Tag: coast
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Meallan Ùdraigil
What more can I say. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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A’ Chlach Thuill
Clear blue skies with no wind for the early dog walk predicting a warm day. This is looking towards the distinction spilt rock of Torridonian sandstone from which the village of Clachtoll gets its name. The name Clachtoll means the rock with the hole, a sea arch, and there was indeed one which collapsed in…
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The Old Man of Stoer
Not to be confused with the Old Man of Storr which is on the Isle of Skye. This old man is off the coast of Assynt near Stoer Point. A 60-metre high sea stack of Torridonian sandstone that is a classic with rock climbers; in fact, three climbers had just completed it – look closely…
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Cracking sunset last night
Actually, the sun had already set. Half past ten! Parked up at Balnakeil Bay near Durness. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Stacks of Duncansby
A pair of dramatic sea stacks just off the north-easterly tip of the British mainland. But we almost lost them. Apparently in 1953, in what seems like a bizarre Monty Python sketch scientists from the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment had proposed to test a nuclear bomb on top of one of the stacks. The Stacks…
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Badbea
I’ve seen before the deserted black houses of communities in fertile straths that were cleared by absentee landlords to make way for vast sheep farms. I had thought the villagers were often provided with a small croft on the east coast in towns such as Wick and left to make a living from the sea.…
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Covesea Skerries Lighthouse
Built in 1846, following a terrific storm 20 years earlier in which 16 vessels were lost in the Moray Firth, several on the notorious Covesea and Halliman Skerries. The delay was due to Trinity House, the board responsible for lighthouses, believing that a lighthouse was in fact unnecessary. Eventually, the board was swayed by public…
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Fraserburgh Bay
The north-east coastline of Aberdeenshire has many miles of clean golden sands, deserted but for the occasional dog walker. This is Fraserburgh Bay between Kinnard Point and Cairnbulg Point. In the distance is Fraserburgh, a town dating from the 16th-century and named after Clan Fraser. Beyond Fraserburgh, the Moray Firth begins. Open Space Web-Map builder…
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Old Kirk Shore
Woke up to a sea fret but by the time I set off to explore the coastline north of the former fishing town of Stonehaven, it was well on the way to clearing. Stonehaven can just be made out through the mist. The coast comprises vegetated cliffs which form the eastern end of the Highland…
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Staithes
Captain Cook, you can’t get away from him around here, it occurred to me as I cycled to Staithes, Yorkshire’s most picturesque fishing village, along what would have been the route taken by the 16-year-old Cook to his new apprenticeship in William Sanderson’s haberdashery shop on the seafront. Kildale, Commondale and Job Cross, the old…