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Changing coastline. A circuit of Whiteness Head

By Julian Paren

My wife was committed to demonstrate spinning at the Nairn Show for four hours so I set about finding a local walk to fill the available time. Quite a low tide was scheduled for 1115 in the morning so I decided to walk the coastline of Whiteness Point. The plan was to walk outward by the sand and to return by the track that runs down the middle part of the spit. A good walk for the dog, especially with one minor detour to visit a "square" just off the direct route.

The interest in the walk increased when it became clear how much the coastline had changed since current maps were surveyed. By creating this GeoTrip it is obvious where the major changes have been. In a nutshell I walked the sea edge all the way to the restored salmon fisher's bothy and then continued striking along the water's edge before rounding the spit of Whiteness Head on the shingle and tracing the new coastline of the southern shore of Whiteness Head before heading back to the bothy by the northern coast and walking the track back to Hilton of Delnies.

The walk was 8.2 miles long and took from 1050 to 1350 (exactly three hours) including a stop at the bothy on the return. I was in square NH 8457 very close to low water.

Google Earth and Apple Maps have recent satellite imagery that displays the change of coastline. On a more subtle note the spit north of the bothy seems to have moved west (according to my GPS) as my track was close to the waters edge not on the ridge of the spit. You can see this trip plotted on a map on the Geo-trips page Link .


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Marker only shows grid square

When
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 at 14:22
Grid Square
geotagged! NH8257
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