Sunday 3rd December 2023
Walk tick points:
Parking: Yes, free car park at the end of Quarry Road, just off the A9
Poo bin: Yes, in the car park
Terrain: Mostly tracked path but very steep in places – well worth the climb for the views
Walk length: 4.7 miles // 2hrs 12 mins (could have easily walked for longer if we had more daylight)
Score: 9/10 – Very beautiful & peaceful, dogs loved it but it never really felt isolated
Why we chose this walk
There are a few walks off the A9 by Tain, all signposted from the main A9 road. On our many holidays up here, we’d walked most of them over the years but we weren’t keen to return to them in a hurry. Firstly, we’d already walked them and like an over excited child in a sweet shop, I want to try all the walks up here so what’s the point in heading back to the ones we’ve already done. Secondly, when we’d been here before, we’d followed the trails marked in the car parks which are all fairly short. The one at this car park (Tain Hill) is just one mile and the marked trail from Aldie Burn just down the road is only on one and three quarters of a mile.
When we woke to a freezing Highlands on Sunday morning. Whilst the news implied the rest of England and Scotland was sitting under a blanket of snow, we simply had a very heavy ground frost and overnight temperatures of -7c. Whilst the Husky and Aussie Shepherd are built for frozen frolics, the Greyhound is not so todays walk would just be for the boys as it wasn’t forecast to get get above freezing all day.
After some online research (15mins poking around on All Trails and Walk Highlands), we settled on the woods above Tain which we learned was the Morangie Forest. As well as the short marked route from the car park (the Pulpit Rock Trail), there were several other marked paths on the OS map:
- The Morangie Forest Circuit – about 11 miles according to Alltrails.com
- The Green Loch Circuit
- Lairgs of Tain – Strathrory Link Track
Using our trusty https://footpathmap.co.uk/ we plotted a route taking in some of the Morangie Forest Circuit, some of the The Green Loch Circuit and some of the original Pulpit Rock Trail.
Starting the walk
Being a Forestry and Land Scotland wood, there was a clearly signposted car park off the A9 (brown road sign for Tain Hill forest walk) so parking was nice and easy and there was the usual poo bin.
There were a few other cars when we arrived but we only encountered two other walkers (with their dogs) on the whole walk.
We started the walk heading down the marked path to the left of the car park.
The Walk
At the start, the walk was along a tracked path between the trees. We could see small glimpses off to our left of the stunning views below. We knew we were fairly high up so we were looking forward to looking out over the surrounding area. Turns out we’d have to wait for some truly spectacular views.
As we followed the path through the trees the dogs were having a great time. Despite the heavy frost and regular frozen puddles, the ground was easy to walk on and even with their persistent pulling, the boys didn’t manage to pull is over. They did spend most the walk with their noses to the ground and although something certainly kept them engaged, it wasn’t enough to make them unmanageable.
As we transferred from the The Morangie Forest Circuit path to the The Green Loch Circuit, we found ourselves on a cycle path. We didn’t realist this until we saw a marker halfway along.
The Green Loch Circuit soon opened out into a large tracked path and we got our long awaited view. Where the trees had been logged, we could see over the Easter Ross Peninsula and towards the Black Isle.
As we headed right and climbed back towards Tain Hill (the only really steep part of the walk), we saw even more. We could see over most the Easter Ross Peninsula, the Tarbat Ness Lighthouse and the oil rigs in the Cromarty Firth and the Black Isle. One we reached the Pulpit Rock, we could even see over the Black and glimpses of the Moray Firth.
Given the hard frost, everything just looked fairly muted in shades of off white and grey. And as is always the way with pictures taken on a phone, you can never quite capture the full impact but it really was beautiful.
There’s a rock with some steps at the Pulpit Rock but given that A) we had less than one hour before sunset (not the best time to need an ambulance for a broken leg) and B) the frost at the top was very slippery, we didn’t fancy climbing up to really get the best of the view.
We toddled back down the path towards the car park which we were back to in a few minutes.
All in all, we were two hours and 12 minutes and 4.74 miles
Conclusion
This was a nice walk but so some reason it didn’t really feel as secluded and quiet as some of the walks we’ve done so far. Now we know there are so many more paths to explore, I’m sure we’ll be back especially given how close it is.
The dogs definitely loved it, plenty to keep their noses occupied and they were certainly tuckered out that night.
My Highland Haven 