On holiday in Lossiemouth we fancied the walk from Hopeman back to Lossiemouth. With the one car,we looked at a taxi or bus to Hopeman and walk back and also considered the more stringent choice of a walk their and back .We chose the bus. A reasonable frequency of service made this a practical proposition .It was 20 mins or so on bus from Lossiemouth to Elgin bus station .Change of bus and a further 20 mins or so onto Hopeman The bus timetables are on the internet. There was special day tickets that make the journey inexpensive .The journey itself was easy to do, you just need to be mindful of the bus route out of Lossiemouth The bus in Hopeman keeps to the main road so you need to pick your bus stop near to the road that leads down to the harbour
The walk from the bus stop down to the Hopeman harbour takes around 5 mins or so .As you might expect there are not many shops in the little village so ,best to come with your own rations for the walk
With it being a nice day we stopped at a little kiosk near the harbour ( the kiosk sign was easily spotted ) for a coffee & cake
The walk began for us from the kiosk .The Walk Directions in the user guide are easy to follow but in truth you just need keep the sea immediately on your left hand side as you walk .To get going the pathway is clearly in front of you .On reaching the beach huts we deviated to the front of them and continued on the pathway eventually passing a green on the Hopeman golf course and were soon climbing the steps to the cliff top path .We then kept to the cliff top path.You will come across various pathways heading down to the shore line and a few heading inland .Other user reports on this site provide details on what can be found if you venture down to the shore line
As expected the cliff top gave us great views of the little coves below and uninterrupted views out to sea The ever changing scenery made this section of the walk very pleasant
The path eventually descends down to shoreline and with the tide at a low point we were able to walk across the sands to the lighthouse This presented a nice change from our amble along the path .The beach gave us an opportunity for a little paddle and sit down
Our walk now from the lighthouse back towards Lossiemouth was somewhat of a tiresome trek for us along the beach .Though the sand was hard and easy to walk on the scenery was sparse and changed little
To give us a change of scenery we ventured off the beach climbed over the adjacent sand dunes and watched the golfers on the rather difficult looking Moray golf course
Returning to the beach we continued our walk aiming for the houses on the shore line just below the golf club house
The walk descriptions in the user guide at this point directs you to proceed up the slip way and head towards the roadway .On climbing the slipway we found a little pathway in front of the houses and continued along the pathway still on the coast line for that little bit longer until eventually reaching the roadside ,Once on the roadway it was 10 or so minutes to the harbour side in Lossiemouth Overall we thoroughly enjoyed the walk we made a day of it taking a picnic ,stopping frequently to view the scenery, watching the golfers and having some time on the beach with our little paddle Our walk lasted around 5 1/2 hours