Cromarty

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Every two years, since 2003, we have had a family holiday in Cromarty. I first chose it after concentrated study of self-catering brochures, thinking it sounded like our sort of place. Was I correct? I certainly was!

OH and I left home at about 6am. It was a fine day and we stopped for breakfast at the top of the M6. Coffee was at Dobbies, Perth and lunch in Pitlochry – a favourite stop. We always stay there for at least an hour. We reached Cromarty just after 4pm and reacquainted ourselves with the spacious yet cosy old stone house that we always book for the week. The Tesco man arrived nearly an hour early (as he always seems to when we’re here) and once all was safely gathered in – family (son no 1; son no 2 and d-i-l; daughter, s-i-l and grandson) as well as provisions – we were off!

Cromarty harbour :

What a wonderful feeling when we first leave the house and walk down to the harbour and the Links! The light is quite different on the east coast, and the air is so fresh right at the edge of the water. In many ways this is the most special part of the holiday, with a week full of promise stretching ahead.

Cromarty is situated at the tip of The Black Isle (a long peninsula just north of Inverness, lying between the Moray Firth and the Cromarty Firth) and has remained remarkably unchanged since the 18th century. The surviving houses in the old fishertown are very picturesque (a far cry, I imagine, from the character of the place when the fishing industry was at its height) and there are some very impressive merchants’ houses in the village dating from Cromarty’s earlier importance as a grain exporting port.

Fishertown :

One of the large and impressive houses :

When we first stayed there, we saw several oil rigs in Cromarty Firth, where they were towed for maintenance and repair. With the decline of oil production in the North Sea, there are now few brought in. There is a prototype base with four huge legs soaring up out of the water – I think it might be waiting to be decommissioned somewhere far away. The firth is very deep, which made it ideal for the rigs, and also an obvious choice as a naval base during both World Wars. It also has a very narrow mouth, making defence comparatively straightforward.

These rigs were all in being serviced when we stayed in 2009:

One of the legs of the oil rig base anchored in Cromarty Firth (these things are seriously big when you’re up close!) :

A reminder of less peaceful times. WWI gun emplacements at the foot of the North Sutor at the mouth of Cromarty Firth:

Cromarty is a beautiful place to wander around. I love the style of the houses, and the way they huddle together, separated by little lanes and alleys. This year, I made a point of walking along as many of them as I could. They look almost private, but many have “street” names and are in fact rights of way.

My daughter thinks the school looks like the prep for Hogwarts! It certainly is not your usual local authority building:

And just imagine having your PE lessons here!

There are obviously some very keen and inventive gardeners in Cromarty. Although we have always had lovely weather at the beginning of September, the wind and rain can be very strong indeed, and growing anything right on the edge of the sea must be challenging to say the least. There are a great many plants in containers – although the Black Isle is a very fertile arable region, I don’t think there’s much soil so close to the sea. I posted this photo of a container garden in Cromarty last year, but I’m using it again because it is so impressive :

Here are some more gardens that I loved :

We climbed the South Sutor which guards the mouth of the firth. “Sutor” is the old Scottish word for “shoemaker”, and legend has it that two giants used the great rocky outcrops on either side of the water as lasts, throwing their implements across the firth to each other.
The climb is reasonably challenging (made a lot easier by rough steps which have been cut into the wooded slope) but well worth it for the view and the feeling of achievement on reaching the top!

The view from the bottom :

And the view from the top! :

Then there are the dolphins… The Bottlenose dolphins here are the most northerly group of dolphins in the world. They are also the fattest, because of the cold! It is possible to see them from the beach at Chanonry Point, Rosemarkie, just a few miles away. We have seen them from there, and it is remarkable – they seem almost near enough to touch. We didn’t see them there this year, but on the wonderfully warm and sunny day that it was, we enjoyed sitting and hoping. We did see two seals, though.

The view from Chanonry Point (the large building on the horizon is Fort George) :

On the Thursday morning, we took a trip out on a boat to see if we would get a sighting of the dolphins. We had taken the trip five times – one each time we had visited – and had seen dolphins on three of them, so we were optimistic. And even if you don’t get to see dolphins, there are plenty of seabirds to observe. The ride itself is well worth the time – a rigid inflatable boat with sit-astride seats. If conditions are at all choppy, it gets very exciting! On this occasion we were very lucky – an extended sighting of a very active pod of dolphins, leaping and playing.

As you can tell from the next picture, I was too intent on watching the dolphins to concentrate on photographing them. There were about thirty of them in all, round and under the boat, and we never knew just where they would pop up next.

Grandson William thoroughly enjoyed the week. He had plenty of new experiences and a large audience as well. He has already been taken along to the pool at home and was very keen to get into the water. It was warm enough for him to have a good long play on the beach and investigate all the interesting things he found there.

At the end of the week, everyone agreed it had been an excellent holiday. We had walks and boat rides, meals out and meals in, time on the beach, trips further afield (son and d-i-l visited a friend in Thurso one day, and daughter and s-i-l made it to the cinema in Inverness while we baby-sat). On Saturday morning, we all went our separate ways. On our way home, OH and I took son no 1 to Inverness Airport for his flight back to London, son no 2 and d-i-l headed off down the Great Glen to meet up with daughter and family in Paisley for Saturday night, and daughter and family went to a model rail exhibition in Inverness on their way home.

A full and very satisfying week!

This has been a very long blog. If you’ve made it this far, thank you (and well done!). If, as John Ruskin said, “Art is for the artist”, blogging is definitely for the blogger! I have enjoyed it immensely! :-)

10 Sep, 2013
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Comments

Mouldy

What are you, a tourist guide or PR saleswoman? LOL!
A very impressive blog, Mel.
Brilliantly descriptive & superb photography.
I've bunged it in my faves.
You never know, I might head up there, sometime, now you've put it on the map, so to speak.
Thank-you for sharing!

11 Sep, 2013

Oliveoil

What a lovely time you had, loved the blog and the pictures are brilliant. I love those gardens the planting in containers is amazing, how clever are they to make their tiny plots look so pretty. Just so enjoyable to visit Cromarty with you, lovely lovely holiday.

11 Sep, 2013

Annella

An excellent blog and a beautiful place Melchi. How lovely to see all those dolphins :o)

11 Sep, 2013

Lynda123

What a great Blog. Lovely photos grandson Having a Great Time so nice to see Them happy .

11 Sep, 2013

Jaykaty

Wonderful blog, really enjoyed it. Glad you all had such a lovely time.

11 Sep, 2013

Cromarty

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