Findlater Castle – A Clifftop Ruin, a Hidden Cove and Skink
A few hours.
The route
Findlater Castle is a dramatic ruin, its broken walls clinging to a narrow headland high above the sea, and just along the cliffs Sunnyside Beach is a soft, sandy cove you can often have to yourself.
A short walk from a farm car park takes in both, and then it's a few minutes' drive to Cullen for a bowl of Cullen skink in the town that gave the soup its name. It suits anyone happy on a steep cliff path.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Ring the Rockpool Café on 01542 841397 to book a table for lunch, about 12.15pm after the walk: it's popular, small, and open only Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm.
The day
Findlater
A morning on foot on the cliffs: a ruined castle on its headland, a hidden cove below, and lunch in Cullen.
About two and a half hoursAbout 2 miles on foot
Findlater Castle
An attraction
Findlater Castle is signed in brown off the A98 east of Cullen, north up a single-track road. Then turn left at the small sign for Sunnyside Beach, Findlater Castle and the Doocot, and follow the track past the farm buildings of Barnyards of Findlater to the small car park. From there it's about 10 minutes' walk along the farm track, past the old doocot, or dovecote, to a viewpoint over the castle. Built in the 1200s, the ruin sits on a narrow spit of rock with the sea on three sides. Enjoy it from the viewpoint: the walls are unstable and the cliffs steep and crumbling, so keep back from the edge, keep dogs on a lead and leave it for another day in strong wind or heavy rain. There's no visitor centre and no toilets.
20 min on foot
Sunnyside Beach
An attraction
From the viewpoint a path runs west along the cliff top and then steeply down to Sunnyside Beach, about 20 minutes' walk from the car park in all. It's a sheltered cove of soft sand below gorse-covered cliffs, with rock pools at low tide and often nobody else there. The path down is steep and slippery when wet: take it slowly, and skip the beach if the ground is sodden. Then it's about the same walk back up to the car.
6 min by car
Rockpool Café
Lunch
From the car park it's 6 minutes' drive west into Cullen, to lunch at the Rockpool Café on the Square, known for its Cullen skink. It opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm, and it's small and popular, so ring on 01542 841397 to book a table for about 12.15. Park on the Square, which is free, with free public toilets near the Square and the harbour. Children and dogs are welcome. If it's full, the Cullen Bay Hotel serves lunch from noon to 2pm every day.
If it rains
This is a fair-weather walk: the cliff path and the way down to the beach are steep and slippery in the wet. On a wet day, look at the castle from the viewpoint only, skip the beach, and make more of lunch at the Rockpool Café, which is all indoors.
Rockpool Café, a restaurant in Cullen.