Phil and Dee's Travels: 10/08/24

A stressful wild camp!

We were travelling to the west coast and hoped to find somewhere to camp along the way. We like to be by ourselves, a lay by full of other camper vans is not our idea of wild camping!

We crossed all the way over to the NC500 without finding a spot that wasn't taken and thought we now had no hope. However, we managed to find a spot just off a narrow road to the Summer Isles that we had been passed on our previous trip.

All alone with this beautiful view and the sound of deer in the distance - bliss!

A tick waiting for a meal!

The following day we visited the Corrieshalloch Gorge National Nature Reserve and the Falls of Measach. The gorge is very impressive, deep and very narrow.

Bridge in the distance for scale

Dunrobin Castle and Portmahomack

When we left Findhorn we travelled through the lovely town of Forres, onto Nairn which has fantastic beaches including Secret Beach, that we found up a single track road.

Dunrobin Castle looks like a French Chateau and has beautiful parterre type formal gardens. These gardens were inspired by those at the Palace of Versailles 150 years ago and have stayed in this style ever since.

This is the first place we have been to where dogs are not allowed so Purdy had a walk through the grounds to the beach and back before we explored the castle.

The castle is in a beautiful setting
right on the beach

There was a very informative Falconry display in the gardens using a Harris Hawk and Gyr Falcon. They both behaved themselves despite some drizzle.

After our visit, we headed to a friendly village called Portmahomack (love that name) where we ended up camped next to the lighthouse just outside, hoping to see the Northern Lights!

Tarbat Ness Lighthouse

Looks like a green tint to me!

Along the coast to Findhorn

Continuing west along the coast we came across Portsoy, a picturesque harbour village which has some lovely old warehouse type buildings.

A little bit further along we visited Cullen which is famous for Cullen Skink, a very tasty smoked haddock, potato and onion chowder. We also found a pet cemetery! Set on a rocky area next to the sea, there are lots of headstones dedicated to all sorts of pets. A volunteer there told us there are no longer burials there but you can scatter ashes still.

At the town of Elgin we explored the cathedral ruin - the towers and facade are still intact and you can climb right up to the top.

After calling into the Dolphin Centre at Spey Bay (no dolphins spotted) we continued round Burghead and then on to Findhorn. We ended up staying 4 days here in a lovely spot right by the beach.