Spey Bay to Buckie (and a bit further) - Moray Coast Trail

[gld73]

Another section of the Moray Coast Trail done as a return walk, though with a variation on the way back. I parked in the car park at the nature reserve at Spey Bay again, and this time headed east, followed the markers for the Moray Coast Trail/Speyside Way (as this section to Buckie is the same for both) back down the road, turning off next to the tall concrete building and following the path alongside gorse bushes and then through woods. Emerging from the woods, the path then turns and joins the long straight route of an old railway line. At the end of that, the waymarked route takes you to the nearby seafront at Portgordon.

Speyside Way sign shows where to turn off the road and follow the path

Clear path through the woods from Spey Bay

Clear waymarking on most of the Moray Coast Trail, this is one of the stretches obviously following an old railway line (heading to Portgordon)

This leg of the Moray Coast Trail goes through some of the old fishing villages (Portgordon here, with Bin of Cullen the hill in the background. Hopefully when I do the last leg into Cullen I'll extend the walk to go up the hill, having had it in view for so much of this walk!)

Just about avoided the sea spray

The heydays of these small fishing villages have passed, just a few small leisure boats bobbing in the harbour now.

I've done the legs of the Speyside Way from Grantown down to Newtonmore, but at least when I come to do the top half, I'll have done some of it already - Much of this leg of the Moray Coast Trail is the same route.

It's back to being a coastal walk from here to Buckie, close by the sea throughout. It doesn't feel as remote as some sections of the coastal trail as you pass through the old fishing villages which are really just suburbs of Buckie now. The small harbours are either home to a few leisure craft or filled in now, but Buckie harbour itself still seems quite a busy place with a variety of fishing boats, offshore windfarm-related boats, RNLI lifeboat etc.

Didn't spot any of the Moray Firth dolphins today unfortunately ...

...just a few shags braving the elements

Reaching Buckie

...and Buckie's busy harbour

Looking back as I left Buckie to continue to the east

Rather than turn back at Buckie, I continued on the Coast Trail eastwards to do a few km of the walk to Cullen (that way my last section into Cullen next time will be quite short and hopefully I'll be able to do the nearby sub2k of Bin Of Cullen the same day). Past Strathlene, the pavement terrain of today's walk ended and it was a nice stretch of wilder coastal path again, even if it did have the tameness of a golf course a few metres away on the inland side!

Away from the road again and continuing the coastal walk

Old abandoned lido

Looking back to Buckie ...

..and the nicer stretch of the walk towards Findochty

This part of the walk was back to being away from roads and villages, even if there was a golf course up on the cliffs above

I stopped just short of the village of Findochty and turned round to head back all the way to my car at Spey Bay... Rather than do a complete replica of my outward route, I did a slight variation once I got back to the west of the seafront at Portgordon. Instead of heading the short distance inland to follow the waymarked route along the old railway line and through the woods again, there was a dotted line of a footpath shown along the coast on my map, so I continued along that. Early on the path on the ground does now detour to the old railway line anyway to use a footbridge over a burn, but straight after that I headed back down the next field and walked the rest of the way as pretty much a straight line along the coast - the pebble bank and beach to my right, fields and then the golf course to my left. This path took me directly all the way back to the headland at Spey Bay where I was parked.

Heading back into Spey Bay by the beach, rather than the outward route of the old railway track and through the woods

A nice day's walking, though certainly not my favourite stretch of the Moray Coast Trail as there was a bit more pavement/town terrain today. There again, the variety of the MCT is one of its appeals!