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Burghead
This small fishing town, developed during the early
nineteenth century, is situated on a promontory jutting into
the Moray Firth. An Iron Age fort, long since obliterated by
subsequent building, occupied this site in the fourth century. A
number of incised Pictish stones bearing the carved symbol of
a bull have been found in the locality. The harbour, now used
by fishing boats, pleasure craft and timber vessels, is lined
with stone-built granaries from which the grain from the fields
of the Laich of Moray was loaded into vessels in the days
when sea transport was faster, safer and cheaper than land
transport on the poor roads of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.
Five miles of sandy beach stretch westwards towards
Findhorn, with access from Burghead itself and from the
picnic site at Roseisle. Burghead Beach is one of the most
rewarding places in the British Isles for winter birdwatching.
It is one of only two places in Europe where a grey-tailed
tattler from eastern Siberia has been sighted.
(c) Moray Tourist Board
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