Newburgh - Blackdog coastal walk

Our 3rd training walk of 2017 was a planned coastal walk from Newburgh to Bridge of Don, followed by a few beers and something to eat at Archibald Simpson's in Aberdeen. We managed most of it, although the walk was curtailed a little - Bridge of Don was a bridge too far and we left the coast and headed inland just past the M.o.D. shooting range at Blackdog to catch the bus back to Aberdeen.

The weather forecast for Friday afternoon changed every day but eventually, on Friday morning, the Met Office got it spot on - early morning clouds, some showers and mist followed by a mostly sunny afternoon in the North East corner of the country.

The logistics went smoothly enough at the start - six of us piled on to the mid-morning 201 service to Aberdeen at 5 differing points. We had plenty of time at Aberdeen bus station for a coffee and something to eat before catching the 63 Buchan Express up to Newburgh. What luxury - upstairs, leather seats - it felt like BA's Business Class.

We alighted outside the Udny Arms and immediately asked for directions from two passing locals, who gave us slighly conflicting advice, so we kind of followed our noses and headed towards the beach and the dunes - we couldn't go far wrong, surely?

We passed the gin palace that is Newburgh Golf Club's relatively new clubhouse:

Just along the way was a building with an old boat outside:

It turned out to be an outpost of the Scottish Wild Salmon company, which subsequent research revealed to be based in Gardenstown. Time for a team photo then:

Whoops - Sharpy  was accidentally cut out - he was last to arrive, having spent a few minutes chatting to another local walking her dogs, who directed us to follow the boardwalk pathway:

This path led us up the dunes for our first sight of the Ythan estuary:

Turning the camera out towards the sea showed the mouth of the estuary with a number of what initially looked like black rocks on the far side:

Andy crouched down to try and zoom in:

As we got nearer, the huge seal colony became much clearer:

We descended from the huge, spectacular dunes down to the beach to begin the walk proper

Immediately, the clouds disappeared and the sun shone down on us as we marched southwards

The wind was picking up - Ian had earlier advised us on the journey up that the wind was coming up from the south at 18 mph. With the benefit of hindsight, we should have done the walk in the opposite direction, starting at Bridge of Don. We had been walking for just over an hour so stopped for a bite and some refreshments in a sheltered spot

Judging by the size and depth of these footsteps, the local Yeti had visited this spot before:

As we emerged from the shelter of the tall dunes, the wind was picking up and the combination of walking on sand and into the wind was to prove challenging as we marched south, passing a few interesting landmarks on the way:

These weren't the only obstacles - there were a number of waterways traversing the beach. Most of them were shallow and easy to cross but we had some difficulty when we got a bit nearer to Balmedie where there was a fairly wide and deep stream of water heading out to sea. It was impassable to most of us and we clambered up the dunes and along the top until we found suitable places to cross the burn. John, however, opted to take off his socks and shoes and wade across - unfortunately, no photographic record of this exists.

We passed the Trump course

We were tiring but quitting at Balmedie would have benn a cop-out, so we marched on:

The vessels sitting off the harbour in distant Aberdeen were getting slightly clearer but it still seemed like a long way to Aberdeen so the eventual consensus was to bale out at the earliest opportunity. We had to get past the Danger signs at the Blackdog firing range first of all. but headed inland as soon afterwards as possible.

It was a long trudge back up to the A90 but our timing was delicious and we jumped straight on to the Buchan Express which zoomed us more or less straight to Archibald Simpson's for some excellent ale and some welcome fodder. We were almost exactly on the budgeted arrival time of 5 pm - albeit the wind had cut short our walk by about 3 miles.

Strava recorded that we walked 14.4 kms and were in motion for 3 hours 12 minutes, although the elapsed time was nearer 4 hours. It had been harder work than we anticipated.

We also had a quick pit stop at Aitchie's as we waited for our bus back to Banchory and there was much talk of getting out of Banchory on other Friday nights - Aberdeen and Aboyne being mentioned as potential destinations. Ian also mentioned the possibility of a walk round Old Aberdeen, but it was Dave who volunteered to organise the next walk some time in April.