In this week’s travel video around Scotland, Willie Shand, takes us from Carnoustie to Arbroath!
It may still have been February and the ground white with frost, but in the sunshine, watching a farmer ploughing his field, there was at least a hint of spring getting closer.
I’d left the car down by the Links in Carnoustie and had set out to walk along the sandy shingle coast round to Arbroath, a little over six miles to the north. Virtually level the whole way, the path runs between the shore and the Arbroath/ Dundee railway line.
I didn’t stick to the path much, though, as beyond East Haven the temptation to walk along the sands was just too much to resist.
East Haven is a right old fishing community and with its roots going back to around 1214, it can claim to be one of the oldest fishing villages in Scotland. In summer, this is a great place for spotting rare butterflies. Today, though, all that’s flying around are some finches, waders, gulls and oystercatchers.
Linear walks like this, of course, don’t necessarily mean you have to walk both ways. At Arbroath, after buying a pair of smokies from the fish shop above the harbour, my next stop was the bus station to catch the 73 back to Carnoustie.
I was fair looking forward to sitting down to one of these smokies at night.
