The Cromarty Firth is also home to many oil rigs which are either being refurbished to be sent back out to the North Sea or dismantled and sold for scrap. There is a large facility in Cromarty where they are manufacturing and assembling the platforms that will hold the offshore wind turbines. These massive three cornered platforms float in the sea. The firth is a national renewable energy hub and is expanding due to the location of the SouthWind leasing sites and new manufacturing and production facilities being established for the floating substructures, steel offshore wind components and green hydrogen.
We took a hike along the beach to Chanonry Point which sits on the Moray Firth and is another location popular for viewing the dolphins from the shore. After that we finished off the day with a 2 mile hike through woods and sheep pastures back to the Coul House. We had been invited to a ceilidh pronounced kayley) at the home of Warwick Lister-Kaye (our Nat Hab representative) and his wife Becky. This was an evening of being among friends, telling stories, reciting poems and listening to traditional Scottish music played by Emily and Rachel on fiddle and Fiona on guitar. It was a perfect ending to a busy day.