Coastal Walk: Sandend to Cullen (and back)
Date: Friday 13th March 2009
Company: Myself and Beinn
Time taken: 2hrs 40mins
Dog friendly: Yes (need to be kept on a lead in places)


I fancied a walk today without having to drive far so I exchanged hills for coast, grouse and ptarmigan for cormorant and fulmar and heather-bashing and rock for beach sand and rock pools. Just 10 minutes drive from home and I arrived at my starting point Sandend beach.

Sandend Information Board:


Sandend is one of several nice beaches in the area. Would also recommend Inverboyndie and Cullen.

Sandend Beach (c. 4 hrs from high-tide):


Route marker for coastal walk from Sandend towards Cullen:


This route is a marked coastal route. The route takes you along the cliff tops for the first couple of miles and then you descend to Sunnyside beach. From there you can walk alongside or on the beach.

Looking back to Sandend village:


Clifftop walk:


This section of coast has numerous rocky outcrops where the rock seems to have been turned onto its side.

Fins of rock:


Around 1.5 miles from Sandend is the remains of Findlater Castle.

Findlater Castle:


Sunnyside beach is well worth a visit if you want sandy beach along with plenty of rock pools.

Approaching Sunnyside Beach:


Sunnyside Beach:


One of many strange rock formations:


Looking back towards Sandend:


First glimpse of Logiehead:


Fulmar and gulls on cliffs:


Logiehead, is in my opinion, the finest rock-climbing crag in North-East Scotland. It has over fifty routes on it from VDiff into the E-Grades. Several of the routes are three-star routes. A number of routes are non-tidal, however, the best routes are in the Star Zone which usually involves a bit of a wade to get to.

Logiehead:


Some photos from a previous visit to Logiehead in 2004:

Myself leading Bladderwrack (Sev):


Myself leading Cullenary Delight (VS 5a):


Neil seconding Bladderwrack (Sev):


Neil ascending Poacher (VS 4b):


Rock outcrops at Logiehead:


At Logiehead, there are a set of steps with a memorial to the man who single-handedly built them in 1987.

Logiehead steps:


Memorial to Tony Heatherington:


Coast approaching Cullen:


Cooling down:


The sweet shop in Cullen is well worth a visit. Old-fashioned type sweet shop with lots of jars of sweets and also good ice cream. We walked back via the same route. If you have two cars you could leave a car at either end and extend the walk from Portsoy to Cullen.