Troup Head – Gannet Cliffs and Lunch in Gardenstown
A few hours.
The route
Troup Head rises sheer out of the sea between Pennan and Gardenstown, and from spring to late summer its cliffs hold what the RSPB calls Scotland's largest mainland gannet colony, with kittiwakes, guillemots and razorbills packed in beside them.
A short walk across the fields takes you right out above all that noise and movement, and lunch is a few minutes along the coast at a cosy family café in Gardenstown. It's a wonderful morning for anyone who loves birds, and for older children happy to stay well back from the edge.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Reserve a table at Bumble and Brae on its website or on 07369 209737: it's a small café, open Thursday to Sunday 10am to 4pm and Wednesday 11am to 3.30pm, and shut on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The day
Troup Head
A morning on top of the cliffs, with thousands of gannets wheeling below you and the sea far beneath them. Then it's a short drive along the coast to Gardenstown for soup and home baking.
About three hoursAbout 1.5 miles on foot
Troup Head
An attraction
Troup Head is signed off the B9031 between Pennan and Gardenstown: follow the brown RSPB signs, and the sign for Northfield Farm, to the small car park by the farm, with room for about 20 cars. It's free to visit. From the car park a rough track runs 920 metres across the fields and through narrow gates to the reserve, where the headland ends in cliffs more than 90 metres high. From spring to late summer the gannets crowd the ledges in their thousands, along with kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills and puffins, and the RSPB says dolphins, porpoises and even minke whales are sometimes seen offshore. The cliff edges are unfenced, so keep well back, hold children's hands and keep dogs close. There are no toilets: the nearest are in Banff. By the autumn the birds have gone back out to sea and the ledges are empty.
8 min by car
Bumble and Brae
Lunch
Drive 8 minutes west to Gardenstown and Bumble and Brae, a small family-run café on New Ground. Lunch is homemade soup, toasties and savouries with salad, with scones and home baking after, and a wood-burning fire on chilly days. It opens Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm and Wednesday from 11am to 3.30pm, and it's shut on Mondays and Tuesdays. It's small, so reserve a table online or ring 07369 209737. If it's full or shut, the Platform in Macduff, further west along the coast, serves light lunches from Monday to Saturday.
If it rains
Troup Head is open clifftop with no shelter anywhere, and the gannets are hard to see in low cloud. In rain or a strong wind, leave the headland for a better day and go straight to Gardenstown for an early lunch by the fire.
Bumble and Brae, a café in Gardenstown.
Photograph by Bumble and Brae via Google