As the clocks sprang forward by one hour last week – the nights are fair drawin’ oot, as we say here. I love this time of the year because it’s almost like getting another life as there’s light to do things after dinner time, like take a walk along the coast to Seafield, which is what we did a couple of nights ago, as you can see, the tide was quite far out. Sometimes there are seals on the rocks here, but not this time. Until about 20 years ago there was a coalmine underneath the sea here. It must have been very scary to mine in those conditions.
There are some nice red rock formations along that part of the coast. It looks like sandstone to me but I’m not sure that it is as that is a very soft stone but this seems to be able to stand up well to being battered by the North Sea.
It’s difficult to get photos without junk in them. The whole place is littered with stuff which has been lost overboard from ships. Buckets, old ropes, smashed up creels and bits of tarpaulin seem to come in with every tide. Every now and again there is a community clean up weekend, but it’s a never ending task.
This was our destination, Seafield Tower, or what is left of it. It was abandoned in 1733. I don’t suppose you can be sentimental and save all old buildings, there are so many of them around Scotland. This one has clung on to the coastline for hundreds of years and until recently it was really quite safe to have a walk around in it but the heavy seas of this last winter have taken their toll on the tower.
As you can see from this photo, there has been a fairly massive rockfall from the tower and I suppose it’ll eventually all disappear into the North Sea.
