Day 97: Dunbeath to Lybster (10 miles)

With a long drive to get to Dunbeath, Martin and I set off for the day’s walk at 11am.  

Walking away from the harbour and the impressive harbour house, and looking across to Dunbeath Castle, the path wrapped around the cliff corner to an attractive picnic area by the old herring processing house, and pebble beach before climbing steeply up to the cliff top.

Within minutes we arrived at a spectacular geo, along with a sea stack and sea arch. Only a few minutes further and we came to another geo with two stacks. But that wasn’t all. Not in the least.

The stacks were populated with fulmars and guillemots. And Martin pointed out a couple of birds just below us assuming them to be more guillemots. They weren’t - they were razorbills and we had a glorious view of them. But as I was taking photos and admiring them I spotted a puffin fly into the cliffs a little below them …. And then another.  To our absolute delight there was clearly a colony of puffins on the grassy slopes below us although we couldn’t find a spot to see the nesting area itself. We enjoyed watching them flying in, as well as the razorbills but then decided to move on.

Not for long!! I then realised on the opposite cliff you could see the puffins at their nesting sites, so got my monocular out to watch them. Martin then realised he’d forgotten to bring the binoculars so borrowed them while I watched some of the birds closer to hand. We were both delighted to have finally seen puffins like this.

Continuing on, we came to another awkward geo and in trying to work out the way across Martin managed to drop his phone which slid and bounced to the bottom. Fortunately it wasn’t too steep so he made his way down while I followed an obvious but very scramble path across to the other side. Martin joined me relieved the phone had come to no harm. I reflected that I was glad I kept my phone on a neck cord to avoid that happening. There were cameras trained on the stacks, and we past below them on a very narrow path on the cliff edge.  

 

Then another surprise - this time some puffins just below the path - it couldn’t get better! 

Dragging ourselves away, the path fizzled out into gorse bushes and we realised we would have to climb over the barbed wire fence. This we did, with great care and not a great deal of dignity. To then realise that we shouldn’t have crossed the geo as we did and should have been on the other side of the fence anyway. With a bit of a grimace, we decided it had been worth it for such a close view of the puffins.

The path proceeded in this way for much of the day, with a lack of signposts and a barbed wire fence we did have to climb over. That, however, was by a sturdy fence post so much easier to get over than the first one. Martin wanted to stop for lunch at 12:30, and I realised I had a small tick on my lower leg that i wanted to remove asap! So I took a short break and a small lunch for setting out again while Martin returned to the car. 

I found my way to the next “awkward” fence crossing on a corner, and used my knapsack and fleece to cover the barbed wire. Taking my time to climb over carefully, I’d just got myself over when I heard a cheery “hello”. It was Jay - one of the JOGT volunteers who had arranged the filming a few days before. He’d seen me heading for the fence and wanted to check I was ok. It was great to meet him. He told me that they had real problems with that particular landowner so couldn’t put signs up and were close to deciding that an alternative route onto the A9 to avoid these 2 difficult fence crossings would have to be the way forward.

The path had to navigate a number of deep geos, either by going around or by dropping down and back up. It made for a varied afternoon’s walking with some scrambles required, and negotiation through pathless sections and some lush vegetation.

It was enjoyable even so. It was clear that colonies of guillemots continued out of sight below me from the sightings of birds flying in and out, the noise and that very particular and wholesome smell of guano!

Twice I saw a heavy brown looking bird with small white streaks on each wing fly past me. I could only think that it was a Great Skua and checking later seemed to confirm this although I have a slight doubt about location….. one to research a bit more I think.

I dropped down into Latheronwheel harbour crossing a beautiful grass covered, wide late 18th century stone arched footbridge. I knew Martin would have enjoyed it here on his way through.

One of the joys of the afternoon was Forsa Castle. What a location - in a complex of geos this would have been a superb strategic location but now is a scenic splendour.

A further steep descent took me down into the Achsinegar Burn and I was pleased to see razorbills fly close in and past me - the distinctive beak, and what I now could recognise as a long tail meaning the feet are hidden, unlike the guillemot - could be clearly seen with the naked eye. The herring processing station helped create an age old atmosphere to this attractive bay.

The final stretch led around to Lybster, where Martin appeared and led me through the village to the car. We headed back to Lairg for the last time where we were to treat ourselves to a meal out at the lovely Pier cafe on the Loch Shin shore.