Today would be an easier day with virtually all coastal walking, with little road intrusion. My use of public transport over the days of walking would involve the use of two bus services on each of the three days. In order to make use of the available daylight I had to make an early start each day. From my hotel in Buckie I drove down the coastal road and parked up in Lossiemouth. There I caught the 07:07 # 33A bus to Elgin. I then caught the 07:53 #31 bus to Kinloss. As I travelled on the bus it began to rain quite heavily. I dreaded getting off the bus and becoming soaked even before my walk began. I had successfully dried gear from yesterday’s rain overnight in my bedroom. So I was relieved to see the rain cease just as I got off the bus in Kinloss.
The 2 miles to the village of Findhorn fortunately had a good footpath all the way, although there was little see there and I was soon walking along the sea wall out of the village and on the Moray Coast Trail. I looked down onto the beach and could see very little of it, consisting only of large cobbles making up the shoreline, which would have been murder to walk along. After about 2 miles out of Findhorn I happened to look behind me and could see the sky getting very dark. By the time the bad weather hit me I had entered the fringes of a large forested area that followed the coastline in a long sweeping curve around to Burghead, the next town on my walk.
The Moray Coast Trail disappeared inland but I was able to keep close to the forest edge next to the shoreline for most of the way. The forest also shielded me from the worst of the showery weather that that was blowing horizontal rain and sleet. Fortunately after 40 minutes the rain ceased and the sun came out for the rest of the walk.
I re-joined the Coastal trail and entered Burghead as the wind picked up coming in very strong across the Moray Firth. The sea was very choppy splashing waves over the sea wall, along the promontory that Burghead sits on. Once the centre of a large Pictish settlement, this small town is dominated by a large malting’s site and one of the largest drum malting’s in Europe which seemed to dwarf the rest of the town. Known as “Brochers”, the people of Burghead have a number of local customs and traditions, including the Burning of The Clavie. I joined the route of the old Burghead railway, which was a branch line of the Aberdeen to Inverness line, although the line to Burghead closed recently, the section onto Hopeman closed in 1957. I followed the cycle path out of the town towards the village of Hopeman. On the way I checked out a couple of holy wells, including St. Aethan and Braemou. I also came across something I had never seen before – a bicycle repair station composed of a rack to hold the bike, tools and a tyre pump. By the time I left Hopeman I felt very confident of getting the walk done in daylight.
I was now walking along a real coastal path which made for excellent walking. I started to hear the roars of very loud jet engines which told me I was nearing RAF Lossiemouth. The coastal path rose high above the shoreline with some impressive cliffs below me. I had brilliant views across the Moray Firth and to the lighthouse at Tarbat Ness. By the time I reached the lighthouse at Covesea Steading I had dropped down to the beach and would remain on the sand all the way into Lossiemouth. This had been a great day’s walk along a superb section of coastline, with the weather in the main being sunny and the wind at my back.
NB: I also publish all my Scottish Blog entries on the excellent Scottish Hills website, I use the same narrative, but larger photos and a few extra ones. They can be found here:
http://www.scottishhills.com/html/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=24782
Distance today = 19 miles
Total distance = 5,566 miles
Walking the Coast of Great Britain 