Sunday 17th December 2023
- Parking: Yes, three free car parks along Ferry Road (KW10 6TD)
- Poo bin: Yes, in each car park
- Terrain: Links along the beach (grassy), some forests tracks are muddy and paved road. Flat and easy walking.
- Walk length: 4.9 miles // 2hrs
- Score: 8/10 – flat, easy walk with good visibility but popular. We didn’t see too many people, but I’d assume it gets busier in the summer.
Why we chose this walk
We’ve done Loch Fleet before, walking into the woods and around the Balblair Woods side. In defence of the previous walk, we’ve had some pretty amazing walks up here so far but, the last venture to Loch Fleet was easily the worst walk we’ve done yet.
We wanted to give the other side a try. We wanted something close(ish) to home and as the days are almost at their shortest point, somewhere we knew we couldn’t get lost. We also wanted to take Elodie with us, so needed something we knew we could cut short if she wasn’t enjoying it and somewhere flat and open as she struggles with hills and off lead dogs running at her.
Starting the walk
We parked at the furthest car park at the end of Ferry Road, it was very easy to find because if you overshoot it, you end up in the water! It was a nice large car park, obligatory information boards and plenty of poo bins – always the best way to start any dog walk. As a couple arrived just before us with three (adorable) large Husky’s, we had a sniff about by the shore. This gave the Husky’s chance to get ahead and our three chance to have a preliminary empties thus limiting the amount of poo bags we’d be carrying around.
Being just a few meters over the water from the Embo Links and stretch of beach that has become our regular stomping ground, the Ferry Links were both comfortable familiar and interesting enough to be different at the same time.
It was nice to look over to Embo Links from Ferry Links as I’m so used to seeing the view from the other direction.
The walk
From what I could see, the main difference between the Ferry Links and Embo Links is the Ferry Links are much more open, easier to traverse (I’ve come across several ponds/bogs when exploring ‘our’ Links) with plenty of different paths. This was especially handy as we spotted a few other dog walks and it was nice and easy to meander onto our own path so we all had plenty of space (OK, so Osric didn’t show us up by shouting full volume as it’s prone to do when he sees off lead dogs!)
After walking up the Links towards Golspie, we turned left at the Go Cart club, through a bit of gold course and onto Ferry Road. Whilst Ferry Road is a dead end and only has a handful of houses, it seems like a popular walking spot so had several cars going along. Luckily, there’s a path from the golf course down to the Nature Reserve wood (where a handy poo bin was situated).
At this car park, it did look like a path had been trodden down through the woods back to the Links and the coast but as we’re not too sure about the right to roam laws yet, we stuck to the road.
The path vanished after the woods and I didn’t like walking the dogs with cars flying past. It doesn’t seem like it’s the done thing to slow down for pedestrians up here, I’m assuming because there’s plenty of places for us to walk off the road?
We followed what we thought/hoped was a path back through Ferry Woods just past the Salmon Pools. We’re almost starting to take for granted just how beautiful almost every view is up here, no matter which way you look, there’s always something picturesque to look at.
Once through the woods, we followed the main path back through the Links and back to the car.
All in all, we ended up being a few seconds under two hours and walking 4.91 miles.
Conclusion
We could have easily made this walk longer, walking up to Golspie or through some of the Balblair woods on the other side. At the same time, we could have easier been much quicker by just sticking to the Links.
Given the close proximity and the ease of the terrain (especially for Elodie), I think we’ll definitely be adding this walk to the regular rotation.
My Highland Haven 