Our travel writer, Willie Shand, takes us on a sea fishing journey!
“There’s always a lot to see and photograph in old fishing villages and at the Seaboard on the Fearn Peninsula, just east of Tain, we get three for the price of one”, says Willie Shand.
“Shandwick, Balintore and Hilton of Cadboll run seamlessly along the fringes of the wide Moray Firth. North of the villages is a wonderful coastline stretching all the way to Tarbat Ness.
The Moray Firth is one of the best places in Scotland for spotting dolphins. If you’re extremely lucky, though, you might also encounter the occasional mermaid!
Before setting off along the coast to follow the track to Rockfield, I stopped to say hello to the Seaboard’s most famous mermaid – the “Mermaid of the North”. She sits on top of the tidal Clach Dubh – the black rock – her long, fishy spilling down to meet the water. Trapped by a local fisherman and persuaded to marry him she was, however, to eventually escape back to her salty home.
The last time I was out this way was for the World Championship Sheep Dog Trials and vowed then to come back and spend a bit more time exploring this quiet corner of Easter Ross. I certainly wasn’t to be disappointed.”
