Chanonry Point and the Fairy Glen – Shore, Sand and Waterfalls
A day.
The route
This is a whole day on the Black Isle for a family with a dog, all of it out of doors and the dog welcome everywhere.
It starts at the lighthouse on Chanonry Point, where the Moray Firth's dolphins are sometimes seen close to the shore, and carries on to the sandy beach at Rosemarkie. After lunch on the seafront, a wooded glen leads up to two waterfalls.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Newhall Mains in Balblair, 5 miles away.
The day
Rosemarkie
A morning watching the firth from the shingle by the lighthouse, then sand and lunch at Rosemarkie. The afternoon is a walk up a wooded glen to its waterfalls, with the dog splashing in the burn (stream).
About five and a half hoursAbout 3 miles on foot
Chanonry Point
An attraction
Chanonry Point's small pay and display car park is at the end of the single-track road through the golf course, by the lighthouse; it charges from 9am to 5pm between 1 March and 31 October, and blue badges park free. It fills early on a summer's day, so park at Fortrose harbour then and walk out along the shore in about 35 minutes. Dolphins are seen most often on the rising tide, from about an hour after low water, and far less often from October to April, so check the day's tide for Fortrose on EasyTide and treat any sighting as a bonus. The beach is shingle, and the water can be watched from level ground by the car park. Dogs are welcome, but keep them and the children out of the water: the currents off the Point are strong and sometimes hidden. There are no toilets at the Point.
7 min by car
Rosemarkie
An attraction
Drive 7 minutes round to Rosemarkie, where the beach is a long curve of sand on the Moray Firth, with free parking along the front on Marine Terrace. It's a beach for building sandcastles and paddling at the edge, and the dog can run on the sand. Marine Terrace along the front is level, though the sand is soft for a pushchair. The public toilets are in the village, opposite the Plough Inn, with baby changing.
Crofters Café, Rosemarkie
Lunch
Lunch is at Crofters on Marine Terrace, a sandstone cottage across the road from the sand, with picnic tables outside and a water bowl by the door. It usually opens every day from 10am into the evening, and its window seats look out over the firth. If it's full, the Rosemarkie Beach Café on the front does lunches from 10am to 3pm every day until the end of October, and at weekends in winter.
7 min on foot
Fairy Glen, Rosemarkie
An attraction
The Fairy Glen is a 7-minute walk up through the village from the front, where the RSPB's path leaves the small car park beside the A832. It runs about a mile and a quarter up the wooded glen to two waterfalls, crossing the burn on little footbridges, and you come back the same way. The path turns steep, uneven and slippery, with several sets of steps, so carry small children in a back carrier rather than a pushchair. Dogs are welcome; from 1 April to 15 August keep them close, preferably on a short lead, for the ground-nesting birds. Come back down the path rather than the road, which is busy. Allow an hour and a half there and back, then walk back down to the car on the front.
If it rains
The whole day is out of doors. In rain keep the Point and the beach short, have a long lunch in Crofters, and take the glen slowly: its path turns slippery when wet.
