Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Castle of North Gaulton

The Castle of North Gaulton

The west coast of Orkney faces the full force of the North Atlantic. Each wave pounding the cliffs shakes the rock. An array of seismic monitors are currently measuring this shaking to research how climate change and increasing sea levels might affect Orkney’s coast.

The millennia of turbulent seas have produced the most dramatic coastline yet. Sea stacks abound. This is the North Gaulton Tassle Stack or the Castle of North Gaulton. Those of you who are of a certain age might recognise it from a 1994 TV advertisement which featured a Rover 214 car parked on the top. Of course, a Sikorsky S-61N helicopter air lifted it onto the top, flying backwards because of the wind. No photoshop in those days.

The car still had to be manoeuvred to the precise position required by the Ad Agency. The driver then had to hide out of shot for eight hours until he and the car were evacuated by the chopper. I found a copy of the ad online here1“So this is how they got that car up there.” Daily Mail, 13 June 1994, p. 22. Daily Mail Historical Archive, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/EE1860734607/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=GDCS&xid=00690dc5. Accessed 19 May 2021..

And now for something completely different:

The Scottish Primrose
We had been warned to look out for this rarity, the Scottish Primrose, Primula Scotica, especially at this time of the year when it’s in flower. It thrives on short maritime grassland but not too close to the edge as it doesn’t like the salty air. It’s tiny and found only in a few isolated colonies on Orkney and the North coast of Scotland. Re-seeding and over grazing have contributed to it’s decline.

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