Daily route pages: Day sixteen

Walking Scotlands coast.....

Our nights stay in the Crown Hotel, Inverbervie was both comfortable and sociable. After a hearty breakfast we set of in lovely sunshine for today’s destination, Stonehaven. We were advised by locals that we would be unable to walk from Bervie Bay round the point to King Step and would have to walk for some distance on the A92 then on a minor road back to the coast at Catterline. Perusal of the map indicated nothing to justify the suggested detour and on leaving ‘Bervie’ we took the path at the bridge down to the river and crossed on a footbridge. We followed a path round the point then gained some height on the hillside where we found another well defined path which we followed (at times along field edges) along the coast to the lighthouse at Todhead Point. From here the views both north and south were stunning. After a tea break we made our way down to, and walked along the Pebbly beach at Braidon Bay. At the end of the bay we met our first serious obstacle. An unnamed river runs through a long, deep gulley out into the sea and could not be crossed at the bay resulting in us walking some distance inland to find a suitable point where we could cross. Having successfully regained the clifftops we walked into Catterline where we enjoyed a well earned beer at The Creel. From Catterline we had to find our own path (again mostly along field edges) to Crawton . From here we followed a well made path through the Fowlsheugh RSPB reserve where the close-up views and noise of the masses of nesting seabirds on the sheer cliff faces was memorable. On leaving the bird reserve the path became a bit vague and at times we again resorted to walking at the edge of fields as near to the sea as possible. A short distance on we were greeted with what must be one of the most stunning, historic, seaside scenes, the amazing Dunnotar Castle. The castle sits 160 feet high on a rocky outcrop between Old Hall Bay and Castle Haven Bay and is truly spectacular. On making our way from the castle towards Stonehaven we met and chatted to Rebecca, David and Emily on vacation from Boston. From the castle there is a constructed path into Stonehaven where we caught a train back to Edinburgh.

Summary;.  Undulating at parts with fences to cross. Map required.
Highs; The sea bird colonies and Dunottar Castle.
Lows; The time consuming gulley at Braidon Bay. An alternative would be to detour on the minor roads via Fernieflatt and Bellfield to Catterline.