[This walk was completed on Tuesday, 6th May, 2025]

Not wanting to risk the steep road down to Rockfield on my Scooty bike, I leave him chained up in a field at the top of the hill. Start the descent down the road…

… much easier coming down today than going up yesterday! And a lovely view over the village.

It is a late start today, because my stay in The Studio apartment in Tain has come to an end, and tonight I move on to a campsite in Fortrose. By the time I’ve packed up my things, filled the van with diesel, bought some provisions, driven to Hilton, and cycled back to Rockfield, it is mid-afternoon.

Back down at sea level, I take a photograph looking back up the street where I walked yesterday. An old boy is out with his dog. A younger man is trundling a lawnmower down the street. In the warm afternoon sunshine, Rockfield looks like an idyllic place to live.

I turn southwards and follow the road – past cottages and sheds – towards the end of the village, where I walk through a pretty park, past a caravan, a plastic greenhouse, a little car park, a few more cottages…

… until I reach the end of the road. Through a gate, and the Core Path to Balintore begins. 5 miles. Just a short walk today, because I need time to travel to the new campsite and get set up before it grows too late. This path looks lovely.

In fact, this walk is much like yesterday’s walk. The air is not so clear, the wind has dropped, and the sky is milky rather than blue, but it is another lovely day. The path is clear and easy, running between the rocky shore on one side, and a bank of gorse-covered cliffs on the other.

A very isolated feel to this stretch. Just the odd gate and stile, but no livestock to be seen.

It is very quiet. The sea barely moves and the only sound comes from the birds – sea gulls and oyster catchers. I look out for seals or dolphins, but don’t spot any.

Just me, the quiet sea, the distant hills of… is that Aberdeenshire over there? I’m not sure… and the odd shag on a rock.

(I can’t help having a little smutty snigger every time I spot a shag! An unfortunate name for an innocent sea bird.)

After a while, I come across an abandoned building. It has a garage door on the side, and a track leads upwards to somewhere unseen, so I guess the building might be used to store equipment or machinery. But what for? It’s a mystery.

The old door has a horseshoe hanging on it. Might just be for luck, or might be something to do with a nearby horsebox parked in front of a low cave in the cliffs. No sign of any horses.

The path comes inland for a short spell, to get round the cliffs with the cave, and then dips back down to the shore. On the headland in front of me is a ploughed field – a reminder that, although this stretch of coast feels very empty and isolated, civilisation is really not far away.

Here is a small beach. Not much sand, just shingle above a line of sloping rocks, but a good enough place to stop for my very late lunch. It is 4:30pm! I sit on the pebbles and rest my back against a convenient log.

A cyclist goes past while I am eating my picnic. I don’t spot him until he is nearly out of view. He is the only person I meet all day – and I don’t really meet him!

The pebbles are growing uncomfortable under my bottom. Time to move on.

I shrug my rucksack over my shoulders and continue along the path – now a well-worn track in the grass, with two tyre treads visible. Vehicles must come this way occasionally. Maybe they are going to that hut, the one I can see in the distance?

The hut turns out to be a proper little cottage, with no windows in the landward side. Used as a fishing base? Or a barn for animals? But there seem to be no livestock along this section of coast at the moment.

I stop to take a photo of a lonely shag, posing on a rock.

I must be getting close to Balintore by now. Maybe it is just around the next bend…

… ah, here is another little building. This one is far from picturesque – made from modern blocks, with a tin roof held down by rocks. For fishing? For what?

Beyond the building is a wide bay, and there is Balintore. Sadly the sun is not shining on the village, so my photos of the place look lack-lustre, but it is good to see my destination.

I pass yet another hut! This one has a boarded-up window overlooking the bay. Was it a summerhouse or a cafe? Anyway, it has bench outside and someone is sitting on it, although they move off before I arrive.

I have a seat on the vacated bench, and a brief rest. Admire the view.

Three villages line the bay ahead – Hilton (where my van is parked), Balintore just beyond that, and the far village is called Shandwick. The three together are known as the Seaboard Coast [But, I only find this out much later]. Sitting here, today, I get the misleading impression that Hilton is a big place!

The beach is too rocky to walk along comfortably, so I take to the grassy bank. The path is well-trodden here, and I begin to meet people. Dog walkers. Joggers. Another man on a bike.

After a while, a strip of shingly sand appears below the grass, and I drop down to the shore to escape the crowds. There is my cheerful blue and white van parked at the end of the village. Always a welcome sight at the end of a walk.

Today has been another great day of coast-walking, and I am very grateful to the Core Path system for bringing me all the way round from Inver without any road-walking and traffic-dodging.

Sadly, the core path ends at Shandwick and my walk tomorrow will be mainly along roads. But first, I need to find my campsite and settle in to my new place.

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Miles walked today = a paltry 5.5 miles

Total distance around coast = 5,204.5 miles

Route:

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