Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/02/200912:00 am
Walk Details
Pub Stop?: No O/S Map Sheet No.: Grid Ref. Start: Grid Ref. Finish Walk (Miles): Walk Hours: 11.5 Bus Time to Walk: Bus Time from Walk: Departure time from walk:Walk Notes
Today’s walk follows a part of the Moray Firth coastline on beaches, cliff paths and rough tracks. The first part from Findochty to Cullen is fairly level but he second part from Cullen to Portsoy is more undulating and rough.
The walk commences at Findochty harbour (NGR 462.679). Start off eastwards along Duke Street towards a sandy beach where we climb up to the top of low cliffs to follow a path along the clifftop through gorse and bracken. After about a mile Tronach Head is rounded and the village of Portknockie comes into view on it’s headland above the harbor. Here we follow Patrol Road along the shore side of the village looking down at the headland of Scar Nose and the Bow Fiddle Rock. The cliffs then turn southwards for a short distance before dropping down to the sands of Cullen Bay. A steep path with steps leads down from the end of the cliffs to the foreshore and beach which is then followed for about a mile to the seatown of Cullen.
In 961 a party of Norse invaders landed here and headed inland for plunder but were confronted and defeated about a mile to the west at the Battle of the Bauds. The three rocks projecting from the sands below the golf links at the south end of the bay are known, as a result, as the Three Kings.
The Seatown, or older part of Cullen, is separated from the newer part by the embankment and high arches of the disused railway viaduct, which carried the railway from Elgin to Grange. Follow the road from the viaduct to the harbour and then continue along the shore and low cliffs to Logie Head. Rounding this headland there follows more cliffs before the path drops down to the sands of Sunnyside Bay. From there the path climbs up from the shore to the clifftops again and continues eastwards to pass the ruins of Findlater Castle on it’s headland. The path then rounds two more headlands – Crathie Point and Garron Point, before turning southwards into Sandend Bay. Once past the houses follow the beach eastwards to where the Fordyce Burn runs into the sea below Glenlassaugh Distillery and the adjacent ruined windmill. The path then runs through some low, grassy hillocks and then along rising cliffs towards Redhythe Point A short distance beyond this point the path cuts inland along a rough track. At the first junction of tracks turn left and head towards the houses of Portsoy about a mile away. Once into the town keep left and head down towards the Old Harbour which was built in 1692 for the export of the local Serpentine rock, known as Portsoy Marble.
It is expected that our bus will be parked somwehere in the vicinity of the harbour (NR 589.663)