On the latitude of halfway up Hudson Bay but with the rainfall levels of the English Midlands, the "Moray Firth Sunbelt" is nearly always a good bet when the weather is poor in the hills. It also gets hardly any midges so is a good refuge during the July and August onslaught of winged horrors. You want cliffs? There's the big shaggy ones like Troup Head and the smaller ones with good rock climbing like Logie. For beaches you've got gorgeous enclosed coves like Cullykhan and big sweeps like Cullen or Lossiemouth. There are classic seaside villages, Pennan being the most famous, and historic towns like Banff, while it sometimes seems as if every other headland has a ruined castle on it.
Sunnyside Bay
There's a long distance path along the whole coast and the kind of walker who throngs to the Cornwall and Pembrokeshire coast paths would absolutely love it. They don't come though, you rarely see another walker who isn't local, and it still puzzles me as to why not. It's not accessibility – the roads are good and Moray is closer to international airports than anywhere in the West Country. The weather is better than most places in Britain. The walking is both scenic and samples a fascinating history, some of it involving well known figures like Mary Queen of Scots and Macbeth. I think it's actually just lack of marketing. Pennan has had plenty of visitors since featuring in the film Local Hero, so people do visit once they have been given a reason. Perhaps most just think "Northern Scotland, it must be bleak, cold and rainy"? Well think again, Moray is none of those things (well, cold sometimes if the wind's northerly). Perhaps the region has a slight image problem from a tourism point of view as it doesn't fit either the 'tartanry' angle (although it has plenty of distilleries and golf courses) or the rufty-tufty mountain side (though it has good rock climbing), so there isn't an obvious hook to hang it on. It's just itself, and that's an increasingly rare thing in our globalised world.
Findlater Castle
Part of my fondness for the coastline is because it got me a job 🙂. In the mid 90's I helped set up a self-guided package along it for walking tour company Scottish Wanderer. It sold well in Denmark and when the company went bust our Danish agent asked North West Frontiers (whose holidays they also sold) if they could take over the trip. NWF weren't interested but were in the process of starting a package of easier walks for which they needed guides. I got a message saying "Ring Andy Bluefield on this number", which led to a thoroughly enjoyable 20 years guiding in the NW Highlands.
Near Sandend
The western part of the coast as far as the mouth of the Spey is fairly flat, and much of the walking is along beaches. A few highlights stand out. At the mouth of the River Findhorn are the now forested sand dunes at Culbin, which overwhelmed settlements back in 1694. An easy day's walk eastwards is the ancient fort at Burghead, famed for the Pictish carved bulls discovered there, and with a mysterious Holy Well.
A couple of miles east of Burghead is the popular climbing ground of Cummingston. It's an interesting spot, with caves and sea stacks, though I've never been a great fan of the actual climbing as the soft sandstone tends to be quite snappy. I've bouldered around a few times but only done routes on a rope once. I got chatting to Pete Hill from Highlander Mountaineering who was squeezing a bouldering session into a trip to Elgin supermarket and as I had a rope in the car we climbed a couple of very pleasant VS corners, steep but with loads of good holds.
Climbing at Logie Head
Beyond Cummingston you pass an abandoned quarry which has dinosaur footprints, then come to the Sculptors Cave at Covesea, named for the 7th century Pictish carvings within it. When excavated it was found to contain large numbers of human bones. Most of these were of children and dated from around 3000 years ago, but there were also the bodies of at least seven people who had been executed during the Iron Age, plus a hoard of Roman coins.
Huge sweeps of beach then take you along past Lossiemouth to the mouth of the Spey, which forces you inland briefly. Easy walking follows to the fishing port of Buckie, after which you start to hit the old hard Highland rocks and the coast begins to get more jagged. Golf courses give way to little coves backed by scrubby cliffs and you soon arrive in the fishing village of Findochty (pronounced "Finechty"). The campsite here is one of my favourite hangouts. I've spent scores of summer evenings sitting on a stack above the shore seeing the sun slide into the Sutherland skyline across a steel sea (apologies for the abundant alliteration, I never did know when to stop 😄).
Sunset from Findochty
Beyond Findochty an excellent path leads along the clifftop amid a colourful mix of gorse, heather and bracken, then after the little harbour of Portknockie the distinctive stack of the Bow Fiddle Rock grabs your attention. This has a slender arched strut on its east flank and there is a matching hole in the mainland cliff. You can scramble down into the slot to get a dramatically-framed view of the stack. It's quite an intimidating place, with the slabby floor sweeping into the sea and the swooshing waves echoing around the roof.
Bow Fiddle Rock
Another beach takes you into Cullen, guarded by the sandstone stacks of the Three Kings, left high and dry as the land rebounded after the ice age. There used to be a good campsite here too, but it's now a plantation of holiday homes. There still is a great ice cream shop - I was once climbing nearby when it started to rain, and everybody on the crag chose the ice cream shop over the pub. If you have time it's worth climbing the prominent Bin of Cullen just inland. This may be only 320m but as it's at the angle where the coastal plain swings round between the mouths of Spey and Deveron it has a view out of all proportion to its height. Looking south from the Caithness coast it's the distinctive feature that you end up using to identify everything else.
Logie Head, the dark triangle on the right is Black Hole and the crack just left of the arete is Fallen Star
Going back down to the sea a good path leads to a staircase of huge stone blocks. This was built single-handedly over 6 months by local climber Tony Hetherington. Sadly he was killed in a kayaking accident in Austria in 1993 and there is a memorial to him nearby. The steps take you to the lovely climbing crag of Logie Head, a slab of greywacke tipped up to about 80 degrees and running out to sea. For anyone leading around VS it's a paradise, scattered with small fingery holds (and some not-so-small ones) and with plenty of cracks for runners. About half of it is tidal, but you can always get to the first main walls. Fallen Star on the outer edge is probably the best route, surprisingly exposed for such a short climb, but Poacher and Cullenary Delight on the innermost wall both run it close. There are several more excellent routes at VS-E1 plus the characterful Diff of Black Hole which goes right through the cliff to emerge on the other side of the headland!
Poacher, Logie Head, on a very cold December day
One of the most enjoyable sections of the coastal path now runs past Sunnyside Bay to the ruins of Findlater Castle. This Sinclair (and later Ogilvie) stronghold was a substantial fortress, but now only the basement and cellars are left, built into the side of the headland. They can be clambered into but beware, there have been deaths here. In 1562 it was occupied by Sir John Gordon, a leading Catholic noble, who thought it his destiny to marry Mary Queen of Scots and restore Scotland to Catholicism. To that end he broke into her boudoir in Edinburgh and proposed to her (despite already being married – his wife was imprisoned at Findlater). Mary didn't take kindly to this and he was forced to flee the capital. Mary's troops failed to take the castle but Sir John was captured soon afterwards and executed.
Findlater Castle
Back in the 21st century more lovely easy walking takes you past the beach at Sandend and round Redhythe Point, where there are more rock climbs in a lovely setting, generally in the lower grades. A mile or so further on the historic burgh of Portsoy still has an organic feel to it. Old stone buildings huddle against winter northerlies and appear to have sprouted out of the rocky foreshore. Once a busy trading port, sending local "marble" (actually serpentine) as far as the Palace of Versailles, it's been a backwater for the last century or so and still retains its character.
Gina at Portsoy marble quarry
Hidden away in the next slot east of Portsoy lies another ruined castle with a Mary Queen of Scots connection. This is Boyne Castle, built for Mary Beaton, one of her ladies in waiting ("There was Mary Beaton and Mary Seton and Mary Carmichael and Me" as the song puts it). The castle is obviously rickety but access isn't barred off, there's just a warning notice, a nice (and increasingly rare) example of "use your common sense". I wandered around inside exploring the impressive ruins but made sure not to lean on the walls!
Boyne Castle
An active quarry forces you inland onto a minor road here. I did once sneak past on the outside edge but it takes you onto very unstable spoil above the sea and I don't recommend it. Beyond this the cliffs get bigger, rising to 500 feet before the deep inlet of Gamrie Bay. Here the houses of Gardenstown (Gamrie) cling to the hillside and you descend to a stony beach. An easy stroll takes you to Crovie, whose old fisherman's cottages are squeezed in between the sea and the steep slopes of The Law, gables to the sea to deflect the gales. Once semi-derelict, they are now holiday lets and expensive bolt holes for Aberdeen oil workers.
Crovie
Another superb section of coast follows, round the top of the cliffs of Troup Head. It's easy walking along the cliff edge but the drop is impressive and the cliffs are home to the largest gannet colony on the Scottish mainland. As you approach the next road access at Cullykhan there is a huge hole, Hell's Lum, that connects with a tunnel under the cliffs, and an Iron Age promontory fort, Fort Fiddes, on the headland beyond. Cullykhan Bay itself is a stunning place, a tiny cove surrounded by steep cliffs, with slots and coves that tempt you to explore. Once you've extracted yourself you are soon in Pennan, which hit cinematic fame as the village in Local Hero. It's still a popular spot, with an excellent pub. Like many thousands of others, I had to make a telephone call ("Hi mum, I'm in the Local Hero phone box"). There was a huge local outcry when BT planned to replace the old red box with a new transparent one, and thankfully the company saw sense.
The cliffs now gradually get smaller, and the path becomes fairly fictional, but it's still great walking. Aberdour Beach with its cave and yet another ruined castle at Dundarg are the standouts. Finally the wild ground ends at Rosehearty and you're either on the beach or the road behind it for the last few miles into Fraserburgh.
A few informative websites:
If you can find it then The Complete Moray Rambler by Richard Gordon (the sci fi writer from Buckie, not the Aberdonian football presenter) has lots of well-researched and fascinating history.
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