Car park just off B9037/Main Street, Torryburn at the play park (KY12 8LT). Local bus services also stop here.
Option One – 2.8 miles
Buggy friendly walk (prepare for some uphill pushing)
Dog-friendly walk
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From the parking area head towards the bay and turn left onto Shore Road. Continue along Shore Road until you reach Crombie Point (signposted) just before the Defence Munitions Depot. Turn left to head uphill on a minor road taking you out through open farmland. Turn left at the first fork and left again at the end of the road onto a farm track. This leads to a steep downhill section of footpath between two stone walls. You will emerge back onto Shore Road. Turn right and retrace your steps to the car park.
Option Two – 4 miles
Dog-friendly walk
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From the parking area head towards the bay and turn left onto Shore Road. Continue along Shore Road until you reach Crombie Point (signposted) just before the Defence Munitions Depot. Turn left to head uphill on a minor road taking you out through open farmland. After passing a row of several cottages, turn right at the fork along a scenic country road at the end of which turn left along the roadside pavement of the A985. After a short distance you will reach a gate on your left leading to a cycle track which you should follow for approx a quarter mile, looking out carefully for an earth footpath leading into the trees on your left just as a gate appears on the right of the cycle track. (Note – another option is to continue further along the track to emerge onto B9037 and walk along the pavement to Main Street however fast moving traffic makes this less enjoyable) Follow this woodland path until it emerges at Adia Road. Turn right to reach Main Street and continue on this pavement until you reach the car park on your left.
WALK REPORT: 6TH JANUARY 2017 & 1ST JUNE 2018
Living close by, the Shore Road walk is one of my friend’s ‘go-to’ walks and since I started to venture East more regularly we have tried a couple of different routes around the area. Parking gives easy access to this path along the coast so it is popular with local dog owners, and for the nosey people amongst us there are plenty of huge mansions along it to peer in at! In fact part of the Shore Road is actually used by traffic coming and going from said mansions. They must be few and far between though as on both my visits it has felt more like a quiet cycle track than a road. What a view they have!
After leaving the Shore Road behind, the leg muscles got a shock and the heartbeat increased as we started to walk uphill but the view definitely made it worthwhile! I loved the tranquility of the tree-lined back roads we were walking along.
The first time we did the longer route (option 2) we found ourselves on the pavement alongside the rather noisy A985 for a short distance however using the mapping app on my mobile phone we managed to cut out a busy corner by moving on to a cycle track (which seemed to be relatively new). I was very smug knowing I had shown the ‘local’ a new path 😉
As we walked past the cemetery on the B9037, we were aware of a lovely-looking woodland next to us, at the other side of the wall, with the Torry Burn running through it. There seemed at some points to be a faint footpath down by the burn but we hadn’t noticed a way in to it at either end. If we could find the entrance points we could then potentially move the route off the pavement and into the woods which would be much nicer. I also wanted to check out another option which is to come off the B9037 a little earlier and cross into an area shown on my map as ‘Tuilyies Park’ and round behind Torrie House. Could be interesting!
I have also read that the park is home to 4 Bronze Age standing stones, one of them with ancient cup marks on it….. It would approximately a mile onto the route but I don’t mind that if it adds to the enjoyment of it!
So many months later off we went exploring again. We found where the woodland path starts and ends and that made the walk MUCH more pleasant so we will definitely be doing it that way in future, cutting out the busy B9037. We both agreed that Bodhi the golden retriever would much prefer it too! The path winds it’s way through the trees alongside the Torry Burn and we were really surprised to find two giant redwoods in there!
Our attempt at checking out the Tuilyies Park de-tour was not quite so successful and after initially looking promising we were scared off by a herd of cows dashing towards us from the opposite end of the field! It started off as just two, then more followed, then more joined in the chase until there were about 20 of them! We have no idea whether they were just curious about us or trying to warn us off but we certainly didn’t hang around to find out and have never been so grateful for the existence of a fence! Once we were far enough out of harm’s way we stopped to take a few photos. We had been halfway along the fence on the left of the shot when the first two cows had run over to us and then they all followed us as we did a speed walk back in the direction we had come from! So…. don’t go that way 😉
