Bow Fiddle Rock
Interesting facts
- The arch stands about 15 metres high, carved from a band of rock known as the Cullen Quartzite, which is some 2,400 metres thick.
- Its steeply tilted layers were buckled when the ancient continents of Laurentia and Avalonia collided during the Caledonian mountain-building episode.
- Portknockie, the village on the clifftop, was founded in 1677 and grew into a busy herring port in the 19th century; its Gaelic name means 'the hilly port'.
- On a promontory in the village are traces of the Green Castle, a coastal fort thought to have been occupied from about 1000 BC to 1000 AD.
- Besides gulls, the surrounding cliffs hold small numbers of fulmars, kittiwakes, razorbills and shags, and eider ducks gather in the coves in summer.
Why it is worth it
Bow Fiddle Rock is a sea arch standing just off the cliffs at Portknockie on the Moray coast of north-east Scotland, and its name describes it exactly: a tall, tilted slab of rock curving down into the water, with an arch punched through its base, like the end of a violin bow resting on the sea. From the clifftop the arch frames the water beyond it, and at dawn or dusk, when the light comes low along the coast, it becomes one of the most photographed shapes in this part of Scotland.
The rock is quartzite — sandstone that was buried, heated and turned into a hard metamorphic stone — belonging to a thick band of quartzite that runs along the coast between Buckie and Cullen and dates from the Neoproterozoic, somewhere between about a billion and 539 million years ago. The layers were buckled when ancient continents collided in the Caledonian mountain-building episode, and the steep tilt of the beds is what gives the arch its lean. The sea has since worn away the softer ground around it and opened the hole through its foot.
It is also a busy bird ledge. Herring gulls and both great and lesser black-backed gulls nest on its upper surfaces, and in the breeding season the rock is as loud as it is striking. The surrounding shore is a jumble of coves, stacks and shingle, and the clifftop path makes it easy to walk on to other formations along the coast.
Portknockie itself is a small former fishing village on the headland, and Bow Fiddle Rock lies on the Moray Coast Trail, the long waymarked route between Forres and Cullen, so it can be combined with a longer walk along the cliffs towards Cullen.
Getting there
Portknockie is about 29 km east of Elgin. The nearest large airports are Aberdeen (ABZ) and Inverness (INV), each roughly 70–75 km away; the small Wick John O'Groats Airport (WIC) is closer as the crow flies but lies across the Moray Firth. In the village, follow the coast road to its end, where there is a car park; a short path leads to viewpoints above the arch. The cliff edges have sudden drops and can be slippery.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Bow Fiddle Rock is a natural sea arch near Portknockie on the north-eastern coast of Scotland. It is so called because it resembles the tip of a fiddle bow.
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