Catterline – Rock Pools, the Pier and a Chippy Lunch
A few hours.
The route
Catterline is a row of white cottages on the cliffs south of Stonehaven, with a little stone pier and a shingle bay below, and it's a lovely place to go rock pooling with children.
Poke about among the rocks when the tide is out, skim stones from the shingle and watch the boats in the harbour, then head north up the coast for award-winning fish and chips on Stonehaven's promenade. It suits families with children old enough to scramble over rocks.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Catterline
It's a morning at the water's edge in a fishing village on the cliffs. Hunt for crabs in the rock pools and skim stones off the shingle, then head up the coast to Stonehaven for fish and chips by the sea.
About two and a half hoursAbout 0.5 miles on foot
Catterline Bay
An attraction
Catterline is off the A92 south of Stonehaven. Park in the small car park at the top of the village on South Row, beside the Creel Inn, and check the signs there for any charge. From there a steep, narrow lane drops down to the stone pier and the curving shingle bay below the cottages. The rock pools are among the rocks around the bay, so come when the tide is out: look up the tide times for Stonehaven before you set off, and keep an eye on the water as it turns. The rocks are slippery with weed, so wear wellies or old trainers, and keep children back from the end of the pier when there's a swell. The painter Joan Eardley lived in a cottage on this clifftop and painted the bay in every weather. There are no public toilets in the village, and the lane is too steep for a wheelchair and hard going with a pushchair.
15 min by car
The Bay Fish & Chips
Lunch
Drive 15 minutes north to Stonehaven, where the Bay serves award-winning fish and chips from a window on the promenade, every day from noon to 8pm. It's a takeaway: eat it by the beach, or in the car if the wind is up. Park free in the council's Beach Promenade car park on the seafront, where a contribution by RingGo or PayByPhone is optional. If the queue is long, the Carron Fish Bar in the town centre fries from noon, until 1.30pm from Monday to Thursday.
If it rains
There's no shelter at Catterline, so in wet or rough weather look down on the bay from the top of the village and skip the shore, then go straight to Stonehaven for fish and chips in the car.
Photographs by Bilaal Shabbir and A.R via Google