Distance: 15.41 miles
Ascent: 397 metres
Duration: 5 hours 16 minutes
Granite City
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Aberdeen is our target for this year's walking, so we're delighted to have reached Granite City with a few days left in the week.
The city simultaneously impressed and disappointed, much as the whole of today's walk has.
Thick cloud foiled this morning's attempt to watch the sun rise over the North Sea, so our early start was in vain. This was no bad thing though: there was nowhere on the early part of the walk that gave a suitable vantage point to the east. Instead we found ourselves alternating between farm track and roads until we finally reached the boundary between Aberdeenshire and the City of Aberdeen. Almost surreal was the moment we found ourselves amongst hundreds of life vessels that were being serviced before redeployment on rigs at sea.
At this point (Cove Bay) a good quality coast path began. Clearly the City council's attitude towards coast walkers is more welcoming than the county council's. (Or is it just that they have only ten miles of coastline while the county has more than ten times that distance?)
The path wound its way past the comically-horned animals of a rare breeds farm and finally reached the open sweep of Nigg Bay. On the map this looked charming: soft sand, obligatory disused church, and a lighthouse at the far side. In reality it was messy and smelly, with a refuse tip and industrial works dominating one end.
The lighthouse marked the start of Aberdeen Docks and as we turned the corner the city revealed itself. Or rather, it would have except that it seemed to be hiding behind huge ships and dock buildings.
What about the granite? We certainly saw plenty — every building here seems to be made of it, from the lowliest bungalow to the grandest of civic centres. (One wonders whether affluent locals are proud of brick kitchen work surfaces the way granite is prized in the south!) But as interesting as the uniform material is, it lends everything a dull greyness as if the whole town is weeping.
I won't let that be my lasting memory of the city though. Instead, let me remember the fingerpost sign I saw by the docks: "Ferry to Northern Isles"; we really are a long way north.
Notes for future walkers:
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