Coast and Castles North Day 4 would take us from Arbroath to Stonehaven.

Before we set off there were the practical elements of the tour to sort out – collecting the washing from the launderette.

After doing so we headed over to The Corn Exchange, the local Wetherspoon, to sort the dried washing out.

It was a murky grey day when we set off late morning from Arbroath. And the foggy conditions would be the theme for the day.

The first castle we spotted was Red Castle.

We then cycled through Braehead of Lunan.

Crossing over River South Esk, our next port of call was Montrose.

Here we had lunch at The Picture House, just off the high street.

After lunch, we picked up the cycle path out of town.

This then followed the old air strip.

We had managed to miss the rain until now, but eventually, it caught us up. After leaving the airstrip we picked up a recently laid cycle path that felt like cycling through porridge. This was hard going!

We headed towards St Cyrus.

Due to the inclement weather, we took a couple of alternative routes today to stay on-road where possible. This essentially meant staying on the A92 for awhile at certain points, and then rejoining the main route when back on tarmac.

As the day continued the weather worsened.

At Inverbervie we decided to take some respite from the rain and stop for a coffee at the Salutation Hotel.

Back on the road, the misty conditions continued.

Climbing the final hill of the day, where we should have been able to enjoy glorious vistas out over the bay, we were fortunate to be able to see 10 metres ahead.

Eventually, we dropped down into Stonehaven.

Today, we had cycled nearly 44 miles and climbed over 2000 feet. Potentially, this could have been a day which provided some fantastic views looking out over various coastlines. However, we’ll never know, for instead, for us it was a day of mist. Ah well, weather conditions always play a major part in any cycling adventure.

You can view our Coast and Castles North Day 4 route below: