During our trip to Perthshire back in October, there was one rather gloomy weather day where the forecast was much better to the north east, in Angus. We decided to take a jaunt up to a part of Scotland we’d only visited for a short overnight stop once before, and which we swore we’d go back to explore properly. We still haven’t quite made it back for a week like we wanted to, but this day trip has bumped it even closer to the top of the list – Angus is so varied and beautiful, and quite quiet too. With beaches, history and beautiful countryside, it’s definitely one of Scotland’s undiscovered gems.
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Brown and White Caterthuns
After a fairly early start, we arrived early at the Brown and White Caterthuns. These Iron Age forts have fantastic views over Strathmore and multiple enclosures which, according to Historic Scotland, had both military and ceremonial functions. Sam had found a short route up both forts on Walkhighlands, and we parked up in the free roadside parking area where the road passes between the two forts.
Initially the plan was to climb up both forts, however the path up the Brown Caterthun was very muddy and overgrown with gorse – which you always forget how prickly it is until you try and walk through it and then feel like your legs are being shredded! Not fancying a 1km battle with gorse, we instead turned our attention to the White Caterthun over the road. The path up on this side is much clearer and drier, and the views as we climbed were lovely.
Although it’s uphill, the climb is pretty gentle and should be manageable for pretty much everyone. It’s short as well – it took us about 15 minutes to get to the top, if that. It was lovely and quiet with not a soul in sight, so we let Coal have a run off his lead, although Merry stayed on as his recall is not reliable enough to trust him in the open countryside.
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. This is a great little dog walk. Quiet, stile free and we didn’t see any livestock, although you should always expect sheep or birds to pop up out of nowhere in the countryside.
The House of Dun
We always like to get the most out of our National Trust membership, so after our first walk we popped over to the House of Dun for a walk around the dog friendly gardens here. Unfortunately we didn’t think to check the opening times in advance and with it being the off season the gardens were sadly closed. We did still manage a walk around the woods though, which were in fully fledged autumn colours and very quiet. Sadly, we didn’t spot any of the resident red squirrels, but then wildlife spotting is usually tricky with two dogs snuffling away.
Dog friendly rating: Dogs on leads are welcome to join you in the walled garden and cafe, as well as for walks on the wider estate. As we visited on a day when the site was officially closed, I can’t reliably comment on how busy it usually is.
Lunan Bay
At home we live a fair way from the beach, so when we’re away we do like to try and get a beach day in if we can. Our previous Perthshire trips haven’t really featured beaches before as it’s a landlocked county, but Angus has a very fine and relatively undiscovered coast line. Having already walked up a catherthun and had a second walk around the woods at the House of Dun, we didn’t fancy a massive trek to the beach, so we opted to visit Lunan Bay which has a car park right next to the beach.
I’d never heard of Lunan Bay before, but I think it’s one of the more popular beaches in the area during the summer months: it’s equipped with a decent sized car park, as well as a farm shop cafe (sadly closed when we visited). The beach itself is a lovely stretch of pristine sand, backed by rocky cliffs. Fortunately when we visited there were just a few other dog walkers on the beach, as well as a few brave people having a (very) bracing dip in the sea, leaving plenty of space for everyone to enjoy. We spent about an hour on the beach strolling up and down while the dogs had a whale of a time, before the chilly wind eventually drove us back to the car in search of lunch.
Dog friendly rating: 5/5. Lunan Bay is dog friendly all year round, and our dogs loved zooming around on the beach. You can get onto the beach easily from the car park without having to clamber over stiles or down steep dunes.
Arbroath Abbey
After lunch at the Arbikie Distillery to warm up (the dogs stayed in the car to dry off in their Ruff & Tumble robes – Coal15 to save), we just had time for one final stop. We drove up to Arbroath to visit the abbey here, the place where the historic Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320. Arbroath Abbey is free to visit for Historic Environment Scotland members or, as newbie English Heritage members, we got 50% off entry (we’ll get free entry from next year when our membership enters its second year).
Dogs are welcome to join you to explore the ruins and look around the shop, but not in the indoor exhibit: this is definitely worth taking turns to visit though, as it’s super interesting and has a replica of the declaration itself. It has a motion activated voice over which made me jump out of my skin when I first walked in, so be warned!
The abbey itself is a ruin now, made out of quite a vibrant reddy-orange stone. Unfortunately when we visited a fair bit of the site was fenced off due to risk of falling masonry, but we were still able to have a good poke around the open parts of the ruins, including stopping by the grave of William the Lion, king of Scotland from 1165 until his death in 1214.
Dog friendly rating: 4/5. It’s a shame that dogs aren’t allowed in the exhibit as they are at some other sites like Rievaulx Abbey, but they can join you for the rest of your visit. When we stopped by it was just us and one other visitor, so this is a good option if your dog doesn’t like crowded or busy places.
Having managed to squeeze quite a lot into the space of about 6 hours, we headed back to our base in Perthshire to recover and warm up by the log burner. Angus has definitely once again proven to us that it would be a fantastic destination in its own right – our 2025 rota is full, but 2026 in on the other hand…
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