Hackley Bay

We had planned to visit Cawdor Castle today, but luckily I checked it’s opening times last night, as it is not yet open for the season. My plan was scuppered. TT came up with a new plan, so we set off.

As we were driving to Haddo House, we passed Fyvie Castle, so stopped off there. It’s a NTS castle, and we are members. They were quite busy, and were added to the 1pm tour list. Meanwhile, we had a look around the garden, and the loch, where we saw lots of birds both in the loch and flittering around the trees. We then turned up at our allotted time and went in a tour, which was very interesting.

TT was keen to get to Haddo House, so we didn’t linger. However first of all we went the wrong way, and had to go back to where we started from, then we missed the turning for Haddo House, so ended up following signs to Pitmedden Garden, only to find it was closed. We had a walk in the woods around the garden. I then checked on Haddo House, only to find it too was closed. We drove on to Ellon, where we picked up sandwiches and a few provisions for tea, and drove over to the coast at Collieston, where we had a very late lunch.

We then walked around the coast to Forvie NNR, and followed the route to Hackley Bay. We spotted a dead whale (we think) in a seemingly inaccessible bay, which was a sad sight. We followed the route, doubling back to the River Ythan. It was such a lovely evening. Unfortunately the last bit of our walk back to Collieston was on the road, which was a real drag. There was an amazing sunset though, which kept us going.

It was quite late when we eventually got home, and chucked a couple of pizzas in the office. The walk this evening was lovely, and we wouldn’t have done it if the NTS places had been open, so a bonus!!

This is a view over Hackley Bay back to Collieston. The extra is Fyvie Castle.