Walking In Moray

Inspirational , historic and invigorating walk with abut 6 on the energy level

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:53:55 GMT

Time 4-5 hours , Time of day - early as possible around 7 or at a push 8 am , Ballast stone underfoot and overgrown forest paths I advise that this wee walk should be done in the early spring as to get the full beauty of the wildlife taken in.

This Walk is for those of you who are looking for some inspiration, motivation and have an explorer inside them. Also I would advise this walk for those want to know more about the wee city of Elgin and its past, As far as situations go I found this walk very relaxing and it was able to take my mind off of other things going on in my life at that moment. If your looking for a place to get away from everything but still having the thought of home being less than a short stroll away. This walk is defiantly for you.

I would start at the buccaneer garage in New Elgin, which is yet to be opened for some unknown reason. Elgin eh to busy making houses for people to move here and boost its income but never up for putting money into what attracts people here in the first place? Now! Head south along the A914, Moving towards Rothes/Highland’s direction when you reach the new Red round about shortly ahead of you head left along Thornhill road until you have just reached past the new nursery, funnily enough called “The Magic Roundabout!” Notice that there is a small break in the fence where local dog walkers and walkers in general have been treading for many moons now, hence why there is a furrowed path just after the gap. Follow this path which runs adjacent to the dry stone dyke/fence which runs down the entire length of the field and has a small tree growing right directly in the middle of it. Watch out the path does get slightly boggy at one point near the bottom. You might want to think about staying off the beaten track and going into the next field or maybe have a small try out with your scrambling skills and scale the top of the wall but please BE CAREFUL I wouldn’t want any law suits against me, all because I have advised you to climb a very shaky wall indeed! BUT! What ever you do to get round this possibly impenetrable force so early on your magnificent walk, do not take the left hand path trust me it is full of more bogginess and things which frighten small children! Feet will blister and tears will fall if this path is taken up!

Anyway now that all the dramatics have passed your now standing in the shade of a long line fo trees heading off in the direction parallel to the road and running along side a small burn ( of which has is called (don’t quote me on this “ Linkwood burn” and provides the water for the power and thrive through Longmorn Distillery (Ben Riach) And Thomshill Distillery (Loch Dhu).) for those of you who may not be as agile as my self or for those of you who may not like the look of the windy and difficult paths, follow the Path along the side of the field which will soon be the next stage of “The Elgin South Project” which run along side the small burn under branches and over small irrigation ditches. This will soon be the site of the all boring construction works of the western side of "Elgin South" which is actually more south and Elgin south itself! Construction work is being done I think be “Springfield Construction” ìm sure, but I again would not quote me on this!

Walk adjacent to the burn which there is a small path to walk alongside. you will reach a small outlet of the stream and i advise to jump over this as it is only about a foot and a half across if my mind serves me right (if you are slightly elderly or in no fit state for jumping actions then i advise to walk adjacent to this burn and carry on until you see the bridge and cross there as it withers out soon enough). Carry on walking until you reach the bridge which will take you on the eastern side to the stream and follow the track east towards the distillery. You’ll soon enough know when it is time to turn south along the old railway line. A great hint it either the massive path which turns to the right or the old bridge which is across the stream and no longer there. follow this old railway track south and notice all the trees across the field as that is where we a re going! come to the end of the field and notice that there is a small path leading into the trees and dont be fooled by the barron-nees look of the path. its perfectly quite safe and visible futher on.(please follow directions on the map provided) You are now heading into birkenhill wood a small wood set upon the eastern side of the A941 just before entering New Elgin fromt he Rothes Direction.Follow the path through rough and overgrowth firs may hit you in the face but i advise my walker to think of the lion the witch and the wardrobe here and think how lucy had to fight her way through the bushes at the back of the cup board in order to find what was beyond.

Romantic , first date , energy level 4,

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:03:59 GMT

Time- 2-3hours inc. veiwing time length - 8 miles roughly terrain - road beach shingle and forest pathway

Forres to Findhorn section of the Moray coastal path.

In your authors view this section of this semi long distance walk is pointless to its name and pointless in enjoyment also. The route takes you on a long and tedious road which seems never ending, in which your feet i would need some tender TLC afterwards or you might need to invent quad layer sorbathane.

So instead of walking five or six miles of pure unenthusiastic, tedious walking to what should be the official start of the walk, (because when I walked this section at the end of the walk I felt I hadn’t even started because I hadn’t even seen any sign of salt water as of outside the Findhorn bay which was predictably at low tide so rather a pool of mud flats.) if you feel the need to walk this long stretch of road please feel free but as it stands now 15 people have now been tragically lost on the roads this month alone and I would like to say “hey” its good to walk on roads because its not. Really really not. Anyway so as you have guessed it I wouldn’t walk this road part if I were you, I would merely start from Findhorn and get going from there!

Although on further inspection from travelling this road in car and cycling it a few times in different times of day seasons and attitudes I would however offer the following-

Get in your car go the pub in Kinloss and talk about walking to Findhorn for the fun of it.

Take your car park, it at the caravan site just north of Kinloss at GR – 620063 just on the right hand side of the B9011 and Start walking* casually along the embankment footpath of the B9011 (eastern side) towards Findhorn in the North. Stop at the “oh so” convenient parking place and picnic tables to admire the Fantastic Findhorn Bay

after about 10 minutes of deep breaths and feelings of Braveheart and patriotism rushing to at least one of your fellow/yourselves heads start still heading north on the eastern side of the B9011’s embankment. You will reach the small fishing tourist village of Findhorn.

Findhorn – “a lovely wee toon.” - Me.

As soon as you have realised that the Findhorn foundation isn’t actually in Findhorn, instead and realised it just outside of the historic fishing village, you’ll be exactly where I would like you to turn off down the small path on the adjacent side of the road in between Cromarty court where a good friend of mine lives and Heathneuk, which takes you down towards the Bay and will take you towards what will appear to be the coast and Burghead. You might have done this path beforehand and would be thinking about now that its stupid to turn off towards Burghead. But its not trust me**.So… your walking towards Rosile beach, almost seeing nothing but dunes on one side and peoples back gardens on the other. Not a pretty sight at all you must be thinking but with every bad side there must be a good I say. (Well think about it if there were only a bad side then it would just be normal and therefore void out because no one knows any better!) once the screaming of “where the f**k are we going?” gets out of your fellow walkers systems. You will have reached the beach and are able to smell the sea air (a lot more than on the B9011.) The wave will almost be lapping up at you feet by this time if the tide is in so follow the path to the left and admire the views upon the sight of the view point and stay there until hearts desired. Follow the signs back into town and follow the signs for Kinloss keeping to the right hand side of the road on the embankment go into the pub for a well deserved pint or G’n’T.***

*I would advise having a nice evening meal in the pub beforehand going out as this will give you the right time to catch all the best views and bits of the wildlife you would have never thought of living here beforehand.

**if you’d rather keep on going on towards the viewpoint which you already know of but for those open-minded enough to actually go on this walk I would advise the following for sheer “wow” factor. As since this walk is set to have a sort of romantic feel to it I would take someone you care about along this route.

***I wouldn’t advise taking any partner you aren’t interested in along this route especially if they aren’t into walking small distances let alone big one’s and also if you like this partner then I would take them because if you do your probably gonna end up hitched after this night.

Hope you enjoy the walk and there will be many more to come in the near future cheers your author Blair Mcleod.

Walk in moray

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:55:25 GMT

Walk in moray web page is about........youve guessed it - Walking in Moray!

So ive been walking now for around 5 years and not only that ive been able to see things for 20 so far and i have noticed that alot of moray is undiscoverd and hidden and you only really get a chance to see thee things through word of mouth or seem to see them in memories of childhood holidays or such like so ive created this web page to go into detail about the walks i will blog ,create and describe in the future coming months. hope you enjoy the web page and ive broken the walks down into Moods, Situations and Energy Levels! hope you enjoy from Blair

Moods

1 stressed out - 10 floating on air

Situations

everything from a recent departure to first date to inspiration searching

which are then broken down on a 1-10 basis

Energy levels

1 cant be botherd but need to go out and get fit/dont have the time tonight - 15 am looking for the biggest of challenges/no one can stop me

Photo Album: why I live to walk

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:16:07 GMT

why I live to walk

The Old Mannoch Road Looking SE

First veiw of the train

Hill next to strath carron

Hopeman Harbour 2

Hopeman Harbour

kylekin view Sepia

Loch Morlich 2005

Loch morlich looking south

Loch Morlich looking SW Later at Dusk

Loch Morlich looking SW

More Photos...

Custom List: Custom List

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:57:18 GMT

Favourite Places To Visit In Scotland This Month
Loch an Uaine - The Green Loch , A small lochan i would say just east of glen more lodge

Book List: Book List

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 01:25:58 GMT

Jaquetta Megarry and Jim Strachan: The Speyside Way (rucksack reader)
definitve speyside way route describer telling you evrything you need to know about the speyside way - is it hell itll give you all the nesesarry things like where to stay eat and toilets ect but it doesnt give you is veiws,people and unknown's
Charlie Loram: West highland Way
an ace book if you are ever thinking about doing the WHW because not only does it have hand written maps it will tell you were to stay ground conditions and at a real "go the extra mile effect"how much a baked tattie ect will cost in each and every stop!

Custom List: Custom List

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 01:22:58 GMT

Elgin, the story of the high street and its closes, by Mary Byatt
A wonderful book describing the towns past and the towns high street and closes truly an eye opener to just hor many closes there are and what the town used to look like!