Welcome to page 5 of my tour of the North-East of Scotland. On this page I'll take a tour along the coastline from Peterhead through to Aberdeen.

Peterhead to Collieston

This busy town is the first major place north of Aberdeen. Peterhead is more of a working place where people live (with nice and run down areas) or shop than a touristy place. This said, we found the people we met to be friendly, and the seals at the harbour were as always lovely to watch.

As with most of the towns and villages along this coastline, Peterheads history has relied on fishing and the oil industry. However, it used to be also known for its whaling history. This historical story is told at the Peterhead Maritime Heritage Centre in the town.

Heading south on the A90 out of Peterhead you pass the power station and the village of Boddam before the A90 heads inland and you turn onto the A975.

A short way down the A975 are the dramatic cliff formations of Bullers o' Buchan where the waves crash against the rocks.

Another couple of miles down the road is Cruden Bay (and Port Erroll), a village with a nice (and fairly long) beach and small harbour. The beach is accessed by means of a bridge across the small river that runs out to sea here separating the beach from the harbour. It has to be said that Cruden Bay is one of the best beaches along this coastline. The two shops close by are ideal for getting a snack if you are hungry.

One mile south of the opposite end of Cruden Bay you can find Slains Castle (off the A975) on the cliffs overlooking the sea. The castle itself is not completely intact, but is not a complete ruin either. However its future is currently in the hands of Aberdeen Council who have approved restoring the castle for conversion into holiday apartments.

Collieston and Forvie Nature Reserve Visitor Centre

As mentioned above, the coastline from Cruden Bay down towards the next village of Collieston is largely inaccessible due to the cliffs. At Collieston you get a feel for the coastline by means of a viewpoint. The village itself looks very nice with its whitewashed houses, although with only a small shop dont expect to be eating out here. However, a pub or restaurant would spoil the character of the place.

Just outside Collieston is Forvie Nature Reserve Visitor Centre. With a nice visitor centre which seems to cater for the kids by means of nature related jigsaws and puzzles, this is an ideal place to visit when it's raining. However, when the weather's nicer, it's worth taking a walk around the reserve to see the real thing (nature that is). The reserve itself seems to consist mainly of sand dunes that have become overgrown with various fauna and flora, ideal for the numerous insects inhabiting the land. This said, we did also see numerous rabbit burrows and a bird of prey. and the information signs at the visitor centre indicated that many birds could also be seen.

The reserve is also accessible from the southern end of the dunes (by Newburgh and the River Ythan estuary) and the whole of the reserve can be walked from one end to the other (allow 3 or 4 hours for this).

Balmedie

The final village/beach we visited (around 4 miles north of Aberdeen) was Balmedie. (Not far from the juctions where the A975 joins back onto the main A90) You know your getting back to civilization when the car park is a pay and display, although we arrived at 6pm, and therefore avoided the busier daytime (presumably).

As we arrived at teatime, we never actually got to see inside the visitor centre as it was closed. However, outside there are numerous picnic tables, a childrens playground and obviously a toilet block.

The beach itself is around a 10 minute walk from the car park, but make sure you choose the right path down to it or youll end up at the top of one of the dunes with nowhere to go. Twice we tried (and failed) to get to the beach and ended up looking at it from a high viewpoint on the dunes (hence the picture above). Third time was lucky though.

The other thing we found with arriving at teatime at the beach (other than not having to pay to park) was that all the wildlife was out. Rabbits were in abundance, stoats were hunting the rabbits, and swifts (I think that's what they are. Let me know if not) were doing aerobatic displays. In fact we probably enjoyed it more because of this.

South of Balmedie, the A90 travel into Aberdeen which I look at on the last page of the tour. On the next page (part 6) of the tour I'll take a look at some of the other places in the area.

 
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