Day 74: Pennan, Banffshire to River Ythan Estuary, Aberdeenshire

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

19th March 2021: 102.84km walked today taking the total to 7575.59/8868km. 17.5% of 86 entries submitting 604.93km.

We continue walking east along the Moray Firth to Fraserburgh before we head south passing Rattray Head. We then walk through Peterhead before we reach Forvie National Nature Reserve.

Route 21: Inverness to Aberdeen

From St John’s Kirk, we walk a further 10 kilometres until we reach Pennan, a single row of white cottages situated along the shore below cliffs with a harbour at the west end. It was well known in the 19th century for producing millstones, quarried to the east of the village.

Pennan became famous in the 1980s because of the film, Local Hero. It represented the fictional village of Ferness and film enthusiasts from all over the world come to make a phone call in the red telephone box which featured in the film. However, the telephone box used in the film was a prop, as Pennan’s box was not in the best place for filming.

After 4 kilometres, we leave the road at Mill Farm to visit New Aberdour Beach on Aberdour Bay. We find an attractive shingle and sand beach, made even more interesting by the red sandstone caves at the far end. The beach is believed to be where St Drostan came ashore in 580 AD to start a church in the village which stood just up from the shore. He baptised locals at a spring there and was known for his miracle cures. There was recent excitement when the 2016 remake of ‘Whisky Galore!’ filmed on location here. In 2017, 36 acres of the beach went on the market, a rare occurrence as most are owned by the Crown: it’s still available if you have a spare £90,000. The ownership deeds to the beach date from 1617 and it’s the first time in 400 years that it has been put on the open market. 

We retrace our steps back to the minor road, continuing past the new private Dundarg Castle, next to the originals’ remains, before taking a clifftop path, passing numerous named geological features and the Bay of Lochielair to reach Rosehearty.

As we enter the village, we pass a control tower, once part of RAF offshore bombing range and now a private residence. Rosehearty, pronounced ‘Rizzarty’ in Doric, lies just 9.5 kilometres west of Fraserburgh and was formed when shipwrecked Danish fishermen settled with the local crofters in the 1300s. They showed the locals how to catch fish and is thought to be the oldest seaport in Scotland as a result. The name means ‘Abhartach's Point’ in Old Gaelic, though history never recorded who Abhartach was. Sir Alexander Forbes expanded the village in the 1630s and developed a harbour for commercial fishing, taking 20% of everything landed there! Fishertown cottages stand in a distinctive row just above the shoreline and the ‘New Town’ grew behind it during the 1800s. The village boomed until 1865 when the arrival of the railway in nearby Fraserburgh saw an instantaneous relocation of its fishing industry to take advantage of this. These days Rosehearty is a tourist destination with a 9-hole golf course and a Heritage Centre. We explore the pretty harbour area, of which there are so many along this stretch, before continuing along the shore road to turn right at the golf course to visit Pitsligo Castle.

Pitsligo Castle was built by the Frasers of Philorth in 1424 and extended by the Forbes of Drumm family when the Frasers relocated to Pittulie Castle in 1570. These castles are known as part of the ‘Nine Castles of the Knuckle’, a group of old castles in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire: Rattray, Lonmay, Inverallochy, Cairnbulg, Dundarg, Pittulie and Pitsligo castles. Alexander Forbes, 4th and last Lord Pitsligo backed the 1745 Rising and lost his lands and title. Pitsligo Castle was sacked by Government troops then left to decay. Forbes hid in the caves to the west of Rosehearty after the Battle of Culloden, remaining a fugitive for the remainder of his days. In 1989 Malcolm Forbes, American publisher, bought the castle estate and restored the ruins to a stable condition. After his death, it was passed into the Pitsligo Castle Trust, who now care for it and a nearby kirk. It is an imposing ruin, full of architectural details and we enjoy wandering its walls and the slight view we get of Pittulie Castle in an adjacent, inaccessible field. This is the castle the Frasers moved into from Pitsligo Castle; it became Culmine property after that. The Forbes family then bought it in the late 18th century but was left abandoned; the ruins still stand at roof height after all this time.

We return to the B9031 and make our way along the rocky coastline continuing eastwards through Sandhaven onto the town of Fraserburgh. Fraserburgh means ‘burgh of Fraser’ after their clan bought the lands of Philorth in 1504. This Fraser clan was said to have come originally from Anjou, France, in the 12th century. By 1570 it was a burgh of barony and the Frasers had built a castle at Kinnaird Head. The town at that time was known as Faithlie or in Gaelic ‘A’Bruaich’, which may have been anglicised over time into broch; a theory as to why locals call Fraserburgh ‘The Broch’ and people are known as ‘Brochers’. It was officially renamed Fraserburgh in 1592 by a charter of the Crown under James VI, and the Frasers were permitted to build a college and university in 1595. This did happen but the college closed a decade later due to the arrest of its only principal. Fraserburgh’s population gradually grew, particularly in the early 19th century with the fishing industry. The Old Parish Church, completed in 1571, was replaced with a bigger church in 1803 to accommodate 1,000 people. There are many more churches in Fraserburgh catering for at least 14 different denominations, some of which we will pass today. The most notable/notorious people? James Ramsay (1733-89), a leading abolitionist, Gordon Mitchell Forsyth (1879-1952), a ceramic artist who tutored Clarice Cliff at the Burslem School of Art, Dennis Nilsen (1945-2018), a serial killer in London arrested in 1983, and Bill Gibb (1943-1988), international fashion designer highly sought after in the 1960-70s.

We make our way to the seafront through Broadsea, once a separate village which has integrated into Fraserburgh over time and is now a conservation village. Passing the Old Parish Church, we reach the 4-star Heritage Centre and Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, where we purchase tickets to visit the lighthouse. Kinnaird Head Lighthouse, surrounded by buoys and fishing net drying poles, began life in 1787. It was the first mainland light and marks the end of the Moray Firth, looking out over the North Sea. It stands within the walls of Fraserburgh Castle, which was in a state of disrepair when it was sold to the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1786. Evidence of the old castle’s grandeur can be seen in the building on our visit today, a lighthouse tower having been added at the later date of 1824 by Robert Stevenson. The lighthouse closed in 1991, another modern tower was built on the site to replace it. The old ‘light’ then became part of the Lighthouse Museum.

After leaving the lighthouse we immediately come to The Wine Tower, the oldest building in Fraserburgh. Once situated in the castle courtyard, it was most probably used as a wine cellar. Under the tower is a 100-foot-long cave, which has probably seen several uses over its life, certainly a cellar, gunpowder magazine and a store. A little mysticism has grown up around the structure and a legend is associated with the tower. In the 17th century, the daughter of the Fraser family fell in love with a piper. Her father imprisoned him in the tower caves and locked her in the upper part of the tower. At high tide, the piper drowned, and his daughter threw herself from the window to her death on the rocks below. Until recently the lighthouse painters would throw red paint onto the rocks as a tribute to her memory. Today it is used to store a collection of 7 high-quality bosses removed from the castle: you can visit by appointment.

From the tower, we take a short walk to the harbour, the largest shellfish port in Scotland, one of the largest in Europe and also a major white fish and commercial harbour. A good fish and shipbuilding industry existed here as far back as the 18th century, expanding to meet the demands of herring fishing between 1807 and 1840. The first official RNLI Lifeboat Station was also opened on this harbour in 1858. We take time to explore the area, watching the boats come and go, before making our way south along the seafront. We leave the town behind through the Golf Course and pass the RSPB Waters of Philorth Nature Reserve on Fraserburgh Bay.

We press on past Cairnbulg and Inverallochy, where RAF Fraserburgh was based during World War 2, and on reaching St Combs we leave the road to follow a path alongside Loch of Strathbeg, an RSPB Nature Reserve. In 1943 the Loch was used by the Luftwaffe to drop supplies to spies in the area. On the other side of this Loch is the disused Crimond Airfield, a Royal Navy Air Station serving between 1943-46. After the war, it became a Naval Wireless Station closing in 2004 to become home to a high-frequency transmitter station, operated by Babcock International on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Once over a burn, we walk through a small wood taking a grassy path along the length of Loch of Strathbeg to arrive at Old Rattray. This area was inhabited from circa 4000 BC: the village developed on an estuary, complete with castle, harbour (known as Starny Keppie) and church. Rattray Castle had been built on a coastal rock to protect the area in the early 13th century by the Cormyn family and St Mary’s Chapel was also built for their private worship. The village was named a Royal Burgh by Mary Queen of Scots in 1563. In 1720, a massive storm swept through the region, totally burying the castle in the sand and cutting the harbour off from the sea. This storm also led to the creation of Loch of Strathbeg as we see it today. In time a new Rattray settlement developed a little further inland. The castle has remained buried, and although excavations took place in the 1980s, nothing of significance was done.

We take a detour at this point to visit Rattray Head Lighthouse (built in 1895), passing the keeper’s cottages then heading over the dunes to see the lighthouse built on the rocks just off Rattray Head Beach. The lighthouse is accessible by a causeway at low tide, though it has been fully automated since 1982. The dunes here can be 75 foot high in places and there are several wrecks along this stretch of water, hence the reason the lighthouse was placed here.

Retracing our steps, we explore Castle Hill, enjoy the views up the Loch, then continue along the road to see St Mary’s Chapel. As it was a little further inland the structure survived the storm but was abandoned at some point afterwards, as the residents left the area given their livelihoods had been shattered by the loss of the harbour and castle.

We follow minor roads back onto the busy A90 verge, passing the St Fergus Gas Terminal and continuing a further 7 kilometres to arrive on the outskirts of Peterhead. As we enter the town, we can see the Peterhead Golf Course on the Craigewan Links across the River Ugie, and we leave the road onto a path which follows the course of the river to the seafront and the large harbours.

Peterhead, sitting on Peterhead Bay, is the largest town in Aberdeenshire and the easternmost town on the Scottish mainland. It was named after the church dedicated to St Peter that was built on the Peninsula in the 12th-13th century, St Peter’s Head. It has been a fishing town since its foundation in 1593 when fishermen constructed the first harbour, Port Henry. There was a small fishing village on the island of Keith Inch before this, but the harbour was mostly found between the island and the mainland. The harbour established itself as a port and began to grow over the centuries seeing several improvements and expansions under the direction of leading engineers of their time: John Smeaton, John Rennie, Thomas Telford, David and Thomas Stevenson, and Sir John Coode. Later additions saw the use of convict labour from the Peterhead Prison to complete their construction. There were 4 lighthouses, though only 2 are operational today: South Breakwater Lighthouse (1833), at the harbour entrance, and Buchan Ness Lighthouse (1827), at Boddam.

During the 19th-century herring fishing was a big industry as was whaling. Whaling is very controversial today, but for many centuries it was a vital resource which saw a rapid decline in the 20th century, following the whale population collapse and alternatives appearing for whale oil lighting. Peterhead was one of the main ports for Arctic bowhead whaling: as well as street lighting whale oil was used in the Dundee mills to mix with jute so that it could be spun into cloth.

Fishing vessel numbers have continued to fall significantly over the last century due to fish stocks and EU quotas, which continue to be a challenge. The port is used as a supply base for North Sea Oil, who also use the nearby Heliport based at the old RAF Buchan airbase. Despite its size, Peterhead doesn’t have a train station and is the furthest away from a station compared with other towns of its size (51km from Aberdeen). Notable people that you may have heard of are James MacLeary (1981-), professional golfer, James Niven (1851-1925), a physician, well known for his work during the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918, and Stuart MacLeod, (1980-), a magician best known for Netflix ‘Magic for Humans’. Jules Verne also mentions Peterhead in his novel, ‘A Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ (1864).

We enjoy the harbour area before moving on, following the path around Peterhead Bay, passing the marina to join South Road to reach HMP Peterhead. The town has the harbour for tourists to enjoy, as well as the Peterhead Town Trail, but its most recent addition is the multi-award-winning HM Prison Peterhead Museum. Before this prison was built in 1888 convicts had to travel to England to serve their sentence. At its peak in 1911, the 208-capacity prison held 455 prisoners. In 1987 a riot and hostage situation took place, the rumblings of the poor conditions which existed within, and the SAS were brought in to bring the incident to an end. In 2005, an inspection showed that electricity had only recently been fitted to all the cells and slopping out was still practised. Plans were drawn up, then a new modern facility was built and, after the prison closed in 2013, it was turned into a museum which opened in 2016. That same year, it was used as the filming location for the British zombie action film, ‘Redcon-1’.

‘Escaping’ from the prison, we walk back to the shore and take a grass path around Sandford Bay, spotting Peterhead Power Station well before we reach it. An imposing structure with a tall chimney, the power station makes electricity using combined-cycle gas turbines. It is the most efficient of the gas-burning stations but still emits large carbon emissions so is under review to transition to a decarbonised system. Just past the power station, we reach Boddam to walk along the seafront to Buchan Ness Lighthouse.

Boddam was settled in Neolithic times and became a fishing village, the harbour constructed later in 1831. The seas around Buchan Ness were a busy international trade and whaling route. Many ships ran aground in stormy weather, so a lighthouse was established in 1827 by Robert Stevenson, the red stripes then added in 1907 as an identifier. A foghorn also based here for many years, known as the ‘Boddam Coo’, was silenced in 2000. The harbour is still home to a small fishing fleet and is a support base for North Sea Oil. We continue on a coastal path, past the now ruined Boddam Castle on the cliffs, built by the Keiths of Ludquharn in the late 16th century. Sir William Keith was born here in 1669; he would one day become the Lieutenant Governor of the Colonies of Pennsylvania and Delaware between 1717-1726.

We press on through Dundonnie and join a dismantled railway path, part of the Buchan Coastal Path, which we follow for nearly 9 kilometres to Slains Castle, near Cruden Bay. En route we walk the Longhaven Cliffs Wildlife Reserve, where seabirds’ colonies nest on pink-red granite cliffs and we enjoy impressive geological features including havens, sea stacks and arches. We look out for grey seal on the rocks below and dolphin in the waters. We pass through Bullers of Buchan, an area named for its collapsed sea cave, which is now a channel with an arch leading out to sea. The small village used the natural haven for fishing historically and the slipways can still be seen at low tide. The area inland is rich with prehistoric archaeology, particularly along the Laeca Burn, where the Catto Long Barrow, or Cairn Catto, is found.

We spot New Slains Castle before we reach it, perched in a prominent position on the cliff edge. Bowness Castle, an existing tower house was constructed in 1597 by the 9th Earl of Erroll, as a replacement for Old Slains Castle destroyed by James VI. This was incorporated into the new castle, whose structure was then extended and improved over the centuries, finally being remodelled in 1836-37 in the fashionable Scots’ Baronial style. The castle stayed in the family until 1916 when death duties forced them to sell. The new owner, Sir John Ellerman, took the roof off to avoid tax payments in 1925, and the building was then quarried resulting in the structure we see today. It’s claim to fame? Bram Stoker, the author, was a regular visitor to Cruden Bay between 1893-1910 and is said to have stayed at the castle at some point. He used New Slains Castle as an inspiration for a number of his novels, including ‘Dracula’ (1897). It is understandable why; there is a creepiness about the place and with so many nooks and crannies your imagination runs wild!

We wander the ruins, taking care given it’s perched precariously on a cliff edge. The castle once stood further inland, with beautiful gardens to the cliffside, but coastal erosion has claimed them for the sea. In 2007 planning permission was granted for the structure to be converted into 35 apartments, but the economic downturn saw this shelved.

We take the coastal path into Port Erroll, then join the road around Cruden Bay to pick up a coastal path at Whinnyfold on the southern end of the Bay. Whinnyfold, pronounced ‘Finnyfa’ in Doric, has a natural harbour featuring a rock formation called the Godman. Numerous fishermen once used it, but today there are none. Out at the headland, the waters and coast are treacherously littered with rocky features. A partly-submerged rocky reef known as ‘The Skares’ has claimed many vessels offshore. The reef inspired Bram Stoker in the writing of his book ‘The Mystery of the Sea’ (1902).

The 6-kilometre stretch of coast we now walk is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and forms part of the Buchan Ness to Collieston Coast Special Protection Area, particularly regarding sea birds. The path leads us to Old Slains Castle, north of Collieston, the one blown up by James VI in 1594 because of the 9th Earl of Erroll’s rebellion. In the 1950s a house was built within the ruins so we can’t venture in! We detour to take a look before continuing a further 2 kilometres to Collieston village. Offshore near here a Spanish Armada, the Santa Caterina, sank in 1594 whilst carrying arms for Francis Hay, the 9th Earl of Erroll. In retaliation for the Earl's involvement in the Catholic plot against him, James VI blew up Old Slains Castle. The Earl went into exile and didn’t return until 1597, in favour with the King once more, and built New Slains Castle.

We press on along the coast through an area belonging to the Forvie National Nature Reserve, passing many geological features to reach the Sands of Forvie and Rockend at the opening of the River Ythan Estuary.