Inverness

Dolphins round the Black Isle – Cromarty and Chanonry Point

A day by car, from Inverness and back.

The route

The Moray Firth is home water to one of the most northerly groups of bottlenose dolphins anywhere, and on the Black Isle you can watch them from the shore.

This day out crosses the Kessock Bridge from Inverness and runs along the Cromarty Firth to Cromarty, a Georgian town at its mouth, for the lighthouse shore and the climb to the South Sutor. Then it's lunch on the front at Rosemarkie and a walk along the shore to Chanonry Point, the shingle spit where the dolphins hunt salmon in the narrows on a rising tide. With the climb to the Sutor, the day asks for about seven miles on foot. The road home runs through Fortrose and Avoch to the old ferry pier at North Kessock. Nothing is ever promised: these are wild animals. Without a car, the bus to Fortrose and a walk along the shore reach the Point, and Dolphin Spirit's boats sail out to the same narrows from Inverness Marina.

Before you go

Book a bed near Inverness
The day starts and ends in Inverness, and summer beds there go early, so book as soon as your dates are set. A bed on the Black Isle puts Cromarty and Chanonry Point closer, with the Kessock Bridge still only a short drive away.

The day

Chanonry

A day round the Black Isle's shores, watching for dolphins by Cromarty's lighthouse and from the shingle at Chanonry Point. The morning is Cromarty's old streets and the climb to the South Sutor, looking out to sea. After lunch in Rosemarkie, the afternoon is a walk along the shore to the Point, and the day ends at North Kessock's old ferry pier, a few minutes from Inverness.

1 hr 36 min at the wheelAbout 53 miles by carAbout 7 miles on foot

Cromarty
An attraction
First read the tide for Fortrose on EasyTide: the dolphins come in at Chanonry Point from about an hour after low water. If the daytime low water falls before 2pm, go to the Point first, leaving Inverness at low water, then Cromarty. From 2pm on, the day runs as written, and the later it falls, the longer you can stay here. It's 50 minutes' drive over the Kessock Bridge and along the Cromarty Firth, past the RSPB hide at Udale Bay, to Cromarty: Georgian merchants' houses, fishermen's cottages and Hugh Miller's thatched Birthplace on Church Street.
More about Cromarty
40 min on foot
The South Sutor
It's about 40 minutes' walk from the east end of town, along the shore, then up steep steps through the woods, past a wartime bunker, to the South Sutor viewpoint. The Sutors are the two headlands at the mouth of the Cromarty Firth. From here the view runs back up the firth to the oil rigs moored in it, across to the North Sutor and out to the open sea. Come down by the quiet single-track road past Cromarty Mains.
40 min on foot
The shore by Cromarty's lighthouse
A walk
It's about 40 minutes' walk back down into town, to the shore by Alan Stevenson's lighthouse of 1846, looking across the narrow firth to Nigg and out east to the Sutors. Since 1990 the University of Aberdeen has studied the Moray Firth's dolphins from its field station here, a working building, not one to visit. Stand by the ferry slip and watch the narrows, where dolphins are often seen too, with fewer people about than at Chanonry. EcoVentures' two-hour boat trips out through the Sutors leave from the harbour beside it.
More about The shore by Cromarty's lighthouse
16 min by car
Beach at Rosemarkie
A walk
Rosemarkie is 16 minutes' drive south-west, and a sandy beach runs along the front of the village, facing the Moray Firth. Park free on the front and have lunch on Marine Terrace at Crofters, open all day, or at the Rosemarkie Beach Café by the sand, which shuts at 3pm. Chanonry Point is at the beach's far end to the south, and the same dolphins can be seen from anywhere along it, so keep the binoculars out.
More about Beach at Rosemarkie
40 min on foot
Chanonry Point
An attraction
It's about 40 minutes' walk south from Rosemarkie's front to the Point, along the sand or the path beside it, with the car left where it is. Walk on past the lighthouse to the shingle at the tip, facing Fort George across the narrows: that is where everyone stands. From about an hour after low water, for two hours or so, the rising tide carries salmon in through the narrows, and the dolphins often hunt them, sometimes only metres off the shingle. Nothing is promised. Walk back the same way.
More about Chanonry Point
40 min on foot back to the car, then 15 min by car
North Kessock
From Rosemarkie, drive 30 minutes west through Fortrose, Avoch and Munlochy to North Kessock's old ferry pier, just west of the Kessock Bridge. The ferry crossed from here until the bridge opened in 1982, and the village has restored its old ticket office beside the pier. Sit on the benches and scan the Beauly Firth: you may see seals, and the dolphins often come up this far after they have been at the Point. Inverness is 15 minutes' drive home.

If it rains

Rain doesn't stop the dolphins, but wind makes them hard to see: a chop hides fins, and it can keep the boats and the Nigg ferry in. Chanonry Point is open shingle with no shelter, so bring waterproofs and go for the rising tide all the same. In a downpour, leave out the South Sutor, whose steps turn slippery, and give Cromarty the time: Hugh Miller's Birthplace in its season, and the little Cromarty Cinema by the ferry slip; see its programme for a daytime film. In Rosemarkie, Groam House Museum shows the Pictish stones found in the village, open from April to October; check its hours on its website before you go.

Worth a detour

RSPB Udale Bay
On the B9163 on the way to Cromarty: a free RSPB hide beside the road, looking out over the mudflats of Udale Bay and the birds that feed on them. Pull into the lay-by, give it a quarter of an hour with the binoculars, and drive on.
Cromarty Ferry
From the slip beside the lighthouse, the little car ferry crosses to Nigg in about ten minutes, from 1 April to the end of September. Cross and come back on foot for the Sutors seen from the water, paying on board. It's no way home to Inverness: from Nigg the road round by the Cromarty Bridge is longer than the drive back from Cromarty.