[This walk was completed on Sunday 11th May 2025]

Such a treat to have lunch in a cafe! There have been so few places open on the north coast of Scotland – closed pubs, and cafes that have erratic opening hours. I feel I must be approaching civilisation again.

Leaving the cafe behind, I head along the shore. Rosemarkie is a pretty place, and popular with visitors.

Beyond the village is a caravan park. I nearly booked a pitch here, and feel a twinge of envy – just look at that lovely beach – but my camp site is further along in Fortrose.

I start off on the grassy bank, but soon dip down to walk along the sands. The beach is relatively crowded… for Scotland!

It’s a wide, long bay and, despite the overcast sky, the sea is calm. Walking on the soft sand is pleasant and easy. Everyone I meet seems happy, and with friendly smiles.

One encounter is peculiar. I meet a barefoot lady walking backwards. Now, when I say I’m walking backwards, I mean I’m heading anticlockwise on my trek, instead of clockwise. But, this lady really is walking backwards!

She sees me looking at her, and smiles. “It’s good for you,” she explains. I smile back. It takes all sorts.

[Later, I discover that walking backwards really does have some health benefits: Why walking backwards can be good for your health and brain – BBC Future]

At the end of the bay is Chanonry lighthouse.

Chanory Lighthouse is painted the familiar colours of white and creamy-yellow, and is quite squat. The land around is fairly flat, and the lighthouse doesn’t need much height to be visible from shipping coming into Moray Firth.

Now, Chanonry point is famous for dophin watching. My campsite had a sign that said the best time to see dophins was on the rising tide, when they hunt for fish in the narrow channel between Chanonry Point and Fort George on the other side of the firth.

Several people are gathered, some with cameras and binoculars. I join them. The sky is dull now, and it really is quite cold.

Yes. I do see some dophins. Or, possibly, the same dolphin that keeps breaching the surface in gentle curves as he fishes. But he is a long way out, and all my attempts at photography are disappointing.

But, at least I’ve seen a dolphin at Chanonry Point. (Although, I have seen dophins in other places off the Scottish coast too, off Strathy Point for example.)

Probably, this is the best way to spot dolphins – from a kayak.

I spend about an hour at Chanonry point, watching the distant shape of the dolphin, but after a while I begin to feel the cold. Time to head back to my van.

The track detours from the coast, going inland around the lighthouse, and then I’m walking along the waters of the Inner Moray Firth, towards Fortrose.

There is one of the ubiquitous Scottish golf courses to my right. It’s a Sunday, and so the greens are pretty crowded.

I walk past banks of fragrant gorse and, ah, there’s my campsite ahead.

I stop to take some last photographs. A view looking across Moray Forth, where weak sunlight is streaming through a breach in the clouds. Crepuscular rays.

Take a photograph looking back to Chanonry Point. The lighthouse is so squat, it’s hidden behind the trees.

The path from Chanonry Point to Fortrose is well-worn. I’m nearly at the camp site…

… and the path ends on the road through the site. There is my van. Sadly, I don’t have a pitch right on the sea front (those pitches get booked well in advance, I gather), but I am near the all-important shower block.

Actually, the worst part of van-life is having to use communal showers and toilets. Every trip to the shower is a logistic exercise – remembering to take towels and shower kit, clean clothes to change into, waterproof bag to keep things in (not every communal shower block has decent hooks for your clothes) and footwear that’s not too muddy or grassy… urgh, I hate slimy shower floors too.

From now on on my walk, accommodation seems much easier to find. So, next year, I plan to sell the van and buy a car with a boot big enough to carry my electric bike. It will be the end of a beautiful relationship… but life moves on and I’m getting too old for communal shower blocks!

---

Dolphins spotted = 1, several times.

Miles walked today = a mere 5 miles

Total distance around coast = 5,233.5 miles

Route (morning in black, afternoon in red):

---