Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Lossiemouth
Five miles north of Elgin across the flat land of the Laich of Moray, Elgin's nearest
seaside town,
LOSSIEMOUTH
(generally known as Lossie), is a cheery golf-oriented
seaside town blessed with lovely sandy beaches; the glorious duney spit of the East Beach
is reached over a footbridge across the River Lossie from the town park. he town's only
blight is the frequent sky-tearing noise of military aircraft from the nearby RAF base.
Spynie Palace
Four miles south of Lossiemouth off the A941 • April-Sept daily 9.30am-5.30pm; Oct-March Sat & Sun 9.30am-4.30pm • £4.50; joint
ticket with Elgin Cathedral £7.20; HS
Lossiemouth's development as a port came when the nearby waterways of
SPYNIE
, three
miles inland, silted up and became useless to the traders of Elgin. Little remains of the
settlement except hulking
Spynie Palace
, home of the bishops of Moray from 1107
until 1686. he enormous rectangular David's Tower - visible for miles around - offers
stunning views from the top over the Moray Firth and the Spynie Canal.
10
Burghead
Nine miles northwest of Elgin • Burghead Visitor Centre: April-Sept daily noon-4pm • Entry by donation • Served by hourly bus #32 from Elgin
Another of this coastline's tightly packed, stone-built fishing villages, windswept
BURGHEAD
was once the site of an important Iron Age fort and the ancient Pictish
capital of Moray. Between 1805-09 a fishing village was built on the promontory
where the ancient fort had sat, in the course of which some unique Pictish stone
carvings known as the
Burghead Bulls
were discovered. One is on display in the
Burghead Visitor Centre,
built into the round white lookout tower at the tip of the
promontory; others can be seen in the Elgin Museum, the National Museum in
Edinburgh and the British Museum in London. he tower offers great views of the
Moray Firth, while inside are displays about Pictish times and the dramatic annual fire
ceremony known as the
Burning of the
Clavie
, one of only a few that still take place in
Scotland. A burning tar barrel is carried around the town on January 11 to mark the
old calendar's new year, before being rolled into the sea, sparks and embers flying.
Findhorn and around
Nine miles southwest of Burghead, on the other side of the bay • Heritage Centre:
May & Sept Sat & Sun 2-5pm; June-Aug daily 2-5pm • Free
A wide sweep of sandy beach stretches five miles around Burghead Bay to
FINDHORN
, a
tidy village with some neat fishermen's cottages, a delightful harbour dotted with
moored yachts, a small
Heritage Centre
in the village's former salmon-net sheds and
grass-roofed ice house, and a couple of good pubs. Like Lossiemouth, however, it's hard
to escape the military presence in the area, with
RAF Kinloss
, one of the UK's most
important front-line airfields, right on its doorstep. Findhorn is best known, however,
for the controversial
Findhorn Foundation
, based beside the town's caravan park.
The Findhorn Foundation
Less than a mile south of Findhorn village • Visitors are free to explore, but it's worth trying to take a more informed look by means of a
guided tour: April, Oct & Nov Mon, Wed & Fri 2pm; from May-Sept there are additional tours at 2pm on Sat & Sun; you can also guide
yourself via a booklet (£5) from the shop or visitor centre • Free, guided tour £5
In 1962, with little money and no employment, Eileen and Peter Caddy, their three
children and friend Dorothy Maclean, settled on a caravan site at Findhorn. Dorothy
believed that she had a special relationship with what she called the “devas … the
archetypal formative forces of light or energy that underlie all forms in nature
- plants, trees, rivers”, and from the uncompromising sandy soil they built a
remarkable garden filled with plants and vegetables, far larger than had ever been
seen in the area.
