Banff to Whitehills Circuit
Fri, 14 June 2024 @ 10:00 - 14:30
This almost level walk includes a lovely beach section followed by a rocky shoreline renowned for its seabirds and seals and then a visit to Whitehills before looping back to re-join the outward route.
The walk will show you some of the highlights and history of the area, including the blue-roofed pavilions that hark back to a bye-gone age when Banff was a popular resort and wealthy town in itself. Red Well, a Roman domed building housing a Well said to contain healing properties. Red Well gets its name from the red deposits left behind from the water. There is also a mysterious event which occurs only twice a year at the Red Well. If you were to stand in the centre of the building on the morning of the Spring Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox and look east towards Troup Head at the other side of Gardenstown at about 7 am just as the sun comes up it is said that as the sun rises past Troup Head a perfect beam of sunlight illuminates the inside of the Red Well whilst the surrounding area remains in darkness. Is this a remarkable coincidence or was it designed this way?
The walk passes the old harbour at Blackpots, adjacent to a large playground. Once the site of a thriving Brick and Tile Works, a caravan park now exists on the same spot. The brickworks only closed in the 1970’s ending two hundred years of the industry, but no remains of it now exist, with the exception of the small harbour today and the pieces of red brick and roofing tiles that can often be found on beaches along the coast.
Our walk passes the atmospheric Tarlair coastal Outdoor Swimming Pool. Built in 1931 the Art Deco style facility has been left to ruin since its closure in 1995. A community group “The Friends of Tarlair” was set up in 2012 with the ambitious aim of bringing the pool back into use. Since then, the group has been maintaining the site while trying to raise money for its repair. There are also the eye-catching harbours at both Banff and Whitehills to enjoy. In addition, our walk takes us along tracks that run through the former Banff Links golf course. The golf course came with its own halt on the now-disused railway line into Banff. Since the golf course’s closure at the end of the 1920’s the Links have reverted back to being an open space for the enjoyment of locals and tourists alike.
The outward and return leg of our walk takes us past a section of the old railway embankment and passes a small number of attractive fishermen’s cottages which face out to the sea. These cottages, named after William Scott, a Provost of Banff in the 1840s and 1850s, were built in the mid-19th century in an attempt to expand the fishing industry, which had been significantly reduced.