Explore one of Scotland's most picturesque villages - taking in the bay, the beautiful cottages, some hidden corners and a fine viewpoint looking to Applecross and the Isle of Skye.
Streets, paths and tracks; climb to viewpoint is on rough and rocky path.
Plockton is served by a rail station on the Kyle line (station <1km from start).
Plockton village car park.
Park in the main village car park which is on the right when you drive down the hill and reach the seafront in the village. From here there are lovely views of much of the village, a pier used by boat trips at high tide, and Eilean nan Gamhainn - a tiny wild island that is briefly linked to the village at low tide. There is also a shop and toilets.
Begin the walk by heading up behind the toilets, keeping left at a fork. This leads onto Bank Street, a secluded lane of whitewashed cottages, with their gardens overlooking the water on the other side of the lane. Keep ahead when a lane goes off right, then turn right before the final row of cottages, heading up a road past the school to the main road.
Turn right down this, passing the Plockton Inn, to reach the waterfront once more. Rather than heading back into the car park, turn left along the main street. This leads past many cottages, the Plockton Hotel, and with more gardens and palm-trees on the waterside. The village was originally built as a planned community to encourage the fishing industry and stem the tide of emigration. Today its economy is based around tourism, and the village has featured in films such as the Wicker Man as well as on TV's Hamish MacBeth.
If the tide is sufficiently low, turn right by the phone box to cross a causeway out to the houses on Aird a' Mhorair peninsula (otherwise you can only visit the section in this paragraph by an out-and-back detour along Cooper Street). At the far end of the causeway turn left along the road, then turn right after the post office to head down to the main pier - the only one which can be used at low tide. Retrace your steps back to Cooper Street and continue ahead to rejoin the main Harbour Road, turning right at a t-junction.
The road passes a sea inlet and then bends sharply left, heading towards the modern housing of Frithard Road. Ignore the signed 'Brae Track' off left - used in the return route - and continue ahead until a footpath sign on the right, signed for Càrn an Frith-aird Viewpoint. Follow this path, which soon ascends roughly up a rocky slope - keeping in a groove at first - to reach the viewpoint, where there are a couple of benches. The view is superb, taking in the Isle of Skye and its Cuillin, the Applecross mountains and a great swathe of loch and sea.
Retrace your steps back to the Brae Track mentioned earlier, and follow this tree-fringed track which leads along behind and above the houses and gardens of the village below. When the track swings right leave it and continue straight ahead on a path. Eventually this reaches a tarred lane - turn left down this to return to the centre of Plockton, just above the car park at the start.
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