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Tentsmuir Forest with the dog and a crêpe at Salt and Pine
Dundee

Tentsmuir – Pinewoods, Dunes and a Crêpe with the Dog

A few hours.

Directions

The route

Across the Tay from Dundee, Tentsmuir is a great sweep of pinewoods, dunes and sand where a dog can walk for miles.

Here's a morning on the Ice House Trail through the forest and the dunes, with a run on Kinshaldy Beach, then a crêpe and a coffee at Salt and Pine, the little café in the car park.

Before you go

  1. Book accommodation nearby

    If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.

    Airdit6 miles awayAirditSleeps 2The Old Stable14 miles awayThe Old StableSleeps 2The Crow’s Nest14 miles awayThe Crow’s NestSleeps 5Fifies14 miles awayFifiesSleeps 2

The day

Tentsmuir

It's a morning in the pinewoods and on the sand, just over the river in Fife. A long loop through the forest and the dunes with the dog, a run on the beach, then something warm from the crêpe hut.

About three hoursAbout 4.5 miles on foot

  1. Kinshaldy Beach

    Kinshaldy Beach

    The Tentsmuir car park is at the end of the long forest road signed for Kinshaldy Beach. You pay at the barrier as you drive in, by coin or card, and there are toilets beside the car park. From here the Ice House Trail is a lovely loop for a dog: 6.2 km through the pinewoods and the dunes, past a 19th-century ice house and the nature reserve's information pavilion, about two hours at an easy pace. Kinshaldy Beach is 6 minutes' walk through the dunes from the car park, a huge stretch of sand where a dog can run, so add it at the start or the end. Seals rest on the sandbanks here: if you see them, put the dog on a lead and keep well back. Cattle sometimes graze in the forest, so use the lead near them too, and check for ticks afterwards.

  2. Salt and Pine

    Salt and Pine

    Lunch

    Back at the car park, Salt and Pine is a converted shipping container on a wooden deck in the trees, making big sweet and savoury crêpes, salads and good coffee. It opens at 10am and closes at 4pm Monday to Thursday and 5pm Friday to Sunday, and the dog can sit with you outside. It closes for a break in late winter, so look at its Facebook page before a winter visit.

    More about Salt and Pine

If it rains

The pinewoods give some shelter in a shower, but the dunes and the beach are open to the wind: in heavy rain keep to the forest tracks, cut the loop short, and warm up with a coffee at Salt and Pine.

Salt and Pine, crêpes by Kinshaldy beach.

Photograph by simonhird