Day: 004
Date: Saturday, 04 June 2022
Start: Helmsdale
Finish: Golspie
Daily Kilometres: 31
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 143
Weather: Cool to mild and mostly sunny.
Accommodation: B&B
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Breakfast sandwiches
Lunch: Meat pastie/Sausage roll
Dinner: Fish & chips/Battered sav & chips.
Aches: Dave - very sore feet with multiple blisters. Julie - cruisin’
Highlight: Encountering a couple of small colonies of seals basking in the shallows in various places as we walked remote beaches.
Lowlight: None really. Maybe my blisters, which made for painful walking.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Having managed an earlier night last night, we were able to get a good night’s sleep and leave before 7:00am. Early starts are our preference, but sleep is important too. On the way out of the village we stopped at the village store and bought some sandwiches for breakfast later. It was another magnificent morning - clear skies and brisk - we could get used to this.
Our early kilometres followed quiet country lanes and tracks high up on the mountain side passing quaint cottages and ruined farm houses, and giving us great views over the calm North Sea below. It was magical.
Eventually, our path wound its way down to the coast and much of the rest of the day was spent walking along the mostly deserted beach in the sunshine looking out for seals and other wildlife. We were lucky enough to see two small colonies, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and, no doubt, missed a few others.
We were paralleling the railway line which was just above the beach for long sections. It only has a couple of services a day, two-carriage diesel rattlers, but one passed us and the driver gave us a loud toot. We also met a couple of northbound hikers and nearer the villages, people walking their dogs or enjoying the beach weather.
Around 1:00pm, after 21km, we reached the pretty little village of Brora, complete with busy links golf course, and found a store to buy some lunch which we enjoyed sitting on a bench by the small river and tiny harbour.
After another 5km of beach, the trail took us through coastal meadows with abundant wildflowers and some cattle, before we reached the imposing and fairytale-like Dunrobin Castle just north of Golspie. Although the vast majority of the structure only dates back 150 years, apparently inside it incorporates the original castle dating from the mid-1300s.
We reached Golspie at 5pm, coincidentally and happily, exactly the time we were allowed to check into our B&B, which we duly did. Dave was relieved to take the weight off his feet and subsequently popped five new blisters (using the tried and true “‘grab the skin with your pinched fingernails and rip away” method). Julie took pity on him and did all of the dinner shopping, which we ate in our room. Apart from the blisters, it was a really nice day and we are having a great time.
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