A beautiful sunny February day saw us visiting the village of Whitehills in Banffshire.  Our main purpose was to visit our favourite fish shop there and stock up the freezer.

Although we have visited there once or twice we had never visited the harbour area.
A sunny day with a bright blue sea was just what we needed to do a little exploring.  Once upon a time the harbour would have been full of fishing boats.  Indeed I remember two brothers who were members of Buckie North Church in the 1970s when I was minister there who from Whitehills.  I am fairly sure theirs was a fishing family and their ancestors probably fished out of Whitehills.

The harbour was full during our visit, but now it is a marina, with yachts of all sizes, together with a few small lobster boats. It changed to a marina in 2000 due to the downturn in the fishing industry and the rising popularity of leisure sailing.  Whitehills is unique as it is the only harbour in the area catering for leisure sailors that is accessible for all but very large boats at all states of the tide.  Quite a contrast to Port Erroll Harbour at Cruden Bay with which I am much more familiar.

I walked along the pier to the light at the harbour mouth with camera in hand and managed to get one or two interesting shots.

 

 

Then we strolled along the shore to the old Blackpots harbour with its interestingly shaped sea wall and views over towards Banff, Macduff and Troup Head in the distance.  It’s just the sort of place that Poppy loves, especially walking along that sea wall…and so did Mary on this occasion!

Mary collected a few bits of sea glass in the sand, and reported lots of pieces of brick and pipe.  I have now read that Blackpots was the location of a brick and clay pipe works.  The Whitehills caravan site now occupies the place where once the brick works stood.