We will be visiting on 21st July 2019

I am confused which trail to follow.

Ok, I’ll update you, if someone knowledgeable doesn’t get to this thread beforehand.

Hello Bhaskar, just to update you, we managed to find the route to the Puffin Cove.

It’s not at all obvious so hope the following helps. We tried using GPS (which didn’t work) and the postcode given by Google maps sent us off on a wild goose chase. But the following is how you can locate it:

On the A836, between Reay (and Dounreay) and Melvich, there is the county border where Caithness and Sutherland meet. In one direction, you’ll see a roadsign saying “Welcome to Caithness”, in the other direction you’ll see another signpost saying “Welcome to Sutherland”. On the “Welcome to Caithness” side of the road, there is a small lay by. Parking is perhaps too grander word for it, because it doesn’t really look like a place to park and it’s not that obvious.

Once you park up, you are faced with this expanse of brown grassland in front of you, and it doesn’t look like somewhere you could walk over because it’s quite boggy in parts. However from behind the “Welcome to Caithness” sign, there is a route slightly worn through in the grass, which leads you to the coast. If you follow this for about 15 minutes this will lead you towards the cliff overlooking the Puffin Cove. There are two routes going down to the Puffin Cove both equally treacherous but in different ways. One follows a small stream, which is less steep but very water logged in parts. The second would be to go down the grassy cliff, once you can see the cove, which is in theory possible but it is very steep and you could clearly hurt yourself.

The route is by no means easy, and we didn’t make it down for a number of reasons. Firstly, it had been raining and this meant the fields were quite water logged. You want waterproof shoes (I had wellies which didn’t fare badly) but to be honest, you want dry conditions where it hasn’t been raining. Second, you need to be very mobile and I think it’s better if there are two of you. I wouldn’t consider trying the descent on a windy day either.

The cove looks pretty spectacular and from the road, you would never guess it was there. We could see birds nesting in the cliffs, but were too far away to tell if they were puffins.

I will try to make a video or some photos to show you how to get to it, as it was a surprising and lovely find, and would love to finish getting there. Like many of the pretty things in this part of the world, it requires a bit of research (and in this case, courage too!)

Your information was a lot helpful buddy @Scothighlands; I do not intend to go down the slope now and just have a view of the nesting cliffs from above. Thank you very much.

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.