There was no September walk, due to a combination of illness and holidays, so, a small, but allegedly, select, group gathered at Kildary, in Easter Ross for the October walk. I was supposed to be there, but was incapacitated, due to a very painful foot.
This means, of course, that I was not there to take photos for the blog.
Here is the majority of the group gathered on Milton village green, finding out about the history of this quaint and very attractive little village. You'll have to take my word that it is quaint and attractive, because there are no photos to show that!
Milton was the mill toun of the estate of New Tarbat, which was so named when it was bought by George MacKenzie who bought it in 1656 and moved there from the original Tarbat, near Portmahomack. Previously, Milton was owned by the Munro family and they had built a castle nearby that was destroyed by fire in 1642.
George MacKenzie, was the hereditary sheriff and he also made Milton a burgh of Barony, with weekly cattle markets being held at the Mercat cross, nearby to where the dinos are standing. Many of the buildings around the green date to the late 18th Century and the toun was an important economic centre. In part this was down to George MacKenzie, as he stipulated that all oats grown by his tenants had to be milled at his mills in the toun. Later, flax spinning was established and it is thought that there were 1000 women employed in spinning in the parish in 1756. The surrounding buildings reflect this heritage as you might have seen if there were photos.
From the village green, you can walk down this lovely avenue of beech trees .
This route takes you down in the direction of the Cromarty Firth, although you are still a bit away from the sea. You are, however, close to Tarbat House, or at least, what remains of it.This is actually the second Tarbat House built here. It replaced an earlier house built by Sir George MacKenzie, the grandson of the George MacKenzie who founded Milton. Sir George was a Jacobite, who was captured before Culloden and his estate was forfeited and he was exiled in England. When he died, the estate was returned to his son Lord John MacLeod in 1784 and he started building this house, which was clearly a very fine building in the past. So much so, that the estate wanted to demolish it and use the stone to build holiday chalets in the 1970's! It was abandoned in 1966. It was gutted by fire and the roof fell in in 1988 and it has deteriorated since then, although the adjacent stable block has been restored.
It seems that it was now sweetie time and here is the sweetie wifie.
Very kind she is too, sending my wife home with some sweeties just for me. I think I did give one to Sharon, though, because I'm kind like that.
There are some more modern houses near to Tarbat House and one of them has made a feature of huge tree trunks, presumably because they would be too expensive to move and they didn't have a wood burner. They really needed Jimmy there and they would have had much more lawn to play with.
It was time to go down to the sea again.
It's down that way.
Here they are by the shore.
Looking out over the sands to Nigg Bay, which is hugely important in UK terms for wading birds, as well as being important for offshore oil and, now, wind farm developments.
From the shore the walk comes back inland along the side of the Balnagowan River.
The walk passes by an area of old, large tress and this marks the site of a pet graveyard. It contains the remains of a number of dogs owned, presumably, by the MacKenzies.
Some of the burials are marked quite simply, whereas others have substantial stone markers.
Some also commemorate the planting of a tree - a Wellingtonia - by what seems to be Prince John. The remainder of the inscription is difficult to decipher. If he really was a UK prince John, then he may have been the recently deceased Elizabeth the 1st and 2nd's uncle, John. He died at the age of 13 in 1919 from a sudden epileptic seizure. I find it a little unlikely that a child would have planted this tree, particularly when Prince John was largely sequestered away from public life for much of his short time.
Some of the stones refer to the Duchess of Sutherland and/or the Countess of Cromartie. She was Anne Sutherland-Levenson-Gower, wife of the 3rd Duke of Sutherland and Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria. She was Duchess of Sutherland through marriage to the Duke. The Countess of Cromartie title derived from her great great grandfather, George MacKenzie, who we met earlier in this tale. She was also Viscountess Tarbat, Baronness Castlehaven and Baronness MacLeod. How did she keep track of who she was on any given day? Sharon didn't take a photo, but if I recall, one of the tombs was for a pair of ponies! No cost of living crisis for her, it would seem.
There is a ford across the river, which I assume was originally for cattle, but now might be for the odd 4x4 farm vehicle. The river is a bit bigger than you might expect.
Once the track gets back towards the village, it arrives at the Cromarty Firth Men's Shed, where they all stopped for lunch. The perfect spot it would seem.
I'm not sure what to say about this photo. Certainly, I would not have taken it. It also looks a little suspect with those spots on it.
Here is the man at the Men's Shed.
Here is the lady sitting on the toad's tool. She looks mildly surprised.
It wasn't long from the Shed to the cars and then on to Munro's for tea and cakes. It should have been Dalmore Farm, which looked really nice when we scoped out the walk. That was on Monday. Unbeknown to us they close on Sundays!
Munro's have nice jugs though.
Ready for tea and cakes after, what I'm told was a very enjoyable walk. I'm just sorry I wasn't there to take part and to raise the tone of the photos.
