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I love costal walk but this one is awful!!
It’s obvious that the local farmer/landowner does not want people walking on or past his property! At the start of the walk the cattle gate beside the style was tightly secured with barbed wired and rope! Undeterred I managed to lift my 20kg dog over the gate….just! I followed the coast and the instructions but as there was absolutely no sign of any path it was difficult to know where best to put my foot as hidden in the grass were many potholes!! I knew the path took me past the watchtower so I headed for it l, saw faint traces of a path and saw the gate pictured on the site. I went through the gate and entered the field with the obliterated cairns. The whole field had been churned up and again there was no trace of any path! I followed the fence along the coastline and eventually came to the deep man made trench which had been dug right across the core path! I could see the style but there was no way of getting to it. A cattle gate had been added to the length meaning I had to walk across the very loose rocky slope in the beach! I managed to walk over it without breaking an ankle and eventually the walk became like a real coastal path and was enjoyable for the last 10 mins of it! I then came to the Skerries Bistro which as per instructions I walked past and round. The style that took you on to the access road had been broken (footplates removed)!! I had a poo bag in my hand so decided to see if the car park had any bins, to have a look at the Cairn and also inside the bistro. There were no bins and after looking at the menu on the wall inside I was confronted by a woman who was obviously not happy about my presence! I won’t go into detail of what she said, suffice to say she was far from pleasant and I left without taking a look at the Cairn as I suspect she’d not have been happy about that either!! This is one of Orkneys core paths and if something isn’t done about the obstructive landowners it’ll be lost forever which is a shame as it could be a pleasant walk!! A walk that is very treacherous underfoot and one I would definitely not recommend to anyone!!