I tried this a couple of weeks ago, but had to turn back towards the end of the section coming down from Charles Seat to McFarquhar's Bed itself, the reason being that barbed wire has been strung across all gates linking field boundaries, from Charles Seat, with no gaps or gates, and the path has also been newly ploughed away altogether in the third field down. Crossing this stretch along the coast wasn't pleasant, and was even hazardous, having to negotiate flimsy fences strung with new barbed wire, and so I gave up & turned around when I hit the ploughed path; it's pretty obvious the land owner doesn't care about the access rights to use this path - which is established & marked - and is even, it looks to me, trying to intimidate & deter walkers.

I actually called Highland Council about this and was told by the Ranger for the area that he's going to check it out, and he's also going to supply him with new gates to install, giving him a month or so to do this, so I'll be checking with him on progress with this in a few weeks time.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that this well known & used path is really not passable either enjoyably, nor particularly safely for the moment; a real shame, since - as it's on a small peninsula bounded on three sides by the sea - there are so few paths around Cromarty for locals & visitors to take pleasure from walking.