Welcome to page 4 of my tour of the North-East of Scotland. On this page I'll take a tour along the coastline from Macduff through to Fraserburgh. This coastal trail is an official tourist route with brown signs to direct you.

Macduff to Fraserburgh

Leaving Macduff on the A98 leading onto the B9031 eastwards, we are now coming to the area of this coastline that I consider to be the most picturesque (although some of the roads might test your nerves or car). It's three villages along this next part of the coast that make it so nice.

The first of these villages, and the largest is Gardenstown, just off the B9031 on the B9123. When you drive down to Gardenstown you don't realise what your about to let yourself in for (driving wise). Basically you have to zig-zag down the steep hill to get to the village at the bottom. And unless you've got plenty of room on the road, you're going to have to drive to the end of the village and turn around to drive down to the harbour. The streets of the village themselves are narrow in places which adds to the character of the place.

Aside from the setting of the village, visitors also have a few art and craft workshops to visit along with a range of local shops, a tearoom and hotel. A few walks can also be made from here for those who are more energetic and wish to sample more of the scenery. The Discover Gardenstown website has more details.

Crovie is the next village along the coast. This village is fairly unique in that most of the village is inaccessible by car. In fact all the cottages in the village are perched on a narrow ledge below the cliffs right by the sea. Only a footpath separate them from the sea. The road down to the village only has a small turning circle at one end of the village and no car park. (Just be glad you don't have to deliver a washing machine there!!). In fact all deliveries of furniture, kitchen appliances, etc.. have to be taken by barrow down to the village from the car park on the hill. I bet DFS or Currys love delivering their!!

Visitors to the village are advised to park up the hill at the very same car park just mentioned. The car park overlooks the village (where the picture is taken). And for those people who aren't feeling energetic, this is the closest you'll get. The others who fancy a walk will find going down to Crovie is an easy walk, but the climb back up to the car is tiring to say the least.

The village grew around 100 residents in the 18th century to 300 at the start of the 20th century. This growth could be put down to the highland clearances, a part of scottish history I'd like to cover more on this website in the future. However, in January 1953 the village was hit by massive storms which distroyed some of the cottages and forced a lot of the residents to leave. A one point the whole village was threatened with the bulldozers, but thankfully was saved by some of the remaining residents who formed the Crovie Preservation Society.

A number of the cottages are now available as holiday homes for those who fancy somewhere a little different to stay.

The final village of the three is Pennan. Made famous by the 1982 film Local Hero (starring Burt Lancaster, Dennis Lawson, Fulton Mackay to name a few) which tells the story of how the villages outwit a corporate oil company who wish to develop the beach as an oil refinery. This said, the beach scenes weren't actually filmed here. But it's the phone box that people come from around the world to see. While it's not the actually phone box used in the film (which was a prop), its still the most photographed part of the village (except by me. Well we didn't know this when we visited).

If you're interested in finding out about where various films (and TV programmes) were filmed in Scotland, check out the Scotland the movie location guide website for a list.

The other thing I liked about Pennan is the washing lines are across the road from the cottages (okay I'm strange like that). Fancy hanging out your smalls for all the visitors to the village to see (although there wasn't any washing out when we visited). A few other village along the coast are the same, but it seems to stand out more in Pennan and certainly adds to the character of the place.

Those wanting a drink can visit the Pennan Inn pub and satisfy their thirst if necessary (obviously only a soft drink if your driving!! You need your wits about you on these roads!!).

Continuing along the coast, we came across Mounthooly Doocot near Peathill. With views over Rosehearty and the sea, Doocots (or 'Dovecot' in English) used to be common place all over Scotland. However, they are now disappearing. A fully history of doocots can be found at the Rosehearty community website.

Rosehearty itself is another village whose history lies with fishing. It once had fleet of boats supporting over 600 people, but now only has 20 part time fishing boats visiting the harbour.

Other visitors interested in the history of the village may also choose to visit Peathill Kirk and Pitsligo Castle which are both close by.

The last village before the town of Fraserburgh, is Sandhaven, another fishing village. Just to go off subject here a bit, I found a online flash game at the Sandhaven harbour website called Siggi the Seahorse. So if you see demm42 on the high scores, you'll know I've been playing it.

We finally reach the town of Fraserburgh, another town whose history lies in the fishing industry, particularly herring. It's also the home of the 'The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses', which was shut when we arrived, but looked interesting for visit. Certainly, if the weather had been bad we may have come back here. On the only down side was that the drive down to the museum took us through an industrial estate.

And that where I'll finish this page of the tour. The next section of coast down to Peterhead looks like it has plenty of beaches, but we didn't actually get time to tour down this section. So join me for part 5 of the tour where I'll continue along the coastline from Peterhead down to Aberdeen.

 
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