[This walk was completed on Sunday, 28th May, 2023]

I’m staying in a smart Airbnb in Keiss. A brand-new building. The first night I was alone, but last night there were several other guests staying. We have a shared kitchen and one of the other guests seems to have broken the coffee machine. I have a frustrating half hour this morning before I get it working again.

I wait for the pain au chocolat to arrive. They are delivered fresh each morning and, as the other guests left early, I get to eat several of them – which makes up for the frustration with the coffee machine.

Then the cleaner arrives. She comes from Thailand, or Cambodia, or maybe the Phillipines (sorry, can’t remember which – but somewhere warm and sunny.) She is married to a Scottish man who works at sea. So she is stuck alone in northern Scotland for most of the time. Summers are fine, but the winters are hard to bear. She looks enviously at my camper van and I show her the inside.

Next, I drive the van to to Noss Head – a difficult drive because I have to go into the outskirts of Wick and out again, and the back roads are in a terrible state with enormous pot holes. After that, I have a long bike ride back to the Airbnb – dodging the pot holes again, and pedalling slowly against the wind, along a frighteningly busy road.

So, it is a late start to today’s walk. Nearly midday before I set off.

After walking down the main A99, I turn off to the coast down a side road. This is marked as a “Core Path” on the online map – just as well I know this, because the “Private Access” sign is a little offputting!

The road runs down to the pebbly beach, and then along the shore for a short while – a shore lined by the concrete chunks of old tank-defences.

The road ends, and I follow a grassy track along the bottom of people’s gardens, before joining the end of another road. This leads to a car park at the northern edge of the beach.

Look at this wonderful sweep of beach. I’ve been really looking forward to walking along the sand again. A sign reminds me to “Leave nothing but footprints.”

The bay is called Sinclair’s Bay, and across the water is Noss Head where my van is parked. It looks so near… but so far away too.

The beach is practically empty. It’s a Sunday afternoon! Perhaps the fact the weather is chilly and overcast puts people off, or perhaps there just aren’t many people around in this patch of Scotland.

A family are sheltering from the wind at the bottom of the vegetated dunes. One of the children is busy sliding down the sandy bank. Looks like fun.

As I get further from the car park, the beach empties. Just me, the gentle waves, and the sand.

I meet a walker coming towards me. A young man. Looks very smart in his new walking gear and with a large, but neatly-packed, rucksack. Is he walking the John o’Groats Trail too? He’s too far away across the sand for a chat and, in any case, he looks in rather a hurry.

The JOG Trail has a website: https://www.jogt.org.uk/ Very useful, except it describes the route from south to north and I, of course, am walking north to south. Anyway, the description for this stretch warns me about a wide river that may be “fast flowing and over waist deep”. This might require a detour along the dreaded A99.

But, the river turns out to be a damp squib. A wide mouth and shallow water today. Easy to splash through.

Past the river, I come across this strange cylindrical shape, made of metal and half-buried in the sand. Nearby are the ribs of a beached ship. Is this the remains of a shipwreck?

Onwards. Along an empty beach.

I stop to take photos of Noss Head across the bay. It looks tantalising close through the zoom lens of my camera. There seems to be a castle over there too. Good. Love a good castle.

I’m finally nearing the southern end of the beach. It’s been a refreshing 3 mile walk along soft sand. And, there’s another castle dead ahead.

It’s now just past 3pm and must be time for a belated lunch. (My appetite is really poor these days, and I have to remind myself to eat!)

Rocks and pebbles are piled up at the edge of the sand, along with platforms of stone. The weird shape of the rocks look very artificial. Like giant cobblestones.

Anyway, they make a good surface for a picnic bench.

There is a car park nearby, and several people emerge to stroll along the beach.

After eating my snacks, it’s time to get moving again, and I am soon approaching the castle at the end of the beach. Oh dear. There are cows in the field beside the castle.

I meet a lady walking her dogs, and she says you can walk on the grass bank below the wall, and avoid the cows. So, this is what I do.

To be honest, the wall has great gaps in places, so it’s not much of a barrier. Luckily, although the cows are pretty interested in me, they don’t try to come onto the bank.

Check my map. The castle is called “Ackergill Tower”. It is in good repair and must be a residential building of some sort. There is a most impressive pair of gates facing the sea. Modern, but a great design.

Beyond the tower/castle, the JOG Trail turns inland. First along a track…

…and then across the muddiest field I’ve encountered so far on this trip. Ankle-deep, smelly, cow slurry. Yuck!!! But, luckily, no actual cows!

After the slurry field, I end up in a children’s play area. There are no chldren here, and the the high wire fences are a bit off-putting, making it look like a prison yard.

Crossing the play area, I end up on a little road that leads to the coast. This place is called Ackergill.

The road ends at a little harbour. I sit on the bench for a while and watch the children using paddle boards in the shelter of the harbour.

Onwards. I turn right along the shore, and follow a good path towards the distant shape of Noss Head. On the way, I pass several constructions that are probably the remnants of WW2 defences.

The dullness of the morning has given way to bright sunshine, and the landscape glows in the afternoon sunshine. The tide is out, but the cliffs here are interesting, with a mix of red standstone and harder rocks, little inlets, hidden coves, and sea stacks.

Another square concrete box and another remnant of WW2, I presume (the Scottish equivalent of a pill box?) Alongside it is a smaller stone construction with a plaque…

… “Site of St Tear’s Chapel”. What an odd name. In smaller writing, I read, “Erected by the Clan Gunn Society, 1999” I’ve never heard of St Tear or Clan Gunn.

I make a mental note to look up St Tear and Clan Gunn when I finish the walk.

Onwards, along the cliffs. They are higher now, and even more dramatic, with giant ledges and secret caves.

I’m walking along a grassy path, overgrown in places, between the fence and the cliffs. And, finally, I reach the second castle.

What a magnificent sight. This is Castle Sinclair, and it is perched precariously on the very edge of a rocky outcrop.

There are dozens of people milling about the castle, which you can access via a drawbridge. (I find the presence of so many people a little overwhelming after miles of solitary walking!) Information boards tell me that Castle Sinclair is a scheduled monument and one of the best examples of a late-medieval fortified castle still in existence in Scotland.

After walking around the ruins of the castle, I set off for the lighthouse and the car park. The direct path is a little crowded for my liking…

…so I walk along the shore instead. Thread my way past crumbling cliffs, enjoy the view of rock stacks and wheeling sea birds, and spend some time on a secret little beach…

… before climbing back up to regain the high ground above the cliffs.

Reluctantly, I rejoin the path and return to the car park, where my van is parked.

The lighthouse lies a little further up the road (now a private road) and I believe you can rent private accommodation there.

I feel too tired to investigate further, I’m ashamed to say, and head straight back to my van.

I’m parked next to a bigger campervan with a rather interesting paint job.

And, I get chatting to the owner. He is a man of a certain age and is travelling with his mate. I think the man lives in his van, and his mate is renting a caravan at JOG. We talk about “wild camping” and I explain I am now compelled to use campsites with an electric hookup because I need to charge my e-bike overnight. The men explain I could get a converter and charge my e-bike off my leisure battery – as long as I was driving the van or had enough sunlight for my solar panels to keep the leisure battery topped up.

I never knew such a thing was possible. The things you learn!

Back at my lovely Airbnb, I discover it is now full of new people. I give the other guests instructions on how to use the coffee machine without breaking it. Then I’m off to the local pub for an evening meal.

I order “Haggis Jewels” for starters – which turn out to be 4 enormous haggis balls in batter. So huge, I can barely eat my main course of fish and chips! My appetite is really poor these days, but I do enjoy the glass of cider.

At the BnB, I pull back the curtains from the tall windows to watch the stars, but it is too light to see any. It stays light until almost midnight and dawn seems to come at 3:30am. It never really gets dark up here at this time of year.

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Post walk notes: You can stay in Ackergill Tower, and it has a sad love story attached to it: read here. Clan Gunn really exists, and is one of the oldest clans in Scotland with its own Clan Gunn Society. St Tear’s isn’t a real saint, but the St Tear’s chapel commemorates/mourns the massacre of infants by King Herod. It is also the site of an act of bloody treachery against Clan Gunn. Castle Sinclair also has an interestingly tragic history, having been nearly destroyed by family feuding.

Miles walked today = 7.5 miles (after an 11.5 mile cycle ride!)

Total distance around coast = 5,084 miles

Route:

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