Cullykhan
Cullykhan is a dramatically situated coastal promontory and bay on the Aberdeenshire coast of northeast Scotland, approximately four miles west of Pennan and roughly seven miles from Macduff. The site is best known for the ruins of Fort Fiddes, a small promontory fort perched atop the cliffs overlooking the Bay of Cullykhan, and for its remarkable natural beauty. It sits within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and draws visitors who seek wild, unspoiled coastline far from the more heavily touristed stretches of the Scottish coast. The combination of geological drama, ancient human history, and sheer scenic force makes Cullykhan one of the more quietly extraordinary spots along the Aberdeenshire Coastal Trail.
The Bay of Cullykhan itself is a sheltered sandy cove hemmed in by dramatic red sandstone and volcanic rock cliffs. The beach, though small, has an intimate, secreted quality — it feels discovered rather than arrived at, since reaching it requires a walk through farmland and down a steep path. The water is the clear, cold green-blue typical of the North Sea at this latitude, and on calm days the bay reflects the cliffs and sky with mirror-like clarity. In stormier conditions the waves surge against the cliff faces with considerable force, making the sound of the sea a constant presence, supplemented by the calls of kittiwakes, fulmars, and gannets that nest and hunt along the rock faces.
Fort Fiddes, the promontory fort crowning the headland above the bay, is the principal historic feature of the site. The fort is of Iron Age origin, likely constructed some two thousand years ago, and takes advantage of the natural defensibility of the cliff-girt headland. Earthwork ramparts and ditches cut across the neck of the promontory, isolating it from the mainland and creating an easily defended enclosure. Archaeological investigation has confirmed occupation during the Iron Age, and there is evidence suggesting that the promontory may also have seen use or activity in earlier periods. The fort is not a dramatic ruin in the way of a medieval castle — it is subtle, a landscape feature as much as a structure — but for those attuned to the deep history embedded in the Scottish countryside, standing within its earthworks is a genuinely affecting experience.
The name Cullykhan itself is thought to derive from Gaelic, with various interpretations proposed over the years relating to the cove or bay. The area is part of a broader coastal landscape that was historically settled and worked by communities reliant on fishing and agriculture. The dramatic coastline here was always both a resource and a hazard, and the legacy of that relationship with the sea is legible in the character of the small settlements scattered across this stretch of Banffshire. Nearby Pennan, a tiny village tucked at the base of cliffs a few miles to the east, achieved unexpected fame as a filming location for the 1983 Bill Forsyth film Local Hero, a piece of Scottish cultural geography that gives the wider area a layer of cinematic mythology.
The surrounding landscape is characteristically northeast Scottish: gently rolling agricultural land meeting abrupt coastal cliffs, with fields running almost to the cliff edge in places. The hinterland is quiet and relatively thinly populated, with the village of Troup Head nearby offering another significant natural attraction — the largest mainland gannet colony in Scotland, where tens of thousands of birds nest on the cliffs and create one of the most extraordinary wildlife spectacles in the country. Troup Head is managed by the RSPB and is within easy reach of Cullykhan, making the two sites natural companions for a day's visit to this stretch of coast.
Visiting Cullykhan requires a car in practice, as there is no public transport serving the immediate area. The site is accessed via minor roads off the B9031 coastal road, and there is a small car parking area near the farm at Cullykhan from which a footpath leads down toward the bay and out to the headland. The path can be muddy and is steep in places, so appropriate footwear is advisable. The site is freely accessible at all times and there is no charge or formal facility infrastructure. The best time to visit is late spring through early autumn, when the wildflowers on the clifftops are at their finest and the seabird colonies on the cliffs are active and noisy. Midsummer evenings, when the northern light lingers extraordinarily late, are particularly memorable.
One of the more unusual aspects of Cullykhan is how little known it remains despite its considerable qualities. It appears in walking guides to the Aberdeenshire coast and is marked on Ordnance Survey maps, but it attracts none of the crowds found at more famous Scottish coastal destinations. This obscurity is, for many who find it, precisely the point. The sense of having a dramatic Iron Age headland, a secluded sandy bay, and miles of seabird-haunted clifftop more or less to oneself on a summer afternoon is one of those quietly perfect experiences that Scotland's northeast coast, bypassed by the main tourist flows, offers in abundance to those willing to follow the minor roads to their ends.