Benches

It's a sign of our age that the few outdoor benches that are scattered around the local area are increasingly important to us. Time was when, if we needed a rest, we simply sat on some convenient rock or on a clump of heather. These days, getting that far down and up again is a bit of a challenge.

Our walks are now limited to a maximum of about four kilometres - that's two-and-a-half miles in the old currency - and we usually have a walk of some sort every day of the week.

This bench overlooks the tidal pool at the entrance to Loch Fleet, a good spot for watching eider and merganser and other diving birds, as well as waders on the sand and shingle banks.

There are several other benches in this part of the National Nature Reserve but they are all within a short stagger of the car parks, a reflection of what limited distances most people walk.

These benches are in a small field at Drummuie, on the path which the Council put in which leads from the Council Offices towards the village centre. I suppose it was put in to encourage people to walk to the offices but the few souls we see along the path are, like us, residents in nearby houses.

The right-hand bench looks directly down to the A9 and two bus stops, then across the Inverness to Wick railway line and a field, then the golf course, and finally across the Moray Firth towards Easter Ross. I like sitting there watching the huge variety of traffic that passes along one of Scotland's main trunk roads. As well as traffic following the now over-popular North Coast 500 route, it carries everything bound for Sutherland, Caithness and the Orkneys.

This is my favourite bench, and I've written often enough about it. It's on the coast path north from Golspie, just before a walker reaches Dunrobin Castle. It's one of three benches scattered along this half-mile of track but the other two have subsided and tipped backwards, so are much less comfortable.

It's a great bench from which to watch a variety of shore birds and it's from this bench that I had my only two sightings of otters. The rough grassland is good for wildflowers and, thanks to them, a variety of butterflies and other insects. For example, it's one of two places around Golspie where six-spot burnets can be found.

The bench has a plaque on it, and somebody maintains it once a year. I don't know who the Hagans were, but I am very grateful to them and, presumably, their family for their thoughtfulness for I, too, love this place.