Kinnaird Head – Lighthouse Museum, Lunch and a Swim
A day.
The route
Kinnaird Head in Fraserburgh has a lighthouse built right through the middle of a 16th-century castle, and the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses beside it shows children how the keepers lived.
After lunch in the town centre, an afternoon in the pool, with its flume and a shallow teaching pool, uses up the rest of the energy. It's a whole day for families with children of any age, and most of it is under a roof.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book a swim at Fraserburgh Community and Sports Centre
Book an afternoon swim at Fraserburgh Community and Sports Centre on Live Life Aberdeenshire's app, or ring 01346 415886, and ask when the flume runs: the centre opens Saturdays 8am to 4pm and Sundays 9am to 3.30pm, and booking is advised but not essential.
The day
Fraserburgh
Up the lighthouse stair in the morning, lunch in the town, then an afternoon in the water.
About six hoursAbout 1 mile on foot
Museum of Scottish Lighthouses
An attraction
The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses is on Kinnaird Head at the northern edge of Fraserburgh, on Stevenson Road, with its own car park. It opens every day, 10am to 4pm, and its 45-minute guided tour of the castle and lighthouse leaves on the hour from 10am to 3pm, so take the 10am or 11am tour. Tickets are £12.50 for adults, £6 for children under 16 and £26 for a family, with under-5s free, at the time of writing. A lamp was first lit on the roof of the 16th-century castle here in 1787, and Robert Stevenson later built the lighthouse tower right through it. The tour climbs the tower's 72 steps, with three landings to rest on, and visits the keepers' rooms. Back in the museum, children can try on a keeper's uniform and fill in the activity sheets among what it calls the largest collection of lighthouse lenses in the UK. A stair lift reaches the two upper galleries, and anyone who can't manage the tower can buy a museum-only ticket. There are toilets and baby changing. In the winter months, ring 01346 511022 to check the days before going.
10 min on foot
Mrs Maitland's
Lunch
Leave the car at the museum: Mrs Maitland's is a 10-minute walk south, on Cross Street in the town centre, inside the Maitland's furniture store. It's a family-friendly restaurant serving homemade soups, sandwiches, light bites, the chef's daily specials and home-baked cakes. It opens from 9am Monday to Saturday, and from 9.30am to 3.30pm on Sundays. If it's full, the Beach Café on the esplanade, near the pool, serves soup, paninis and specials every day from 10.30am to 4pm.
6 min on foot
Fraserburgh Community and Sports Centre
Walk back to the car and drive 6 minutes south to Fraserburgh Community and Sports Centre on Maconochie Place. It has a six-lane 25-metre pool, a shallow teaching pool for little ones and a flume. It opens on Saturdays from 8am to 4pm, on Sundays from 9am to 3.30pm, and on weekdays from 7am to 9.30pm. Check the swim sessions, and when the flume runs, on Live Life Aberdeenshire's app or by ringing 01346 415886. Booking a swim in the app is advised but not essential. A swim costs £6.35 for adults and £4.15 at the age-related rate, with under-5s free, at the time of writing. Under-8s must swim with someone over 16, and nobody can watch from the poolside. There's wheelchair access, an accessible changing room with a hoist and bed, and a pool hoist. Afterwards, Bicocchi's on College Bounds has made Italian ice cream since 1908 and opens until 9pm.
If it rains
The museum, the restaurant and the pool are all indoors; only the tower's top and the 10-minute walks to and from lunch are out in the weather.
Nooks & Crannies, a café in Fraserburgh.
Photographs by Bogdan Paduraru, Kinnaird Head Castle Lighthouse and Museum, Alex Dickens and M. Panahi via Google