of a barbed wire-topped, chain-link fence. There was a metre wide section of wooden palings which we scaled with some difficulty because it was quite high and difficult to get a leg over without damaging the undercarriage.

We soon came to the sandy beach of Sinclair’s Bay and two miles along was the River of Wester. Walking the flat, damp sand was easy and a pleasure. As we approached the river we could see that there was only a single, significant channel which was no more than 6-8 inches deep. We put on our festival-wellies and make short work of the crossing.

Just beyond the end of the beach is Ackergill Tower, the impressive remains of an original castle with a Victorian replacement nearby and the collection of houses at Ackergillshore which appear to be estate cottages. Jill remarked that it would be good to find a sign saying there was somewhere to buy a coffee – but there were just the usual “Private” signs.

There is a curious memorial to Tear’s Castle of which really nothing remains. There are confusing accounts on-line relating to the history and derivation of its name. It seems that the Clans Gunn and Keith had a long feud (normal for Scotland) and had a battle of sorts at this location in about 1464. It was derelict by 1762 when Bishop Forbes visited. Apparently in 1978 the Keiths and Gunns signed a treaty of friendship.

The next impressive sight was that of the Castle of Sinclair Girnigoe. This was built around 1470 and modified over the following 200 years. The Sinclairs were a very powerful family in Caithness and the castle was the centre of cultural life in this part of Scotland. This is apparently being restored though there was nothing to suggest any activity recently. It is an impressive structure and was attracting a lot of visitors. King Charles took an interest in the restoration when he was still Prince of Wales

From here we headed around the coast to Noss Head and the lighthouse.

The lighthouse is quite short. After leaving the lighthouse found a suitable perch on a ledge and had our lunch watching the birds in a geo.

The walk into Wick was not particularly interesting but it would be difficult to match the morning’s walk.

We got to the car at about 15.30 and decided to do some necessary shopping and then shuttle a car further down the coast to Sarclet Harbour and get another five miles done. We started walking at about 17.30 and it took us two hours to get to Sarclet.

On the outskirts of Wick is the Trinkie. It was a former quarry and in 1931 a seawater lido was opened and remains to this day but is little used. It was very popular place for the townsfolk to go.

There were lots of geos, impressive stacks and natural arches and with the wonderful evening light; no wonder we took our time and didn’t finish until gone 19.30.