Thursday 23rd October 2025
A walk from Nairn to Cawdor (12.2 miles).
Anne and I did this walk with Mairi in October 2015 – link. The forecast for today was lovely even though we are under low air pressure just now.
In Alness Anne and I caught a 25X bus to take us over to Inverness. We purchased a cake at Asher’s in the bus-station and then caught a 10 bus to Nairn. We ate our delicious Asher’s cakes on the bus! We got off and started walking at 10.15. The morning was very cold. I had to defrost the car before coming down to Alness. It was gloves on for most of the day. We came to the High Street and then came down Church Street and then Church Road to the river. Basically you follow the Nairn River to Cawdor.
Very soon after getting onto the river path you come under the railway and this beautiful bridge. This is looking back.
We didn’t cross the Jubilee Bridge but came up to the Firhall Bridge to get over the Nairn River.
Very quickly you are out in the countryside.
This takes you up to the B9090, the Cawdor Road.
The B9090 crosses the Nairn River by Howford Bridge.
Once across the road you are back on the path. It was not busy!
Not long after crossing the road is the Geddes Burn.
One thing very different from 10 years ago is Graeme’s Pool does not seem to exist anymore. Has it been washed away when the river was in spate? We had hoped to stop at it as there used to be nice seat there and it was very attractive spot.
The farmland is a bit industrial near Cawdor, not very attractive. You can make out the distillery to the right with the steam or smoke being vented at it.
My feet got very wet following the embankment along here which goes on for nearly a mile. I had trainers on so that was me with wet feet for the day.
This is getting near Cawdor.
We didn’t actually go into Cawdor village, we stopped at the B9090 near the war memorial. We reached her at about 12.35.
It was then a matter of retracing our steps. After about a mile we stopped for lunch sitting on a log on our gloves. It was the best we could get. It was still very cold and we chilled a bit.
I had devoured my ham roll by this stage.
There was a lot of ‘detergent’ on the river.
Beyond Firhall Bridge is Murd’s Bridge which crosses the Auldearn Burn. This time we came down the other side of the river between the Firhall Bridge and the Jubilee Bridge.
We crossed back over the Nairn River at the Jubilee Bridge
Looking down to the railway bridge.
Back to where we were a few hours ago.
We got into the town just after 3.00, visited a few shops and bought another cake in Nairn’s Asher’s to eat on the bus. This time we caught the E7 bus to Inverness, an electric bus. It is not run by Stagecoach but by Ember. I have to say it was extremely comfortable. It took us to Union Street which is just a short walk to the bus station at Farraline Park. We caught an extremely busy 25X bus back to Alness but got off at Morrison’s instead of the High Street. We had our tea in Morrison’s cafe. I had a Chicken Tikka which was very nice. What a lovely way to spend a day.