ACTIVE OUTDOORS: Touching the past on walk to hill fort at Knockfarrel and the Eagle Stone in Strathpeffer

This short walk can take you back in time, through the last couple of centuries, down the millennia and even deep into the geological past. Or you can just enjoy the views.

After all, it’s well known that people have been coming to Strathpeffer since the days of Queen Victoria, in search of the cleansing spa waters.

The station that marks the end of that redundant branch line from Dingwall is now a lovely spot in itself, with gardens and picnic tables as well as a café, museum, unique shops and a community space.

It also marks the starting point for the Peffery Way, an excellent traffic-free route linking the two villages that follows the line of the old railway. There are still one or two gaps to be fully developed on this venture for it to be fully realised, but it will eventually be a good surface all the way.

Our route today isn’t along the flat path of the railway bed, however. Instead, we’re heading upwards to the vitrified fort of Knockfarrel, 218 metres above sea level at the nearby Cromarty Firth.

Having enjoyed our lunch at the picnic tables by the old station, we headed back to the main road and turned left, following the pavement just as far as the next road off to the left. There’s an old signpost at the far side which directs you to Knockfarrel and the “Cat’s Back” – the local name for the ridge that leads over the hill – up the road to the left.

The road bends left past some houses then right as it narrows and climbs – steeply – to eventually continue past the last house as a farm track. Keep going upwards and head straight on through a gate, following a straight line up the edge of the field.

The view back is already impressive, and across the strath Ben Wyvis dominates the skyline with its long, flat summit plateau. We watched as a pair of buzzards circled upwards on a thermal, gaining height with ease on this column of warm air. Our exertions to head ever upwards seemed much more laboured in comparison!

At the top of the field, a stile is crossed to join the network of forest paths. Follow the track left towards the Touchstone Maze, which is a short distance away just after a little pond.

The maze – which is technically a labyrinth – is made up of rocks from around Scotland, and include some of the oldest rocks on the planet, such as the 3-billion-year-old Lewisian gneiss from near Ullapool. Then there is Caithness flagstone, crushed sediment from the bottom of a lake 370 million years ago.

The rocks line up in different formations at the equinoxes and solstices, but this is no ancient creation – the 81 boulders were collected here in 1994 (incidentally, a good year for rock of a different kind!).

Managing to drag the kids away, we continued along the path, forking right then crossing a track to keep climbing steeply to the ridge, where we found a rather useless gate on an otherwise open hilltop. The sign actually points left to Knockbain and Dingwall, but that is also the way to the fort, so we turned left and followed the clear path.

The blaeberries were out in plentiful numbers, which kept Matthew in particular busy picking them and eating them all the way. We soon passed the little monument on the ridge of a hugging couple – this is the Friendship Stone, erected to commemorate a link between Dingwall Academy and Nalband, Armenia.

The path soon drops through the bracken and heather to reach the road just below the car park at the base of the hill, which we clambered up now to reach the remains of the fort. This high vantage point was once the seat of an Iron Age chieftain or Pictish king.

Evidence of the vitrification – the fusing together of the stones in an intense burning event – can be seen on the way up to the top. The site was excavated in the 1770s by the engineer John Williams.

Altering our return route ever so slightly, we veered right as we descended after a bite to eat at the top, taking a track that leads below the ridgeline. Eventually we reached a fork where we headed right to return past the maze and over the stile back down the field.

However, when we got down, we wanted to visit the Pictish stone, Clach an Tionmpain – better known as the Eagle Stone. So back at the main road, we turned left then immediately right – where there’s a clear road sign to the Eagle Stone – and followed the pavement along.

At a turn in the road, you head right, down a track, then go left and back on yourself along the edge of a fenced-off field. The stone lies at the top of here and is an early example of Pictish carved stone, from before Christianity came to the area.

On it are carved a horseshoe and an eagle. What a remarkable thing, I thought as the rain began to pour – to be able to touch this ancient stone that the Picts carved so many centuries ago, and feel that human connection to the past.

Returning to the track, we turned left to continue down to the road. From here, the old station is a short way up to the right.

Route details

Knockfarrel and the Eagle Stone

Distance 4.5 miles / 7 km

Terrain Woodland paths and tracks, plus field edge and minor road, steep in places

Start/finish Former railway station in Strathpeffer

Map OS Landranger 26; OS Explorer 437

A short climb to an ancient hill fort above Strathpeffer followed by a visit to a pre-Christian Pictish stone

Click here to see the route in OS Maps