Day 54: Invergordon, Easter Ross to Embo, Sutherland

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

27th February 2021: 97.27km walked today taking the total to 5604.47/8868km. 13.5% of 92 entries submitting 720.55km.

Today we walk along the Cromarty Firth, visiting Invergordon before visiting Tarbat Ness and then Tain and Dornoch.

Route 17: Inverness to Scrabster NC500+ Part 1

En route to Invergordon, we pass Belleport Pier, completed in the 1830s, which provides a nesting spot for oystercatchers today but was once a particularly important part of the area's economic life. The shore bustled with imports and exports until the arrival of the railway caused a decline in cargo. We continue along the shore, past the Invergordon Sailing Club, after which we look out for the Thief’s Stone, ‘Clach a’Mheirleich’, in a nearby field. The Bronze Age standing stone is part of the Easter Ross Pictish Trail because Pictish symbols were carved into it at some point during the 6th-7th centuries.

We pass the head of the path leading under Rosskeen Bridge or ‘Donkey Bridge’, which would take you to the old Rosskeen Parish Church and graveyard. The church was built in 1833 and held 1000 people; now unused, it’s proving difficult to find another use for the building with the graveyard still active.

After a further 2 kilometres, we arrive at Admiralty Pier on Invergordon’s seafront. This deep-water port can berth several large cruise liners. Each year, thousands of tourists disembark the liners to take coach tours to such places as Inverness, Eilean Donan, Dunrobin Castle, and Urquhart Castle. During both World Wars, the Royal Navy was based at Invergordon, so cruise liners anchor today where battleships once sat. During World War 2, a Polish battalion fled their own country and was stationed in the village: many, unable to return to Poland after the war, made this area home.

Invergordon Off the Wall created a 17-strong mural trail throughout the village, and we spot one of these murals on the wall of the community-run Naval Museum. It is unnerving to note that in front of this museum stands an unexploded mine! As we continue along the coast, I’ll tell you about one of the museum’s exhibits, the HMS Natal. Just before Christmas 1915, the HMS Natal, a Warrior-class cruiser, anchored offshore between Cromarty and Invergordon to enjoy a break from duty in the North Sea. On the 30th of December, several guests boarded the ship for a film party: mostly nurses, wives, and children. That afternoon, the HMS Natal sank in the space of 5 minutes due to an ammunition explosion on board, with a loss of 421 lives. Most of the wreck was salvaged to prevent further navigation hazards; the official war grave is marked by a buoy to this day.

After we walk through Saltburn, we continue along the coast from Nigg Bay to Barbaraville. This small village was once called Port Leich, at that time described as a small fishertown of earthen cottages. By 1820, permission had been granted by the local estates for people to build along the shoreline and it was renamed Barbaraville.

From the village, we walk inland for a time to Kildary, where we pick up a minor road heading around the top of the Sands of Nigg, through Arabella and past Chapelhill Burial Grounds. If we headed south from here, we would come to Nigg Ferry Terminal and docks but instead, we follow the road leading us northeast. As we approach the turn off for Shandwick, to our left are an expanse of fields with old military buildings surrounding old airstrips. This was once RAF Fearn, or HMS ‘Owl’, a base constructed in 1941 that was shared by the RAF and Royal Navy as a training facility. When the war ended, it became Fearn Aerodrome, but it isn’t used very much today, although training flights still practice touchdowns on the one usable runway. In 2012 the HMS ‘Owl’ Control Tower was given a new lease of life when a London family purchased the shell. Its conversion to a private residence was catalogued in 2014 by Channel 4’s ‘Restoration Man’ series. In 2017 Toulvaddie Distillery also set up operations to produce whisky here, possibly the first distillery to be founded by a woman in over 200 years!

As we turn towards Shandwick, we pass the Shandwick Stone ‘Clach a’Charridh’, a Pictish stone which has stood here for over 1000 years. It occupies a prominent position on a hilltop looking out over the Moray Firth and is thought to have been used as a landmark by fisherman. Standing at 2.7 metres and covered in complex Pictish carvings, it was enclosed in a glass case in 1988 to preserve it for future generations.

We arrive in Shandwick, ‘Sand-Vik’ meaning sand bay in Norse. This village, along with Balintore and Hilton of Cadboll, sit along the shoreline together and are known as the Seaboard Villages. We walk along the shore, through Shandwick onto Balintore Harbour, completed the 1890s. On Balintore Beach, we see the ‘Mermaid of the North’, standing 10 foot tall on ‘Clach Dubh’, meaning black rock in Gaelic. The sculpture was made for the 2007 Highland Year of Culture by a local artist, Steve Haywood, to represent the mermaid folklore which is part of Easter Ross history. The 'Mermaid of the North' is one of 5 works that make up the Seaboard Sculpture Trail. The sculpture was replaced with a bronze-cast sculpture in 2014 after the original resin and wood version was damaged during a storm in 2012.

We continue along the shore to visit Hilton of Cadboll or Hilton as it is also known, which also has a famous Pictish Stone associated with it. We pass its replica as we head inland again, sculpted by Barry Grove in 2000 and erected at the site of its discovery. The original now stands in the National Museum of Scotland, while its base can be found in the Seaboard Memorial Hall in the village. The original slab dates back to 800 AD and is the finest example of a Pictish cross-slab. The area it was found in is rich with archaeological material and has been excavated a number of times. St Mary’s Chapel certainly occupied the site where it stood, in a medieval village called Cadboll Fisher.

We are now on the Tarbat Peninsula and walk for 10 kilometres through several settlements, as we follow the fairly flat minor roads northeast to reach Portmahomack, a pretty fishing village that sits on the Dornoch Firth. ‘Port MoCholmaig’ or St Colman’s Port as it is also known, is an ancient settlement site boasting Iron Age, Pict, Roman and Viking connections. It was the site of the first Pictish Monastery in 550 AD, thought to have been founded by St Columba, around which this settlement grew. The monastery burned down a few centuries later and a new church was built here in the 1100s, the Parish Church of St Colman now known as Old Tarbat Church. The church on the site today dates to 1756, is no longer used for worship and is now the Tarbat Discovery Centre, a local heritage museum. There are a number of Pictish stones found in this area in the National Museum of Scotland, replicas of which you will find at this centre. The village became a very busy fishing harbour during the 19th century due to the boom in the fish curing industry, and a new harbour was designed by Thomas Telford (a very busy man!); at its peak, the harbour was home to over 100 boats.

These days Portmahomack is popular with tourists for golf, watersports, rock pooling, dolphin and whale spotting. Fishing is still practised out of the harbour and the historical architecture is a pleasure to the eye as we wander along the seafront with great views north over the Sutherland hills and its coastline. Once past the harbour, we walk a 5-kilometre coastal path, which gets rougher as we progress, to reach Tarbat Ness, the endpoint of the Peninsula. A battle was fought here in the 11th century between Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, and Karl Hundason, called the ‘King of Scots’, over the area of Caithness. We see Tarbat Ness Lighthouse built in 1830 by Robert Stevenson, and at 53 metres tall it is one of the tallest lighthouses in the UK. It was constructed after 16 boats were lost during a storm here in 1826. Folklore states that a witch's coven met here before the lighthouse was built and that during Roman times a fort stood here. We pass by the lighthouse, now a private residence, to look out over the cliffs.

We enjoy views of the Moray Firth before following a short tarmac road onto the cliff walk heading southwest, down on to the shore. We pass the old Wilkhaven Pier and an old salmon bothy that has recently been converted into a holiday home; the pier was used to bring in materials to build the lighthouse. There are several bays to enjoy as we wander on undulating grassy paths below cliffs initially and then above them. Ballone Castle comes into view; a 16th-century tower house, which until 2008 stood a ruin but now fully restored to a private home for future generations to enjoy. Once owned by the MacKenzie Clan it soon fell into ruin after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. It is owned by Lachlan and Annie Stewart who purchased it in 1990 and spent 4 years renovating and rebuilding it. They are the founders of ANTA (1984) who focus on locally produced, high-quality textile and stoneware in contemporary Scottish designs and are based in nearby Fearn. We pass this clifftop castle on the beach to arrive in the small village of Rockfield and take the road to the top of the cliffs once again, heading back to the outskirts of Portmahomack. From here we turn southwest on the Tarbatness Road for 24 kilometres to reach the village of Fearn.

Fearn is an area of low-lying fertile farmland, where we follow the minor road alongside Fearn Farm to reach the Fearn Abbey area. An abbey was established here during the reign of Alexander II in 1238 and was known as ‘the lamp of the north’. The church we visit today dates from 1772, its roof having collapsed in 1742 saw a new church was built next to it. The new building wasn’t of a good standard, so they repaired this building and there is no evidence of the other remaining. It is one of the oldest pre-reformation buildings still in active service as a church. We rejoin the road to walk through Hill of Fearn, a nearby village, as we make our way back onto the A9 to head for Tain.

After 2.5 kilometres we turn right into Tain, a town that has sat on the Dornoch Firth for many centuries. Its early history is unknown, but we do know that because of an important shrine to St Duthac, sainted in 1419, it was granted a Royal Charter by Malcolm III in 1066 and confirmed as a sanctuary at that time. The town is named after its Saint, ‘Baile Dubhthaich, meaning ‘Duthac Town’. It is believed that he was born here in 1000 AD and the first chapel was built on the site of his birth. Over the centuries this led to the development of the town where resident merchants and traders benefitted from certain local taxes and others sought sanctuary (why do I see Quasimodo every time I read that word?!). Robert the Bruce sent his wife and daughter for sanctuary here during the First War of Independence, which was, unfortunately, violated and they ended up in England as prisoners. James IV made an annual pilgrimage to the shrine to pray.

Today Tain has a wide range of industries including glasswork, pottery, forestry, distilling, cheesemaking, fishing and jewellery making! We wander along the main street to visit Tain Through Time, a local museum that has an old schoolhouse and the collegiate church as part of it. The church was constructed 1370-1458 and is the section of the museum called ‘The Pilgrimage’. We follow Castle Brae, then Chapel Road to the site of the original chapel located in a graveyard looking out over the Firth. The chapel burned in 1427 so the completion of the Collegiate Church became more urgent. We enjoy wandering the ruins before heading along the seafront next to the Golf Course, designed by Old Tom Morris in 1890, with great views of the Firth wetlands called Tain Scalps, as well as the sandbars called Gizzen Briggs. We cut back into the town through the football pitches and take the Shore Road back onto the A9 to cross the Dornoch Firth Bridge. Before we cross, we pass the Glenmorangie Distillery, founded in 1843 which distils single malts; the distillery water is sourced from the Tarlogie Spring in the Hills and it boasts the tallest stills in Scotland.

Before the Dornoch Firth Bridge opened in 1991 it was a 26-mile round trip through Bonar Bridge to continue the road north. Once across, we are in Sutherland and we leave the A9 to take a minor road west to see Ferrytown, where the Meikle Ferry once crossed to Ferry Point on the Ness of Portnaculter on the Firth’s southern shore. The first records appear for the ferry in 1560, the only means of crossing until the Bonar Bridge was built in 1812 by Thomas Telford. The local people paid a high price to get the bridge; the 1809 Meikle Ferry disaster prompted action when an overloaded ferry capsized in the Firth with the loss of 99 lives.

We follow the winding minor road to its end, surrounded by the golf club (more about that in a moment), where we see a few constructed lakes, yep, lakes! The Rivers Evelix and Allt Garbh meet the Firth here; both were dammed in around 1910 to create Lake Evelix, Lake Louise, Lake Ospidale and, finally, St Margaret’s Loch. Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist, purchased Skibo Castle and the estate in1898. He set about making many changes to the buildings, as well as adding a designed landscape by Thomas Mawson. These lakes were for fishing sports and there is a fish ladder on Lake Evelix dam so salmon can swim upriver.

Skibo Castle dates to Norse times, the word Skibo coming from Old Norse meaning firewood-steading or Skithi’s steading. The structure has changed, as well as its owners, a number of times throughout the centuries, the most notable owner being Mr Carnegie. The castle sits on a high terrace within the 30,0000-acre estate, in the Dornoch Firth National Scenic Area, enjoying fabulous views of the Ross-shire hills and Struie Hill just across the water. It's not an easy castle to see though; it belongs to one of the world’s most prestigious private clubs, The Carnegie Club, and as a result, the whole area is well protected. The estate contains a Championship Links Golf Course, which we are currently surrounded by, an equestrian centre, and a whole host of leisure facilities: swimming and spa; tennis; Segway and quad biking; clay pigeon shooting; archery and fishing, to name but a few! We can go no further so retrace our steps back to the A9 and cross over to a minor road.

Following the coast around Cuthill Sands and Dornoch Sands, passing Camore Woods, we turn onto Castle Street in Dornoch. Dornoch, which means ‘pebbly place’ because of the pebbly beach, dates back 1000 years, having received a Royal Charter in 1628, at the time of Charles I. It is a thriving community sitting in a sheltered position on the Dornoch Firth with an award-winning Blue Flag Beach. The Royal Dornoch Golf Club has 2 Championship Links courses, a 5-star Historylinks Museum, a grass airstrip for helicopter landings and light aircraft, as well as an impressive run of buildings in its centre which give it a ‘royal’ feel.

Dornoch’s claims to fame? It was the last place in Scotland to burn a witch in 1727. There is a Witch’s Stone to commemorate Janet Horne’s death sited in a private garden, the place of her execution. Donald Ross, the golf course designer, started his career as a greenkeeper here, and in December 2000 Madonna had her son, Rocco, christened at Dornoch Cathedral prior to her marriage to Guy Ritchie at Skibo Castle the following day.

As we walk down Castle Street the first place, we come to is the Dornoch Castle Hotel, situated across the road from Cathedral Green and the Cathedral. It’s an authentic castle, the tower and keep dating to the 1400s, the east wing to the 1500s. It was developed as early as the 1200s for the Bishops of Caithness as part of the Cathedral complex. A clan feud caused severe damage in the 1570s, but it became a home again after repairs, only to be derelict once more by 1760. It was restored to become the town courthouse and jail in the early 1800s but was back in private ownership by 1922, becoming a hotel in 1947. Since 2000 new owners have significantly improved and upgraded the building.

We see 2 impressive buildings further along from the castle: the Dornoch Courthouse and Dornoch Jail. The Dornoch Courthouse, dating from 1849, was recently refurbished to open as The Carnegie Courthouse, a vibrant retail centre and cafe; named Carnegie to honour his contribution to the Dornoch area. Dornoch Jail, a 19th-century jailhouse, then drill hall, was converted into a unique retail unit in 2000. They still echo their past and have been sensitively renovated.

We walk across Cathedral Green to stand in front of the cathedral. The site was chosen for its religious connections, already going back 500 years at the time of its founding in 1224. It is a small, solid structure, known for its stained-glass windows, a number of which were funded by Andrew Carnegie. The building was also badly damaged in the clan feud of the 1570s but was re-roofed in 1616. It became an Episcopalian church after the Scottish Reformation and is now a Presbyterian church; no longer a true cathedral, but the name lives on to respect its history.

We walk through the graveyard down the side of the cathedral to High Street. Backed against the graveyard wall is the medieval Mercat Cross, a symbol that Dornoch had the right to hold a regular market. It stands in its original position, where the marketplace and tolbooth would have stood. We follow our route along the streets which leads us to the beach through Littletown, a part of Dornoch populated by ‘Clearance’ families in the 19th century.

We walk along Dornoch Beach, then cross through the dunes to join a coastal path for about 3 kilometres, passing the golf courses as we go to reach Embo Links. Here we take another wee path, where the seashore becomes rocky for a time, to the Embo Caravan Site; the area is popular with tourists for its fantastic Blue Flag beach. We take the grassy path, following the coast through the site, to Embo Pier and enjoy the beautiful views. Embo Beach and Sands is a fantastic stretch of dune-backed, white sands leading to Coul Links and ends where Loch Fleet opens into the sea.

Embo goes back to the Bronze Age and is first mentioned in 1400. In the 1800s the village took in cleared families and encouraged fishing. In the 19th century, the pier at the harbour thrived with the herring fishing industry, with many vessels being used during the herring season. Out of season boats were harboured in the shelter of the Loch Fleet tidal basin. In the early 20th century, with the decline of the industry and the arrival of more modern crafts, at least 17 redundant and unsaleable vessels were pulled up on shore there and abandoned; we’ll see their skeletons as we walk the area. A fun fact: in 1988 Embo declared itself independent for a day to raise funds for a community centre, even issued their own currency, called the cuddie, the value being 2 cuddies to the pound!