Date: Friday 23rd September 2016
Company: Myself and Cuillin
Distance: 8km
Time: 2 hrs
As I had to drop Becky at school yesterday morning, and pick Becky up after school yesterday afternoon, the time I had available for walking was limited. With the exception of a few local hills, which I have already done repeatedly in the past, a hillwalk was out of the question. My nearest section of unwalked coast was also now a fair distance off. Nevertheless, I decided to drive to between Nairn and Inverness to walk a section of coast before returning to collect Becky. I reckoned I would have time to walk up to 1Hr 15Mins in each direction.
I drove to and parked at Alturlie Point.
Click here to see a map of the route undertaken
Coastal Walks index
From Alturlie Point, I initially walked to the Point before commencing my walk towards Inverness.
For the first mile or so, I decided to walk along the road instead of walking along slippery seaweed-covered pebbles. The road runs parallel to the shore.
Looking towards Inverness and Kessock Bridge from Alturlie Point:
As I walked along the road, I passed numerous Blackberry bushes (brambles) and even more Rosehips. I offered Cuillin a blackberry but he turned his nose up at it.
Brambles:
Rosehips:
As well as normal small rosehips, I passed a bush with large tomato-sized hips.
Large Rosehips:
Having now walked the entire coast from Aberdeen to Nairn, I realised I did not have much remaining to complete my walk from Aberdeen to Inverness.
Kessock Bridge (zoom):
Looking along the coast towards Inverness:
As I progressed along the road, I could see several crows down on the shore, I also spotted a Wheatear.
Wheatear:
Looking towards Inverness and Kessock bridge:
On reaching the water treatment works, we dropped down from the road onto the shore.
Passing the water treatment works:
Looking towards Inverness and Kessock bridge:
We came to our first obstacle of the walk a short distance beyond the water treatment works. Such things wouldn't normally pose a problem when dressed in my hillwalking attire but today I was just wearing my normal clothes and trainers. Wet feet was therefore inevitable.
How to get wet feet:
I am not a fan of grafitti regardless of how artistic it is. The only grafitti I have encountered walking the coast was here and in Aberdeen.
Grafitti:
Following the shore:
After walking for one hour, I decided to return as I did not want to risk being late for Becky. I stepped up from the shore onto an old, disused road. I suspect this may have been part of the original road from Nairn to Inverness.
Returning via a disused road:
Looking towards Alturlie Point during return:
We made it back to Alturlie Point in good time, allowing for a quick visit to Starbucks in Elgin on the way home.