after tain, the trail mostly follows the coast, which begins as low sandy beaches in sutherland and develops into cliffs in caithness. after tain, the next town is dornoch, where the trail goes along the edge of royal dornoch golf course, then goes past embo and along the shores of loch fleet. then it goes through golspie and past dunrobin castle on the way to brora. it reaches the halfway point at helmsdale.