I said Good Bye to Aberdeen and boarded the bus and train to Inverness, where I picked up my rental car for the next ten days. My home for the next week was “The Classroom” in Hopeman. A lovely seaside village along the coast of the Moray Firth, founded in 1805 to house people displaced during the Highland clearances. It was and still is a fishing port.
The old Icehouse
The very neat and organized layout of Hopeman shows its past as a model-village.
Hopeman was established as a planned village originally called “Newtown of Hopeman” in 1805 by the local landowner, William Young of Inverugie. He had opened quarries at Greenbrae and Clashach to the east of the site of the village to extract the golden coloured sandstone found here, and he needed somewhere to house the quarrymen and their families. (Undiscovered Scotland)
It was just a few minutes walking from my “classroom” to the two beaches and I visited them every day during my stay – always hoping that would be the time I saw the dolphins….
But no luck, the sea was always too rough – stunning thou!
Hopeman lies on the Moray Coastal walk and one can walk for miles along the coast in both directions.
And a collection of colourfull and fun little beach huts.
Jumping from the pier.
