Balmedie – the Play Park, the Dunes and the Beach
A few hours.
The route
Balmedie Country Park, just north of Aberdeen, is a wonderful place to let small children loose, with a play park, big dunes to run up and roll down, and miles of wide sand beyond them.
Lunch is a few minutes up the road at the Cock and Bull, a cosy country inn with a children's menu and a box of toys.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book a table at the Cock and Bull on 01358 743249 or on its website for a weekend lunch: it opens every day from 9.30am to 9pm, and the light lunch menu runs from noon to 3.30pm on weekdays.
The day
Balmedie
Start in the play park, follow the path over the dunes to the sea, then warm up over lunch in a country inn just up the road.
About three hoursAbout 1 mile on foot
Balmedie Beach and Country Park
A walk
The country park is at the end of the road east through Balmedie village, off the A90 at the Balmedie junction, and parking is free at the entrance. The public toilets in the main car park include a Changing Places toilet with a hoist and an adult-sized changing table. Start in the play park, which has a good range of equipment, including an inclusive roundabout put in by the Belhelvie Community Trust. Then take the Beach Walk, an access-for-all path of about 600 metres through the dunes to the sand. The dunes are the real playground here: big, soft and covered in marram grass, with the beach running away for miles on either side. Look out for the old wartime pillboxes and anti-tank blocks at the foot of the dunes. The park is open from dawn to dusk all year, and from April to October the Sand Bothy, run by volunteers, sells ice cream, hot drinks and snacks on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. There's no shelter on the beach, and the wind off the sea is cold in autumn, so bring a warm layer for everyone.
9 min by car
The Cock and Bull
Lunch
Lunch is 9 minutes' drive away at the Cock and Bull, a country inn on the old Ellon road just north of Balmedie. It's open every day from 9.30am to 9pm, with brunch until 11.30am, a light lunch menu from noon to 3.30pm on weekdays and roasts on Sundays. Families are made very welcome, with a children's menu and a box of toys to keep little ones busy, and dogs may join you in the lounge. Book a table on 01358 743249 for a weekend. If it's full, Smoke and Soul in the old smiddy, or smithy, at the Murcar roundabout, on the road south, serves brunch, burgers and cakes every day and welcomes dogs.
If it rains
The beach and the dunes have no shelter, so on a wet morning keep to a quick run round the play park and a look at the sea from the Beach Walk, then go early to the Cock and Bull, where the box of toys comes out.
Photographs by Stanislav Jackulik and Hamish McHamish via Google; Andrew Tryon (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons