My Highland Haven

Saturday 23rd September 2023

After a week of unpacking, moving furniture around, arranging utilities and getting to grips with our new house, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice weekend dog walk.

Yes, there’s still so much to do in the house but it’s starting to feel like we can live in it for now. So as a reward, we decided to head off and explore somewhere new. Despite being the end of September, the weather is still doing a pretty good impression of summer, and being well aware how cold, wet and dark and winters can get up here, it seemed silly to spend the weekend shut away so off we went.

We can see the light from Tarbet Ness lighthouse from our house. We can see the lighthouse from the beach when we walk the dogs and James asked if we could head over and explore there.

Until we get to grips with our new home, we’re sticking to clearly marked footpaths and walking routes and as there’s a clearly marked footpath from the lighthouse down to Portmahomack (and round the entire Easter Ross Peninsula), it seemed like a good place to start.

Following the signs out of Portmahomack towards Tarbat Ness, it really was impossible to get lost. There’s just one small road, the sea on either side and the tall red and white lighthouse leads up to a good size car park. The road turns into a single track as you get closer but as with all (most?) single track roads in Scotland, there are plenty of clearly sign posted passing places so it’s just a case of driving sensibly and utilising a bit of common sense.

From the carpark is an information board. It tells you Tarbat Ness is Scotland’s second tallest land-based lighthouse at 41 metres high and was automated in 1985. The cottages are now privately owned but the footpath goes round the outside of the lighthouse, and being 41 metres tall, it’s fairly easy to see!

We headed off along the footpath, heading over some of the rocks to get down to the water. We passed a few people enjoying some fishing and passed one or two other walkers, but for the most part, it was very quiet.

As several signs advise some fields have livestock and bulls in them, we kept a close eye on the dogs. Shadow is never allowed off lead and Osric is only allowed off lead in very wide open, empty spaces (like miles of empty beach) but that doesn’t mean they don’t still like to stare or pull towards livestock. We’ve yet to meet any sheep that enjoy having a husky shout at them that he just wants to play, so we keep them close when we’re near any other animals.

Shadow was more interested in trying to nibble the barnacles and seaweed (his new favourite thing since we moved here). Osric was keener on trying to nibble various bits of animal poop – don’t we have such lovely dogs! But they both loved the walk.

We only walked for a couple of hours, stopping along the way to explore some of the rocks and admire the beautiful views.

Despite being a walk along the coast, it wasn’t very steep. In fact, as walks go, it was actually very flat and very easy. Some parts get a little high up but not enough to trigger James vertigo. There are parts that look like they might get muddy in the wetter weather but for a summer walk, it was very gentle and pleasant.

There were plenty of poo bins near the car park which is always an added bonus.

One we’ll definitely have to be going back to once we’ve settled in a bit more.