Visit Scottish Highlands #6 - Discover the most extreme Scottish harbour - Whaligoe Steps

Hello Friends!!

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Another part of my photo guide to Scottish Highlands arrived! This time something really interesting but totally undervalued by the local authorities - The steps of Whaligoe or Whaligoe Steps - rocky steps leading all the way down to the bottom of a sea bay between high cliffs, where in 18th - 19th century sea port was established by the local fishermans.

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Why I wrote it is undervalued - because it is extremely hard to find - maybe not when using good GPS coordinates but when travelig the main road, You will find no sign or a direction to the spot. Small local road is leading to the parking place behind private property, near the entrance to the Steps. There we can also find beautifully situated Cafe - open during summer season (not sure about this). From a parking place, 50 more meters of footpath will lead us to the first sign showing the correct place.

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The first impression there is just "WOOOW" - over 70 meters high cliffs, with a beautifull waterfall on the left and steep stone steps leading to the bottom of the shore on the right side. Between them we can go to the very end of a cliff to get some more extreme experiences....

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To be honest I was standing there really not secured, I felt like the ground is moving below my feet. Normally I don't ave a fear of hights, but in this particular place - I didn't feel good at all. Such a high drops on both sides made me dizzy!

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More about location and how to reach the place - Whaligoe Steps are situated in area of settlement called Ulbster by the road A99 to Wick. We need to look for a sign to the Historic Environment Scotland ancient monument at Cairn o' Get. There we will find small crossroad among the old fishermans huts.

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The steps are very well made and maintained. Built from flagstone, going down in a shape of zigzags. There is totally, depending from the source, 330-365 steps. I didn't have time to count is myself ;).

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Going down we have to remember that the steps can be really slippy, especially when the breeze from the sea making them wet or it is rainy or foggy weather. We came there in sunny day, so the steps were dry and safe.

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The path can be really challenging for someone with fear of hights, but this is the only way to reach the bottom where we find small grassy area and rocky shore with the great view on the bay.

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Roaring sea waters are hitting the stone walls creating amazing, deep sounds from underground. The water flows somewhere below the rocks creating these strange and scary noises. All together, with the breaking waves, screaming sea birds and the view on huge walls above our heads make this place so unique that I loved it from the first sight.

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The fact that this place is not so well known and visited make it almost empty, maybe the situation is changing during summer time, but in spring time when I was there - I met 3 groups of turists and nobody on the bottom, so I could just sit there, relaxing, enjoying the views and the sounds for a couple of minutes....

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Few shots from the bottom: We can see original Hand Powered Winch, which was used to take the boats out of waters.
In the middle of 1800s the Haven has being used by 20 fishing boats, becoause this was the only accessible place to the water level for all the people living by the Caithness coast.

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The walls of the cliffs from this position looks amazing. You can see there my brother taking photos to imagine the scale of the rock!

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Interesting structures of the cliff's wall - My "PhotoVision" hunger was fullfilled thanks to these geometric stony forms ;)

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We visited the place in the worst time I think - the sun was the killer of colours and shadows... Really strong contrasts between the light and shadow, burned colours, extreme conditions for landscape photography, but I done my best to show You what You can find there when deciding to visit the place some day...

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After around an hour, we head back to the steps and climb up to go to another location that day.
Mission completed, climbing the Whaligoe Steps is great experience and good exercise!

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Goood energy for the soul and for the body as well. Whaligoe Steps - fully recommended to all visitors of northern parts of Highlands!

(Gear used: camera Canon 6D + lenses Canon 16-35mm, Canon 24-105mm + polarizing filter.)

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