Day 96 Ethie Castle to Stonehaven

 

 Date: Saturday 24^th September 2011   Distance: 37.32 Miles

 

We were warm and comfortable and sound from the adjoining room didn’t bother us but I cowardly left a torch on all night and even then couldn’t sleep. This was a very expensive stay at £185 including dinner, wine and Bob’s whisky. It would have been better if we had felt that our host was focussed on looking after her guests. We felt a bit sidelined.

 

Breakfast was English style with an unusual yogurt topped rhubarb starter. We left through the back door into the courtyard with no one to see us off, except for the dogs! We left through the huge iron gates into the lane leading to Lunan.

 

Atop a hill, over-looking Lunan Bay, is a rust coloured ruin called the Red Castle. We passed this and climbed so we could look back on the beautiful long sandy beach backed by dunes while machines in the foreground fields picked potatoes. The sun shone brilliantly. All morning we heard and saw flocks of geese and a stoat slunk across the road in front of us with a lovely red- brown coat and black tip to its tail. The geese seemed to be in separate squadrons, 5 or 6, joining up to form much larger migratory flocks flying south. The Montrose Basin though is a winter reserve for greylag and pink footed geese.

 

There were many wiggly lanes to Montrose where we stopped for refreshments at Tescos for the easy bike parking. We left through the mainly Georgian town with its old shops, instead of the cycleway. We went past the Maltings, a huge ugly building and then over a disused railway viaduct, now for walkers and cyclists only, over the North Esk river.

 

Little lanes past fields took us under the viaduct to St. Cyrus Nature Reserve beside the sand dunes. A visitor centre with cafe, originally a 19th lifeboat station is by the road while a footbridge built by Gurkhas in 1985 leads to the reserve of  salt marsh, dunes and cliffs, itself.

 

We climbed and climbed to the top of the cliff with breathtaking views over the reserve and sea. It was a very narrow road 85 metres up and with few cars. After St. Cyrus village it was 4 miles on the A92 until we had lunch at Johnshaven- the Anchor. We liked the Mad Dogs real ale from Burnside Brewery.

 

We took the Coastal Path deemed fit for cyclists for several miles but it was so bumpy with flint stones, we couldn’t wait to get off it. Even the fields near the sea seemed full of compacted stones but something green was growing well- perhaps winter wheat!

 

At Gourdon there was an ash track to Inverbervie. Seats on the front were made of plastic made to look like wood and made to last here so we sat on one. It was back on the A92 again for some way, winding uphill. At woods on the right we came off and went up a bit more. Looking back we noticed a huge smiley face cut in the fields of corn on the opposite hill. We had walked quite a bit today and we trudged up yet again but then it meant we could see the lovely views for longer!

 

On a hill looking out to sea, over Strathlethan Bay, we noticed the circular temple like structure that is Stonehaven’s war memorial- a fabulous site and monument just  before another  remarkable building, Dunottar Castle. This 14th century ruin of a fortress, standing on rock separated from the mainland by a deep ravine seemed to draw the tourists and was the busiest place we have been to this trip. We walked down to the ravine to get a picturesque photo but decided not to go in to the castle as it cost £5 each, it was 4.30 already and to be honest we hadn’t the energy.

 

 

 

The road down into Stonehaven was closed to cars as the cliff had subsided taking some of the road with it. As we rode down the hill we thought the harbour looked pleasant with lots of people giving it a buzz. The town was on the point of closing. The Tollbooth Museum(about Jails) open between 1.30 and 4.30  might have been interesting.

 

We found the Belvedere Hotel and booked just before lunch with luckily one room to spare. The bike had its own room downstairs and ours was up 2 flights of stairs but cosy and quiet despite it being a restaurant and pub. Our meals were really nice and I vowed to try out the recipe- chicken around brie in a blanket of parma ham and in a creamy mustard sauce with mash and roasted vegetables. MMM!