Empty bays on Caithness coast between Latheronwheel and Lybster
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OUT AND ABOUT WITH RALPH: Take your time to truly explore the wonders of the Caithness coast – whether on foot or by sea-kayak
There must be a dozen bays and coves to explore between Latheronwheel and Lybster. The obvious way to visit them is by sea-kayak, but very few kayakers actually make the effort to land on these beaches. But then the boats might get damaged by rocks.
It is more difficult to get to these places from land, though at low tide it is possible to reach all of them. However, to actually do so on a cliff-top walk would require as much climbing up and down as reaching a Munro summit.
I set off from Latheronwheel harbour on a fine January morning to see how far I could get.
Too many people who walk or kayak this coast just concentrate on covering the distance, but you really need to take a lot of time over exploring our Caithness coast even if you only cover two or three map miles in a whole day. Walk round every geo, visit every headland, go down to the sea and explore wherever you can. Take your time, there’s no hurry.
Within 45 minutes I was sitting in dazzling sun at the western end of a long stony beach. This is a lovely spot which very few people actually get to see. I’d climbed steeply up from the harbour then followed the John O’Groats Trail along the low cliffs to the top of a steep grassy slope I could scramble down.
These east coast bays catch the sun in early spring and in good conditions you can sunbathe even in January!
I made my way along the stones in the sunshine – at low tide you can pick your way over slippery rocks to the next bay below Latheron. The tide was high so I had to scramble back up. There are one or two routes, some easier than others.
Round the next headland the deep valley of the Burn of Latheron suddenly surprises. There’s no easy way down to the beach far below, a steep narrow ridge with a big drop to one side is partly overgrown by gorse and gives a difficult, prickly descent.
The John O’Groats Trail chickens out and heads up towards the main road. Once on the beach there is an easy route back up on the north side. Again few people visit or even know this fine bay exists, though the A9 is just a quarter of a mile away. You could happily sit here all day in the sunshine watching the waves and meet absolutely nobody, even in summer.
At low tide you can get round to the next bay but otherwise it’s back up to the cliff top and then down again. For all your fine intentions, sooner or later you’ll decide just to give that next bay, far below, a miss! But they are all worth visiting.
There is the rocky Port na Muic, needing a very steep scramble, then you come to the next big obstacle, the Burn of Forse. Here, at Robbery Head, are several tiny coves with the burn pouring over a waterfall into the most northerly. You can’t get down to this one except when low tide opens up a route from the next cove to the south. This is a spot much more easily explored by sea-kayak – do stop and land!
It is very tricky getting over the burn near the falls and the John O’Groats Trail wisely gives up and heads upstream to cross by a small footbridge amid rushes and scrubby native birch.
Then comes another surprise, suddenly the big semi-circular bay of Forse opens out below with the ruin of Forse Castle beyond. The trail again keeps to the cliff tops but I picked a route down onto the shadowed stones, then on along into the sunshine of this delectable rocky bay.
And so I found myself again sitting in dazzling sun below the old castle by the remains of the herring fishing buildings. In Caithness in mid-January it was warm, positively hot – I took my jacket off and couldn’t even look out to sea because of the brilliant sun reflecting off the water. In summer this is a place of butterflies and wild flowers, as is the next bay of Achastle.
If I sat too long I’d be in danger of sunburn! But I’d come far enough for today, I headed back up the track and along the main road before following the John O'Groats Trail from Latheron back to Latheronwheel as the sun set beyond the cliffs.
