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Photographs for this report are from three separate days. The first day was 24th October with three small boys aged 7, 6 and 3 who wanted to climb rocks.
Tess waiting for me to throw her stick
Kids running
Kids on rocks
Looking back to Rosemarkie
More rocks
Sand-castle building
The next day I returned to Rosemarkie with Moira to walk the dogs in the Fairy Glen.
First waterfall
Am I allowed in there?
Labrador heaven
We didn't actually see the fairies but it's an enchanting spot so I'm not surprised the glen's called after them.
Top waterfall
On 1st November we came back to explore further along the coastline towards Eathie and were rewarded with an immediate sighting of two dolphins close to the shore and moving in the same direction as us - although they were moving faster than we were so were soon out of sight. In nearly 30 years living in Inverness Moira said that was only the second time she's seen them!
Rosemarkie beach
We met a man searching for fossils. We didn't see any but we did see lots of interesting rock formations and wonderful colours of stones.
Autumn colours (M's pic)
We passed the sign pointing up the cliff to Hillockhead (which the WH route tells you to take which leads eventually to the Fairy Glen) but decided to continue along the shore as far as the stack we could see in the distance.
Sign pointing to path up the cliff
Even with the tide out there are a couple of places needing a bit of a rocky scramble. Care would have to be taken at high tide unless you're prepared to get wet feet!
Stack
It is just over three miles from Rosemarkie to a stack that reminded me slightly of the In Pin
We sat out of the wind on the NE side of the stack and the dogs tried to hypnotise me into handing over my piece
We were enjoying the shoreline so much we didn't return by the cliff path to Hillockhead, although I'm sure we'll be back to complete the circuit at some point.
On the way back I went up to investigate the cave
The dogs went in ahead of me and remarkably ignored the large brown bird sitting there. Apart from turning its head to look It didn't move much which made me think all was not well with it. I didn't have my good camera and the close up I took was out of focus but my bird expert friend thinks it's a buzzard. He also wondered with the recent poisonings of red kites and buzzards on the Black Isle if this one had fallen victim to poison and suggested I should report what I'd seen to the RSPB - which I have done.
Buzzard in cave
Rab warned me to be careful about the dogs picking up anything which could be lethal to them as well. This was a fair warning as labradors are such scavengers and I had to prise then away from a long dead dolphin carcase they were having a good go at. Generally with anything decomposed and stinking Jack will try to eat it and Tess will roll on it!
Who'd have dogs? I was half expecting vomiting in the car or through the night but they must have iron cast stomachs as nothing untoward happened. It's a worry about the poisoned bait though.
We rounded off our walk with a cappucino at the Rosemarkie beach cafe which was a good deal with a large mug of cappucino with chocolate on top for only £1.80. It's a dog friendly place with outside tables and we'll be back!
