The cliff tops were ablaze with colour yesterday.  The sun was shining, the sea was blue and the Thrift and Red Campion was in full bloom.   Wonderful!   It was quite a contrast to the morning when the haar was in, and everything was dull and grey.

Lily, Poppy and I made an impromptu visit to the Longhaven cliffs on the way back home from Peterhead.   I could not believe how colourful the cliff tops were, and the sea was positively Mediterranean blue.   But this was the North Sea.  We walked a little way along the cliff top path, part of the Nave Nortrail which aims to create, when complete, a 7,000 mile trail of coastal paths along the shores of the North Sea from Shetland, down the east coast as far as the North York Moors, then to the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, finishing up in Norway.

It had been a few years since I had been here, but I will definitely be back after yesterday.  There is a little car park just off the main road and an easy path across the line of the old Great North of Scotland Railway which opened in 1897 and ran from Ellon, through Hatton and Cruden Bay (promoted by the railway company as the “Brighton of the North”!),  finishing up at Boddam – a strange place for the end of the line? The railway closed to passengers in 1932.    No trains, but you can get a good view of the Buchanness Lighthouse through the cutting.

The path has been improved since last I was there, with bridges over the wettest parts.  I will have to try to walk further the next time and see if we can reach the Bullers of Buchan.  And an added bonus:  on our way back to the car I saw my first orchid of the year.