Loch Fleet – Seals, Waders and Two Shores
A few hours.
The route
Loch Fleet is a wide tidal basin between Dornoch and Golspie, where the sea slips in through a narrow mouth and the falling tide uncovers mudflats and sandbanks.
Waders and ducks feed along the edge of the mud, and harbour seals haul out on the banks near low water all year round. Its two shores make a quiet half day for anyone who likes to sit with binoculars and watch.
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 Links House at Royal Dornoch in Dornoch, 4 miles away.
The day
Loch Fleet
A walk by the dunes at the loch's mouth, then round the head of the loch to watch the seals from the far shore. Bring binoculars and a tide table.
About two and a half hours
Littleferry
Littleferry is at the mouth of Loch Fleet, on its Golspie side. Take the golf course road off the A9 in Golspie and follow it through the pines of Balblair Wood: the first car park on the left is for the woodland trail, and the Littleferry car park is the second. From there, walk on to the cottages at Littleferry and the dunes and shingle where the sea runs in and out of the loch. Eider ducks are about all year, and from autumn through the winter the mud fills with oystercatchers, redshank, dunlin and bar-tailed godwits. Come on a falling tide: the waders feed along the edge of the mud as it opens, and seals often rest on the sandbanks in the channel near low water, though there's no guarantee. Watch from the shore, keep well back from the seals and never walk out onto the sandbanks, which the tide covers. Keep dogs on a lead near the birds. The paths are sandy tracks and dune, not for wheelchairs or pushchairs.
20 min by car
Loch Fleet National Nature Reserve
An attraction
The far shore is about 20 minutes' drive away, round the head of the loch. Go back to Golspie and south on the A9 over the Mound, the causeway Thomas Telford designed to carry the road across the loch's head. Then turn left onto the single-track road for Skelbo along the south shore. Pass the first lay-by, which has a wildlife board, and pull into the next, about a quarter of a mile on, with two benches beside the loch. Harbour seals rest on the sandbanks opposite near low water, all year, and grey seals visit the loch in winter; on a wet day you can watch from the car. Across the water, Ben Bhraggie rises above Golspie with its monument on top. Keep the passing places clear, keep off the mud, and hold small hands by the road. There are no toilets here: the nearest public ones are in the centre of Dornoch. In December the light goes before half past three, so in winter come in the morning or early afternoon.
If it rains
The seals can be watched from the car at the Skelbo lay-by; on a wet day keep Littleferry to a short look from the car park.
Where to stay