Day 73: Portgordon, Moray to Gardenstown, Banffshire

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

18th March 2021: 60.41km walked today taking the total to 7472.75/8868km. 9.5% of 86 entries submitting 635.85km.

From Portgordon we walk the north coastline passing from Moray into Aberdeenshire enjoying Findochty, Buckie and Cullen before visiting Duff House in Banff en route to MacDuff.

Route 21: Inverness to Aberdeen

Portgordon was founded in 1797 by Alexander, 4th Duke of Gordon, as his third new village. It was centred around a harbour built with stones shipped from Lossiemouth. At that time, it was the most significant harbour for some distance and initially grew as a fishing village although it also imported coal for industries in Moray and exported their products. By the late 19th century bigger harbours had been built at Buckpool and then Buckie and so fishing boats based at Portgordon moved there. Thereafter the harbour went into decline before being rebuilt by a Gurkha Squadron between 1985 and 1989. Now the harbour is mainly used for pleasure craft but is also used for small scale fishing. Portgordon was one of the last communities to get electricity in 1937 and was nicknamed ‘Paraffin City’.

Not far from Portgordon there is the Gallochy Ice House. This Ice House is unusual in that it is sited on the shore and is excavated rather than being built into the side of a hill.

From Portgordon it is just a short distance until we reach Buckpool, a small fishing village on the west side of the Burn of Buckie. It was not called Buckpool until 1886, when its name was changed from Nether Buckie. In 1857 the local laird, Sir Robert Gordon of Cluny, built a harbour at Nether Buckie with the intention that it would be the main port for this part of the coast. It didn’t last long, however, as it had a problem with silting and so in 1877 John Gordon of Cluny built Cluny Harbour at Buckie and the fishing fleet moved there. We won’t be able to see Buckpool’s harbour as it no longer exists; it was filled in to create a park, but we can still see its old harbour walls.

Leaving Buckpool we cross the Burn of Buckie to reach the other old fishing villages which now form the town of Buckie. These villages, on the east side of the Burn of Buckie, are Easter Buckie, Yardie, Ianstown, Gordonsburgh and Portessie. Just past the Burn of Buckie we turn right up Dougalls Brae to reach West Church Street. West Church Street along with Cluny Square and East Church Street make up the central part of the new town which was built in the late 1700s and early 1800s by the Gordon family of Cluny. Cluny Square is also the starting point (or finishing point) of the Speyside Way.

From Cluny Square we head back to the coast to see Cluny Harbour. This was built in 1877 by the Cluny family, after their previous harbour at Buckpool failed due to silting. The Buckie Harbour was one of the finest of its time and it remains one of the most active in Scotland. It is a great place to see fishing boats going about their business and it still has an active shipyard.

We return to the Moray Coastal Trail which now takes us through Gordonsburgh and Portessie along the coast. First of all, we walk along the side of the road but at Strathlene Sands we follow the grassy ground, passing the remains of an open-air swimming pool, before reaching a gravel footpath which takes us along the clifftop to Findochty. At Findochty we first reach a caravan park before arriving at Findochty Harbour.

Findochty, known locally as ‘Finechty’, is centred round a natural harbour called Crooked Haven with headlands east and west and then walls built to protect it from the north. Findochty has existed since the 1400s and expanded as a fishing port in the 1700s and 1800s until by 1850 there were 140 fishing boats based here. However, with the better harbour being built in Buckie the fishing fleet started to operate from there instead. Overlooking the harbour is a statue of a seated fisherman called the White Mannie. This was created in 1959 by the local artist, Correna Cowie.

We walk past the cottages clustered around the harbour before passing below the white-washed Findochty Church which sits above the village on a rocky bluff. We then pass a small beach sheltered by a rocky outcrop called Long Head.

The Moray Coastal Trail then takes us along the clifftops to reach the rocky Tronach Head before we reach the next fishing village, Portknockie. Portknockie differs from some of the other fishing villages in that it lies at the top of cliffs high above its harbour. The harbour itself is sheltered by a rocky bluff called Green Castle which was once a stronghold of the Picts. Its more modern origin started in 1677 when a group of fishermen from Cullen moved along the coast. It grew very slowly at first and then more rapidly during the herring boom of the 19th century and then has slowly declined until there are now just a few fishing vessels based here. The harbour as it is now dates to 1890 which was just after the railway arrived in 1886.

Our walk takes us above the harbour, where the oldest part of the village is, and then along Commercial Street before we leave Portknockie and head along the clifftop path. This takes us to Bow Fiddle Rock, a natural arch formed by the waves and is home to gulls and cormorants.

Continuing on the path we go down steps to reach the shore where we can see a sea tunnel called the Whale’s Mouth over to our left. The path has been laid in concrete and follows the base of the cliffs to reach Jenny’s Well before we walk along to Cullen Beach. Before we reach Cullen, we see sea stacks called the Three Kings which are made of Cullen Quartzite, a hard and resistant rock type formed 500 to 1000 million years ago. Past the rocks we reach the footbridge over the Burn of Cullen which we cross before going past the old fishermen's houses at Seatown of Cullen, situated below one of the viaducts which is now used as a footpath. Seatown of Cullen and New Cullen were built in the 1820s around the harbour built by Thomas Telford in 1819.

To the south is Old Cullen which was established much earlier. There used to be a castle here, on Castle Hill, and this is where it is believed that Robert the Bruce’s wife Elizabeth de Burgh died. It was also around this hill that the Duke of Cumberland’s forces amassed before Culloden. Nearby is Cullen House which dates from 1602 and Cullen Auld Kirk which has been in use as a church for over 700 years. Parts of this church are believed to date back to 1236 with many changes and additions made to the building over subsequent years. Old Cullen’s wealth in the 1700s was built on textiles, especially thread-making, but the growth of New Cullen and Seatown came from the herring industry in the 1800s. Probably the most famous thing to come out of Cullen is Cullen Skink, a form of soup made with smoked haddock, potato and onions.

We pass Cullen Harbour before taking the path along the shore to the east, taking us round the first headland into a wide bay where there are the remains of a salmon bothy, used until 1975 by salmon netters. Nets would be fixed to buoys to make a trap and then hauled in the next morning.

At this point we move from Moray into Aberdeenshire and soon reach the giant steps at Logie Head. These were built singlehandedly by Tony Hetherington in the 1980s. A cairn has been erected close by the steps as a memorial to him, as he died not long after completing them in a canoeing accident.

The path follows the shore past upstanding rocks and we soon get our first glimpse of Findlater Castle. After passing Sunnyside Beach we must climb up to the top of the cliff to reach a viewing area and information board for the castle. This is as close as we can get as it is dangerous to try and cross over to it. The ruin of the castle is perched on top of a high rock above the sea and is joined to the mainland by a narrow strip of land. The name Findlater seems to come from the Gaelic ‘fionn leitir’, meaning ‘white cliff’, and the first record of a castle here is from 1246. However, what we see today appears to date back to the work that Sir Walter Ogilvy did in the 1450s which probably incorporated parts of the earlier castle. The castle seems to have covered the entire end of the promontory and was built to a considerable height. Although it did change hands, it was ultimately returned to the Ogilvy family, but they abandoned it and moved to Cullen House at the beginning of the 1600s.

Not far from here is the doocot which served the castle. It is of a beehive construction and dates from the 16th century and was restored in 1992. It had 700 nesting boxes within its walls and a ladder on a pivoting stone which gave access to the nest boxes.

From Findlater Castle, we continue along the cliff top path until we reach Sandend. Sandend is probably the smallest of all the old fishing villages along the north facing coast of Moray and Aberdeenshire and lies to the west of the Scattery Burn and the beach at Sandend Bay. It seems that Sandend was well established by the early 17th century but the harbour and many of the fisher cottages surrounding it were built around the early 19th century. Like a lot of the local fishing villages, the cottages here are built end on to the coast to protect them from storms.

We walk above the harbour before arriving in Sandend itself. Walking past the caravan site, we cross the Scattery Burn before we reach the beach and walk along it until we reach the Burn of Fordyce. Nearby is the Glenglassaugh Distillery. This was founded in 1875 and was purchased by Highland Distillers in 1892. It was closed in 1986 but was reopened in December 2008 after being shut for over 20 years. It is now owned by BenRiach Distillery Company and the whisky is still handcrafted to produce a single malt.

Beside the distillery is Glassaugh Windmill which was built in the early 18th century. It still stands today but as a stump with a large base and, because of its appearance, it is known to the locals as the ‘cup and saucer’.

From here we continue along the cliffs to Portsoy on a grassy track with heather on either side. At Redhythe Point, where there are popular crags for rock climbing, we see a rock with an impressive arch. Continuing along the cliffs, we pass high above an old seawater swimming pool which is now disused. The pool was created by putting concrete walls between existing rocks which extended from the cliff. It was filled by the tide but is now mostly filled with sand although it still fills with water at high tide.

We reach Portsoy and walk down to the harbour. Portsoy was established as a burgh in a charter signed by Mary Queen of Scots in 1550, at which time the first harbour was built. In 1692 Sir Patrick Ogilvie, the 8th Laird of Boyne, replaced the early harbour with one built of stone. This harbour was built using large stones set horizontally rather than vertically, as it was believed they would be less likely to be washed away. It seems to have worked, as this is the harbour that still exists today and is the oldest on the Moray coast. It comprises a massive breakwater and a number of quays. Beside the harbour is a dolphin sculpture made of anodised wire, which was designed by the local artist Carn Standing, to commemorate Scotland’s dolphin coast. Around this old harbour are impressive warehouses, built around the end of the 17th century. In one of these warehouses is a workshop which sells jewellery and souvenirs made from locally quarried red and green ‘Portsoy Marble’ which is actually serpentinite. Some of this marble was used in the fixtures and fittings in Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles. The village made the news in early 2021 when the harbour was used as a filming location for the BBC ‘Peaky Blinders’ TV series.

Further round the bay we reach the new harbour, which was built in 1825 for the herring boom, but then had to be rebuilt after it was severely damaged in a storm in 1839. Near the new harbour is the Salmon Bothy Museum. This museum is within the Salmon House which was purpose built in 1834 by the Seafield Estate which, at that time, owned the salmon fishing rights along the coast. The Salmon House continued in use until 1990 and was unused until it was taken over by Portsoy Community Enterprise in 2006. They reopened it in 2008 as a community venue and museum which is housed in what was the ice house.

After leaving the new harbour we take Link Roads until we reach St Comb’s Road where we turn right. We pass the cemetery where St Comb’s Well is located. This is a natural water spring which was originally attached to St Comb’s Chapel. It is thought to have been built in the 7th century but a plaque above the entrance states it was restored in 1893. The well still flows and is covered by a stone cupola, covered with earth and an arched entrance.

We follow Shillinghill up to Seafield Street, where we turn left after passing Portsoy Church Hall and war memorial. Soon after the road bends to the right, we turn left down a track to head east towards Whitehills. This track soon reaches the B9139 which we follow until we reach the Burn of Boyne.

Just down the Burn of Boyne is the ruined Palace of Boyne, built in the 1570s by the Lairds of Boyne, who later built the harbour in Portsoy. This replaced the clifftop Boyne Castle which had been built in the 14th century. The Palace of Boyne was used until the Ogilvies were stripped of their lands, due to their support of the Jacobite cause in the mid-18th century, and the palace was then abandoned.

We continue to follow the B9139, passing the Boyndie Wind Farm situated on an old airfield, Boyndie Airfield. Boyndie Airfield was initially opened in 1943 as a training base but became the home of the RAF Banff Strike Wing from September 1944, flying Beaufighters and Mosquitos to attack enemy surface boats and U-boats in the North Sea. From this airfield, 80 airmen were killed in flying operations in the last 9 months of the war. The airfield closed in 1946. The Boyndie Wind Farm was started in 2005 and has 8 wind turbines. It is part owned by the Boyndie Wind Farm Co-Op, which has given local people an opportunity to invest in the production of renewable energy.

We reach a signpost, which points to Boyndie Visitor Centre off to the right, where we turn left onto a path which takes us to Whitehills. We walk down to the shore before turning east round the bay towards the harbour. We pass rows of cottages sitting mainly end on to the shore before we pass Downies of Whitehills. Downies processes fish and has done so here for more than 120 years. It was once supplied by the local fishing boats and local fish market but, with the closure of Whitehills fish market, they have had to source their fish from further afield.

Walking on we soon reach the harbour. Although there was a fishing village at Whitehills from the 18th century with a small harbour, the existing harbour was not built until 1900. This bigger harbour was built to try and compete with the other local fishing villages, such as Macduff, and has always been owned by the villagers and managed by 9 elected Commissioners. It remained an active fishing port throughout the 20th century, making its name as the smallest port in Scotland that operated its own vessels and had its own fish market. In the late 1990s though changes in the industry caused a major drop in income and in 1999 the Commissioners voted to develop it as a leisure marina which it has done successfully.

Retracing our steps, we turn left up Seafield Street until we reach the Whitehills Parish Church. This church was originally the United Presbyterian Church in Banff which was dismantled and transported to Whitehills where it was reassembled in 1926.

Heading back down Seafield Street we turn left along Loch Street and head out of Whitehills towards Inverboyndie, passing close to the Red Well. The Red Well is a chalybeate well, a natural mineral spring with iron content which gives the water its distinctive red colour. The Red Well dome is thought to have been constructed in Roman times although it looks much more modern.

We reach Inverboyndie, a small village located just outside Banff, on Boyndie Bay. The beach here is popular with walkers and a variety of water sports enthusiasts. We pick up the coastal trail at the beach car park near Banff Links, passing the Little Tumblers and many other rocky shore features, before arriving at the Banff Harbour. Banff sits on Banff Bay across the River Deveron estuary from the town of Macduff. A former royal burgh, it started life in the 1100s with a castle being built here to defend against Norse invasion. Banff became a busy trading centre despite the fact it didn’t have a harbour until 1775. The river is unpredictable and wasn’t bridged successfully until 1779 using a substantial 7 arched structure designed by John Smeaton. During the 19th century, the Banff Fishery District was important to the herring trade until its decline in the early 20th century. During the 1800s the harbour had a silting issue, which led to Macduff taking up the role of commercial fishing port for the area. The townscape is one of the best-preserved in Scotland and, as we wander through, we see the contrasting Georgian uptown architecture versus the more functional buildings as we get nearer the harbour.

We move away from the shore onto Castle Street, passing a house which is actually Banff Castle. The original castle was built by the Earl of Buchan and Malcolm IV lived here in 1163. After having a few owners over the centuries, a mansion house was constructed to replace the old castle in 1750, designed by John Adam. The old structure was demolished after its completion, leaving only earthworks around the present building and part of the rectangular walled courtyard. You can walk the grounds, as the castle has been turned into a community and arts venue for the town. COAST Festival of the Visual Arts is held in Banff each year and, continuing on an artistic note, Sandi Thom, singer and songwriter, was born here in 1981.

We continue southwards, past the Museum of Banff and the Parish Church, to visit Duff House. Duff House, a Georgian mansion, was designed by William Adam and built between 1735-40 for William Duff of Braco, 1st Earl of Fife. It was an exceptionally expensive project, over which the Earl and Adam fell out which resulted in the work being halted. The Earl never completed the interior, nor lived in the house; his heirs completed that task. A 3-storey pavilion and corridor block were added later but this was destroyed by an enemy bombing raid in 1941. In 1903 the Earl of Fife left the property as it was surplus to requirement, having married into the royal family, so gifted it to Banff Burgh in 1907. It then saw life as a hotel, sanatorium, prisoner of war camp and barracks, before being taken into state care during the 1950s. The house was in poor condition, so a lengthy restoration programme was carried out. It reopened in 1995 as a country house gallery, now part of the National Galleries of Scotland and maintained by Historic Environment Scotland.

Retracing our steps, we walk past Banff Golf Course and cross the bridge to reach Macduff. After crossing, we climb the Hill of Doune to the Temple of Venus, built by the Earl of Fife in the 1700s and its position has fantastic views over Banff Bay. We then retrace our steps once more to follow the coastal road into Macduff.

The village was originally known as Doune. William Duff, 1st Earl of Fife, purchased the land in 1733 and gained burgh of barony status for the town. It was the 2nd Earl of Fife who had the harbour constructed in 1760 and, in 1783 Doune was renamed MacDuff by the 2nd Earl, in honour of his predecessor’s accomplishment. The villagers initially suggested ‘Douneduff’, but the Earl didn’t accept as it sounded too much like ‘Down with the Duffs’. Throughout the 19th century, the harbour continued to expand; it was also the last place in the UK where deep-water wooden fishing vessels were built.

We turn right onto Station Brae and head up the hill onto Church Street. We do so to take in the view over Macduff from Doune Church, now called Macduff Parish Church. The church was built in 1805, the year of the Battle of Trafalgar, and dominates the skyline over the town. The church was extended in 1865 to accommodate 1100 worshippers, at which point the clocktower was added by the Burgh. Across the road from the church is the town cross, relocated in the 1950s from its original position in town, and marks the town’s creation in 1783. An 18th-century ship’s anchor sits next to it, a great point from which to view the town and harbour below.

We wander down through the streets to explore the large harbour close up, before passing the RNLI Lifeboat Centre and the town’s main attraction, the Macduff Marine Aquarium, on our way out of town. Our route takes us past the Royal Tarlair Golf Club, a parkland course perched on precipitous cliffs, so if your ball goes over, it's utterly lost. It is home to a famous 13th hole called The Clivet, seemingly a nerve tester!

We push on for over 7 kilometres along the B9031 before leaving the main road to walk a path alongside Kirk Burn to the ruins of St John’s Kirk. The Kirk sits on a clifftop with great views of the fishing village, Gardenstown, which sits on Gamrie Bay below. Gardenstown was founded in 1720 by Alexander Garden as a fishing village, originally known as Gamrie. It is one of 3 fishing villages that exist below the north-facing cliffs: Gardenstown and Crovie on Gamrie Bay, and Pennan on the other side of Troup Head, an RSPB Nature Reserve. The remains of the Old Kirk of St John the Evangelist date from the 15th-16th century so predate Gardenstown; the kirk is said to have been founded in 1004, as a celebration of the defeat of the Danes in this area. It was formerly known as the 'Kirk of Sculls', due to the 3 skulls which decorated the inside of the church, said to be those of Danes.