48 Hours Travelling Scotland’s North Sea Coast

When most people travel to Scotland, there seems to be a magnetic pull towards the wild west coast. The islands, the mountains, the places you see on the postcards. But Scotland has another coastline, one that stretches along the country's east side, facing out to the powerful North Sea. It's a coastline that many travellers simply pass by. Yet along this shore, you'll find vast empty beaches, fishing villages with incredible seafood and even the place where Scotland's story as a nation began. Let's take a road trip along Scotland's lesser-travelled North Sea coastline. This is St Cyrus Beach, a three-mile stretch of golden sand. It's known for its dramatic and extensive sand dunes. It's also part of the St Cyrus National Nature Reserve. Good morning from the most magnificent beach here on the east coast of Scotland. This time, I'm going to be travelling down a stretch of the coastline here in the east of Scotland that faces the North Sea. I woke up pretty early this morning to try and catch the sunrise down here at the beach and it was definitely worth it. I was reading that you can sometimes see dolphins off the shore here. I've travelled to a lot of places on the west coast of Scotland and not that many places on the east coast. So really looking forward to this little road trip over the next few days. I have now made it to a town called Montrose, a little bit further down the coastline. And this is a really special place because there is a huge tidal estuary fed by the sea and there is a lot of wildlife and bird life that live here. This is called the Montrose Basin. It's a natural tidal basin connected to the North Sea by a narrow channel at Montrose. Sea water flows in and out twice a day with the tides, which creates large mud flats when the tide goes out. The basin covers about 750 hectares, making it one of the largest tidal lagoons in the UK. The mud flats are full of worms and shellfish, which makes the area extremely important for birds. In winter, tens of thousands of migratory birds gather here. Because of this, it's now a major wildlife reserve managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. There's a visitor centre here. It says there's telescopes, hot drinks and panoramic views. Wow. What a promise. Here it is. I really enjoyed the visitor centre. Actually, it's £6.50 to go in, but there's lots of information about the Montrose Basin. And there's also binoculars and telescopes. And as soon as I looked out through a telescope, I saw a bird. I saw a huge big heron sitting on a log down by the water, which was so cool. And the staff in there are knowledgeable. So they were explaining to me about different birds. They showed me some feathers and skulls of birds that they had as well. It really was worth it. It was really good. And right beside the visitor centre, there's this little bird hide. There's actually, I think, hides all around the basin. I think if you're into bird watching, this would be a really good place to come. I have now come down to the Montrose seafront and I wanted to see the beach, but the beach has gone because the tide is in at the moment. It comes up the whole way. I don't think I've ever seen this anywhere before, where the whole beach is gone. The waves are so powerful as well. Because Montrose has a very large tidal range, the sea moves a long way in and out. At low tide, the beach here can stretch hundreds of metres out to sea. I visited at high tide, when the water comes right up to Over there in the distance is a lighthouse. I was reading online that there's a nice walk out to that lighthouse from Montrose that you can do. I have just pulled up at Arbiccy Distillery. I love visiting different distilleries when I travel around Scotland and this is quite a well-known distillery in the area. Arbiccy Distillery is based on a farm and overlooks the sea. I caught up with Kirsty, who showed me around and shared more about the distillery. Arbiccy started now over 10 years ago. Primarily, it's a farm. The family have been farming the land here for generations and they just came to the realisation that they had everything they needed to start a distillery. Yeah, we started with potato vodka, which is quite unusual for Scotland because the farm is primarily a potato farm and the key thing here is that we're a field-to-bottle distillery. So we started by processing the potatoes that we now call wonky veg, but back then didn't really have that name and it was to valorise and add value to all these farm crops that big supermarkets and the like didn't want. We started making whisky a year later in 2015. At that point, there was only two of us here, so we started in quite small volumes, only making a few casts a year and we've continuously built up from then. That was single malt we started on. We've never released a drop of single malt whisky, but that's going to change this summer, hopefully. Parallel to that, we started playing around with rye whisky. With rye, we had to really take a step back. You know, the first thing we had to do was grow it because everything, as I said, we use here is grown here. So at that point, no one was growing rye to make whisky. It was only been grown as a whole crop where they cut it all and goes into anaerobic digester. So we first of all had to find seed and then the farm had to get good at growing it. So it took us, I think now we're really good at rye, the first couple of years it was a little bit hit or miss, but now rye is now part of our routine farm rotation and we make it every year in the distillery too. The other thing that defines everything we do is that our goal is to be one of the most sustainable distilleries in the world. That is a very, I get, bold and big thing to try and achieve and it'll probably be a never-ending journey. Every decision we make, we try and include the environment in the decision-making process. So for things like the sort of capsules we put in our bottles to close them, all the way through to how we power the distillery. So right now our really big project is converting it to be green hydrogen powered, which has been a very big project here and it's all the way from constructing our own wind turbine to having an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen and then a new boiler on site to burn it. So that's very exciting for this year. Our bikki actually released the first rye whisky in over a hundred years in Scotland. I've never tried a rye whisky before, so I was curious about how it would taste. So Christian from the distillery explained more. Rye whiskies are mature in New American oak, so their colour and their wood extras are going to be more present, but also is the main characteristic of rice. It's got a spicy, kind of grassy character. It's more cereal oriented, so it's more driven for cocktails, but it also can be enjoyed on its own. Oh, to die for! At our bikki distillery, they use both traditional copper pot stills and a column still, which is quite unusual for a Scottish whisky distillery. The pot stills create a spirit with more flavour, while the column still produces a much purer spirit for things like vodka and gin. It was so interesting to see inside our bikki distillery, and the whole distillery is surrounded by the farm. This is all farmland behind me here, and then you can see the coast and the North Sea just over there. If you'd like to try our bikki whisky, I have some great news for you. I've teamed up with Whisky52, who are offering a free bottle of our bikki whisky. All you need to do is cover the £7.95 postage. Whisky52 is a whisky members club, and every single month you receive a new whisky to try from different distilleries all over the world. This month's bottle is a collaboration with our bikki. It's distilled with rye from the distillery's farm, and has been It's quite spicy, a bit earthy, and I can taste cinnamon as well. First time trying rye whisky. I like it. It definitely tastes like a farm-to-bottle whisky. You can get the full tasting notes and an exclusive interview with our bikki distillery in the magazine Stramash, which comes with your free bottle. The thing I love most about Whisky52 is that you get to try so many whiskies that you might not usually try. If you decide that Whisky52 is not for you, you can pause or cancel at any time. To claim your free bottle, head over to www.whisky52.com forward slash rbikki. I will also link it in the video description below. I have just pulled up at what is meant to be the best beach in the entire Angus area. The area that I'm travelling in now is called Angus, and maybe you've heard of this name before because it's sometimes used as a boy's name. It's quite a nice name actually. I am so excited to see what this beach looks like. My goodness, this beach is incredible. I wasn't sure it could beat the one this morning, but I think this one definitely takes the award for best beach. Lunan Bay is a huge beach backed by grassy dunes. At the northern end of the bay, you'll find sea caves and a natural rock arch. Sitting over the beach are the ruins of Red Castle, which date back to the 12th century. The beach is also split in two by the Lunan Water, a small river that flows across the sand and out into the North Sea. I have been very surprised by my time along this coastline so far. I really haven't spent much time on the east coast of Scotland, but it's pleasantly surprised me. Another thing I've noticed as well is the people I've met so far in this area are so friendly. I have just pulled up in a small village on the coast called Auchmitty, I think it's called. But I was hoping to get here a bit earlier. It's pretty much dark already. I think this is the path down to the beach. It is getting really quite dark now, but I can still make out the waves and the beach in the distance there. I actually had thought about driving down here and I'm really glad that I didn't. This is not a suitable road for the campervan at all. Wow, this place is spectacular. Wow. Before darkness hits, I think you can just make out there the cliffs and the sea. This fishing village is said to be the home of the Smokie. You might have heard of them before because they're famous in a town called Arbroath, which is near here, but they're said to have originated from here. A Smokie is basically smoked haddock and the technique originally developed as a way of preserving fish before refrigeration existed. It's believed that Scandinavian ships and raiders who came to this coastline may have brought their own methods of preserving their catch with them. One of those methods involved smoking haddock over a whiskey barrel, a technique still used in parts of Scandinavia today. The fishermen here adopted the method and over time it became what we know now as the Arbroath Smokie. In this village, there's meant to be a fantastic restaurant. I think I passed it just up there. It's called Butt and Ben and they are meant to do a very yummy Smokie fish pancake and Arbroath Smokie pancake, but I walked past it. It looked closed, but it says online that it's open. I'll go and check it out. This is what the street looks like in the village. Oh, it's so cute. Look at all the little cottages, the little fishermen's cottages. I always think it'd be so nice to live in a cottage like that. I'm just wandering around this village in the dark. Sometimes I think people probably look at me and think, what's that person doing? I'm wandering around in the dark. This is the door to the restaurant here. Oh, there's lights on. Let's go. Looks like someone's house. I'm a little bit worried to go in. Okay, let's see. Oh, it's open. The restaurant was open and it serves traditional Scottish food. The restaurant was open and it was amazing. This restaurant is called Butt and Ben and that is the best meal I've had in a very long time. I had the Arbroath Smokie pancake, which was delicious. The sauce was amazing. There were so many side dishes that came with it. And then for dessert, I had Clouty Dumpling, which is a traditional Scottish dessert. I've actually never tried it before. And the lady recommended to have it with custard, which was really good. I am so full now, but that restaurant is amazing. I would travel here just to have dinner there again. If you're in this area, make sure you visit this restaurant, Butt and Ben. Good morning from a very sunny Arbroath. I have made it to the north side of the town where there are some lovely cliffs to see. I've made my coffee and I'm going to head for a walk. Here is the start of the cliff walk. So there's a map here and lots of things to see along the cliffs. There's actually so many different walks you can do and you can go all the way to Auchmuthie up here as well. Time to start the walk and my gosh, it is the most beautiful day, but it's pretty cold. This path is part of the Angus Coastal Path. It's an informal developing network of trails along Scotland's East Coast, stretching between Dundee, Arbroath and Montrose. Not too far from the parking, you can already see amazing views of the cliffs and these cliffs are battered by the harsh North Sea. You can see that the cliffs are a red colour, which is quite unusual to see in Scotland. And it's actually the iron sediment that gives them their colour. Down there in the cliffs, it actually looks like there's some sea caves in there. There's also some seabirds flying around and they nest in the cliffs along here too. As well as caves along these cliffs, which are around 400 million years old, you can also see sea arches, sea stacks, blowholes and places with sheer vertical drops. There's so many people out walking, walking their dogs, jogging. What a lovely place to have nearby the place you live. I really enjoyed my walk along the cliffs and Quaikosie here is a very important historical site in Scottish history. So that's where I'm going to head next. Arbroath is the largest town in the Angus area and has a population of around 24,000 people. I have just pulled up at Arbroath Abbey and this place was founded in the year 1178. How crazy is that? This abbey was built for the Tyronesian monks, a reformed branch of the Benedictine monks who wanted to return to a simpler life focused on prayer and manual work. At its peak, it became one of the richest monasteries in Scotland. I have just arrived here at Arbroath Abbey and online it says on Google that it is open but I just went to the door and they are closed on Monday and Tuesdays during the winter and that is very annoying that the opening hours online are not up to date. But you can still get a very good view of the abbey from the outside here. The abbey is best known for the Declaration of Arbroath which was written here in 1320. During the wars of Scottish independence, it was a letter sent to the Pope asking him to recognise Scotland as an independent nation and Robert the Bruce as its rightful king. It's often described as one of the most important documents in Scottish history and includes the famous line about freedom For so long as a hundred of us remain alive, we will never on any condition be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory nor riches nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom alone. This street actually goes through the abbey and it's called Abbey Street. Wow. The colour of the abbey is a red sandstone like the colour of the cliffs I saw earlier. It's a real shame that they haven't updated the opening hours on Google Maps. I think a lot of people these days probably check Google Maps for opening hours. I know I do. Probably on the website the information is correct but it would only take a few minutes to probably update that and I wonder how many people throughout winter have turned up here and found the abbey closed. I have made it down to the shorefront here in Arbroath. Around 11 miles off the shore is one of Scotland's most impressive lighthouses and as I've been travelling along this coastline I've been looking out for the lighthouse in the distance but I don't think it's possible to see it with your eyes. It's called the Bell Rock Lighthouse and it is located on one of the most dangerous reefs in the whole country. Before the lighthouse was built ships regularly wrecked on the reef. Hundreds of lives were lost and it was basically a death trap in the North Sea. The lighthouse was built between 1807 and 1810 and is one of the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouses. It's built directly onto the reef that disappears at high tide and construction workers could only build when the rock was exposed. So progress was dictated by the sea. It was considered a huge engineering achievement at the time and because of the challenges they had to overcome to build it the lighthouse has been described as one of the seven wonders of the industrial world. There are over 200 lighthouses in Scotland and most of these lighthouses were built by many generations of the same family and they were called the Stevenson family. A lot of the lighthouses are in very remote and hard to access places and you'll often find that they'll have accommodation or a shore station connected to the lighthouse in a different location to the lighthouse. So this building over here behind me was actually the shore station for the Bell Rock Lighthouse and these days it's a museum where you can go inside and find out more about the Bell Rock Lighthouse. I keep looking out there and I can't see any sign of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. I really think it's so so far out that it's very difficult to see with the naked eye. These days in Scotland all the lighthouses are automated but they're still used they're just automated and they're controlled from a central hub in Edinburgh. I'm going to walk into the town and have a look at the harbour area. The Signal Tower Museum is actually closed today. I'm not having much luck with the opening hours of places here in Arbroath. The Signal Tower was built in 1813 to support the lighthouse and remained in use until the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1955. It became a museum in 1974. I have now made it down to the Arbroath harbour and this is the real home of Arbroath Smokies. There are so many lobster pots here at the harbour. The Smokies are believed to have been introduced here by fishing communities who moved south from Auchmuthie. Authentic Smokies must be made from whole haddock, salted overnight, tied in pairs at the tail, hung over hardwood fires and smoked in half-cut whiskey barrels. The process takes around an hour but the method is very specific and they're hot smoked, not cold smoked like standard supermarket haddock. Since 2004 Arbroath Smokies have protected geographical indication status. That means they must be prepared within eight kilometres of Arbroath. There are quite a few shops here in Arbroath selling Arbroath Smokies and food made with Arbroath Smokies so I'm going to go to one that has quite high reviews and get something for my dinner. Just in front of me here is a shop selling Arbroath Smokies. Right beside the harbour so they'll be very fresh I imagine. This one had very good reviews on Google. This one is called E&O Fish Arbroath. Outside the shop they have a list of different things that you can get. So they have cull and skink, monkfish, halibut. Well I have made it back to the van. There's actually a free camper van parking area here in Arbroath which is great and I got a few items at the fish shop. So inside the fish shop they actually use the Arbroath Smokies to make other items. So there was things like Arbroath Smokie quiche, Arbroath Smokie pie. I got an Arbroath Smokie patty which looked quite yummy. I actually wanted to buy so many things but I didn't want to overdose myself on Arbroath Smokies and become sick of them like what I did when I ate lots of mussels one time. This here is the Arbroath Smokie patty. I also got some samphire. So I've had this before. There's the samphire there. So it's not seaweed. It's more like a coastal plant. It has a salty taste to it. It's very nice with fish. The final thing I got was an Arbroath Smokie. So I asked to get the smallest size but it's still pretty big. So this is it. Gosh it really smells quite fishy. One of my favourite things when I travel somewhere is trying local food. Not just in Scotland but anywhere in the world that I go. I love it when you go to a regional area and they have a local speciality. If you live somewhere with a local speciality let us know in the comments what it is and where you live. This is the Arbroath Smokie. Maybe doesn't look the most appetising but it tastes really good. That is what the patty looks like. I'm going to give this a go. So I have some oat cakes here. Let's try the patty first. Oh I'm quite excited to try this. I've tried fish patty before but let's see what this is like. Very fishy. Sometimes patty is quite heavy on the cream cheese or whatever they put in it but this is very much tasting of smoky fish. Very good. Now time to deal with the Arbroath Smokie. So I'm not really sure how to cut this but I'm going to keep it in the paper in case it's messy. So I guess you just cut it open like this. Inside looks like that. I'm just going to get a bit of the fish. There's quite a lot of bones but it comes off the bones quite easily. Oh that's lovely. It's really nice on its own. You can really taste the essence of the smoke in the fish. I think other times when I've tried it before it's always been in something like risotto or in a soup. It's lovely on its own. I have had the best time these last few days exploring this beautiful stretch of coastline along the North Sea. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.