My Highland Haven

Sunday 5th November 2023

Walk Tick Points:

• Parking: Yes, easy to find free car park
• Poo bin: Yes – several throughout the village and at each path entrance
• Terrain: Open flat fields, grass footpaths with concealed rabbit holes and huge wide open beaches
• Walk length: 4.2miles // 1hr 52mins (but could have easily been longer)
• Score: 10/10 – So beautiful, peaceful and perfect

After another Saturday spent in Inverness, the main weekend dog walk was yet again pushed to Sunday. Luckily we got home with enough daylight on Saturday to run them along ‘our’ Embo beach so we promised them Sunday would be a new exploring walk. The last few weekends have been rather stormy so it was lovely to see clear blue skies and blazing sunshine on Sunday.

Why we Chose Inver

We decided to head over to Inver which is a tiny village just outside Tain and according to the oracle that is Wikipedia, has 300 houses. It sits on the Easter Ross Peninsula looking over Inver Bay (which spills into the Dornoch Firth a few miles down the coast) and across to the Tain Air Weapons Range.

There isn’t much in Inver, there’s a school and a pub (that’s near the top of our ‘must try’ list) but there’s something about this tiny village that I love. I can’t articulate it but we drove down to it a few years ago on an exploratory drive. When we parked in the tiny car park outside what I think is their village hall, I looked across the bay and up towards the Firth and I just felt so incredibly peaceful, calm and safe. There are a million places like this dotted throughout the Highlands, the whole area is nothing but peace and beauty but there was something about this little village that just resonated with me.

My mother in law says feelings like this mean you have an ancestral connection to a place. I know my family two generations up lived just outside Aviemore and previous generations were dotted throughout the Highlands so maybe there’s some validity to her theory.

Either way, I’ve been wanting to do a proper walk from Inver since we got here and Sunday with its glorious weather was the perfect day for it.

Starting the walk

After parking in the small carpark just as you enter the village, we walked along Shore Street, along Main Street and through to New Street to join the marked footpath. There is a more direct route but we were avoiding a few other walkers as Osric was feeling especially chatty when he saw another fellow dog. The path was clearly marked and told us Portmahomack was just over 3miles down the coast.

Once through the village (which was less than five minutes from car to footpath gate), the footpath opens out across Morrich More, a network of sand dunes and saltmarshes. Even after all the rain we’ve had recently, the ground wasn’t remotely muddy.

The walk terrain and views

After walking across a wide open grass area, the path meandered through some tall grass and we had the beach on one side and the farmers fence on the other side. There were plenty of clearly visible footpath signs and only one stile that required some greyhound lifting. All the other stiles were gates and easy to move our little pack through.

After a while, the path started to become more challenging. I’d assume most people opt to walk along the beach instead so it was less trodden down. It was also boobytrapped by an extensive network of rabbit warrens. Whilst the dogs were loving the sniffs, I was just trying to avoid rolling my ankle!

Challenging terrain aside, it was beautiful. The weather, the scenery, the tranquility were all perfect. Despite seeing a few other dog walkers on the way to the path, we didn’t meet a single soul until we were almost back at the village.

We walked towards Portmahomack watching the village become more visible. We looked off to our right and the lush green fields full of sheep and cows all just relaxing keeping a watchful eye on us. We looked to the left and saw the bay join the Firth and the gentle ripple as the two tides met. And we looked back, up towards the north and the horizon full of rising bens and peaks. And we looked across the bay towards our little village, trying to pinpoint our house.

After about an hour, we decided it was time to head back. Elodie had done really well and was so happy to be back out on proper walks with her brothers but we didn’t want her to push herself. When her limp does appear, it comes on very quickly and neither of us fancied carrying a 25kg greyhound back to the car.

Heading back along the beach

Having stuck to the green paths towards Portmahomack, we wanted to walk back along the beach. It was near enough low tide and there was a huge expanse of open golden sand.

As it was so open and we could see for miles, we knew we could let Osric have a bit of a run off lead. So whilst we enjoyed the new view walking back towards Inver, he enjoyed doing his favourite impression of a chinchilla rolling about in the sand.

We had to pop back onto the main path to walk across the bridge to get over the Burn of Arboll which flows into the sea at about the same point the bay joins the Dornoch Firth. Other than that, we walked along the beach all the way back into Inver.

This time, we followed the marked path around the back of the cottage gardens along Shore Street.

Conclusion

All in all we walked for just under two hours. One day (when we’re more confident Elodie can handle it) we’ll do the full path to Portmahomack. Personally, I’d say this was my favourite walk we’ve done so far. Not just because the weather was so perfect or because we had all three dogs (it’s just not the same when one has to be left behind) but because there’s just something about this place that’s nothing short of enchanting.