[This walk was completed on Saturday, 25th May, 2024]

Today is a day of high clouds, bright seas, and intermittent sunshine. Tide is high when I set off along the promenade from Golspie, heading south to a place called Littleferry.

The car park by the coast was is busy with cars and motorhomes. It is a bank-holiday weekend, so families and dog-walkers are out enjoying the sunshine. From the car park, an easy tarmac path leads beside the shore.

I pass an old jetty, and a kayak store, and come to a place where the shore is eroded – presumably from recent winter storms. Barriers are in place, and I divert around a storage area…

… to emerge on the path on the other side.

At the end of a tarmac road, a sign says, “STRICTLY NO OVERNIGHT PARKING.” It is an emergency helicoptor landing area. For coastguards? Or for the air-ambulance? I imagine the nearest big hospital is in Inverness – miles away by road.

Onwards. The hard track is undermined by more erosion, and the diversion is via a grassy path on top of the sea bank. A clear reminder of how quickly the coastline can change.

Inland, high on a hill, stands a monument. I expect it is a war memorial [but later I learn it is a monument to the first Duke of Sutherland, the largest landowner in Europe at the time, and somebody who forced his tenants off the land to make way for sheep.]

I am walking along the edge of a golf course, although more coastal erosion is reducing the size of the greens, and forcing me to walk along the course itself.

Walking into the sun, I am squinting in the bright light, and my photographs looking ahead are disappointing. But there is a great view when I turn around. Across a choppy blue-green sea, there is Golspie.

I leave the golf course behind. The tide is too high to walk along the beach, so I am forced to walk along an uncomfortable gravel track. The track seems to lead nowhere, but I wonder what they are planning to do with this land?

Ahead is a static-caravan park, so maybe they are planning to expand the park?

The track meets a dead-end road, and here I must turn inland. The reason for this diversion is to go around the Littleferry Kart Track.

I’ve been hearing intermittent noise for some time, now it gets louder. There is some sort of large meet going on. Ambulance standing by, people spectating, and the buzzing of the carts sounds like a swarm of bees.

The official path goes through a car park for the track, and it is absolutely jam-packed. The races must last for several days, because people have brought motorhomes and tents. This family have – rather inconveniently – placed their eating area right across the path!

Finally, at the other end of this crowded car park / campsite, I reach the official entrance to the Loch Fleet National Nature Reserve. Two rather fine-looking slabs stand guard.

I head back to the shore. It is beautiful here, but difficult to walk along the beach. Short patches of sand are interupted by areas of large pebbles. These form an unstable surface and the going is difficult.

So, after a while, I abandon the shore, and follow an official path, which leads inland along the edge of a pine forest.

It is much easier to walk on the grassy surface, but rather boring and out of sight of the sea. So, I am glad when I can cut back to the shore again and walk along a wide, sandy beach. I am nearing the mouth of Loch Fleet.

Turning round the point, I look along the shore towards the main body of the loch. I can’t see the loch itself, just a wide, sandy bay with houses in the distance. That must be Littleferry.

I guess once there was a ferry across to the other side of the water. No ferry now, of course, but tomorrow I shall go around the loch and I should soon be walking along that far bank.

Loch Fleet is a largish body of water, but it empties into the sea via a narrow channel. The water becomes very rough at the entrance – presumably due to incoming waves meeting outgoing water – and it is clearly a feasting place for seagulls. The air above the waves is full of birds – swooping and diving to catch fish.

I stand for some time, enjoying the sunshine, the smell of the sea, and the noise of the gulls… Oh, and I spot several seals. They are enjoying the fish-feast too! Take lots of photographs. But don’t get a decent shot of a seal – they are too far away.

Further round the bay, I spot a wooden bench overlooking the sea, and I have my eye on it, because I plan to sit there and eat my picnic lunch. But a man arrives on a bike, and settles down on the bench before I can reach it – how disappointing.

This is the view. Yes, there are seals on those sandbanks.

As I stand near the bench to take a photograph, I realise the man is a touring cyclist, and I stop for a chat. He tells me he just takes off – if the weather is good – and goes on long cycling trips, wild-camping along the way. He is planning to sleep in the nearby woodlands tonight, and has no idea where he will end up tomorrow.

I’m not sure I could cope without a structure of some sort when I go on my treks. I admire his insouciance, and leave him to the view.

Nearby, is the end of the LittleFerry road and a car park hidden from view behind a bank. Here is a picnic spot. I sit on one of the benches and eat my lunch.

The noticeboard tells me more about Loch Fleet, and you can see from the map how narrow the channel is that connects the loch to the sea.

Littleferry consists of a few houses, maybe holiday homes, because the place seems deserted apart from a handful of sightseers. From here, I follow the road that leads in a northerly direction, back towards Golspie. And, it is a very pleasant road too.

Sometimes the road runs through trees, sometimes through open areas lined with sweet-smelling gorse. The monument on the hill is a beacon ahead. Intermittent buzzing is a reminder of the nearby go-cart track.

Occasionally, I get glimpses of Loch Fleet, and would like to walk along its banks, instead of along the road, but it is too overgrown to get to the water.

My map did show a track that circled around closer to the coast, but I must have missed the beginning for some reason.

A cyclepath apears, running along beside the road. This is very pleasant walking – although the surface is quite rough beneath my tired feet. I’m entering an area of pine woods.

Earlier today, I parked somewhere near here and cycled back to Golspie, where I picked up my rucksack and walking pole from my rented cottage and started today’s walk. It was such a joy to cycle along a flat road and without a rucksack on my back!

Ah, in a little parking area ahead, I spot my van.

This was a lovely day of walking. Littleferry is a beautiful place, and I’m glad I got to see it in brilliant sunshine.

---

You can read more about the Duke of Sutherland Monument on the Visitor’s Guide to Scotland website.

Miles walked today = 5.5 miles

Total distance around coast = 5,153.5 miles

Route today:

---