Nigg Bay – Geese and Wildfowl on the Cromarty Firth
A few hours.
The route
Nigg Bay is a vast, wild sweep of mudflat, saltmarsh and wet grassland on the Cromarty Firth, and every winter thousands of pink-footed geese and ducks come in to shelter there.
A short, flat path leads to the RSPB's hide, where the flocks can feed and wheel in front of you. Then it's on to Tain for a warm lunch in the town's old railway station.
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, 5 miles away.
Book a table at Platform 1864 on 01862 894181 or by email to bookings@platform1864.com, and ask then for the kitchen's lunch hours.
The day
Nigg Bay
A quiet hour in the hide as the tide brings the flocks close, then lunch in Tain.
About three hours
Nigg Bay
The RSPB's Nigg Bay car park has nine spaces, one of them a disabled bay, behind a 2.1-metre height barrier, and a rack for eight bikes. A flat path about 150 metres long, with tap-rails, leads to the hide, which looks out over the mudflats, saltmarsh and wet grassland of the Cromarty Firth. From October huge numbers of pink-footed geese and ducks arrive to spend the winter in the shelter of the firth. At the midwinter peak more than 10,000 birds feed and roost in the bay, pintail and wigeon among them, with lapwings on the grassland. Come two or three hours before or after high tide, when the geese, ducks and waders are closest to the hide, so check the tide times before you go. How many are about on any day is up to the birds. There are no toilets here: the nearest, with accessible ones, are at the Rose Garden on Tain's High Street, 7 miles away. Dogs are welcome if kept under close control.
14 min by car
Platform 1864
Lunch
Lunch is in Tain, 14 minutes' drive north, at Platform 1864, in the town's old railway station building beside the working platform. It lay boarded up for 30 years until Graham, a chef born and bred in Tain, restored it and opened it in 2015. It opens every day from 10am, with breakfasts, pub favourites, light lunches and an à la carte menu built on Scottish suppliers. Ring 01862 894181 for the kitchen's hours, and book a table, as it's popular. There's a beer garden and a children's play area outside.
If it rains
The hide keeps the rain off while you watch, and the path to it is short; lunch is indoors in Tain.
Greens Restaurant, a restaurant in Tain.
Photographs by John Mullen and Laks via Google