Pembrokeshire - St.David's Head and Whitesands Bay

Sketches at http://artywater.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/sketches-from-north-pembrokeshire.html

Whitesands Bay from Carn Llidi

Sun, showers, dry until very last bit of our walk on the Monday (16th September). Very windy when we got to Whitesands Bay and later, on St. David's Head, this bit of coast facing the open Atlantic. Superb views from the higher ground. Impressive cliffs, with steeply dipping, very contorted strata, in places near vertical. Intricate, complicated sequence of outcrops, influenced by numerous faults.

Parked at Whitesands Bay and walked north from here along coast path towards St. David's Head. White breakers on the sandy beach, white horse waves further out to sea. Views of the northern end of Ramsey Island, along with the Bishops and Clerks islets further out to sea, with lighthouse on South Bishop.

Whitesands Bay and the cliffs

Along this first bit of path, lower Palaeozoic shales, mudstones, mainly Ordovician, small wedge of Cambrian along fault.

Left SDH for later, for now diverting off the coast path, towards the highest (Carn Llidi,181m) of several prominent hills formed of Ordovician intrusive mafic igneous rocks, in this case gabbro, as for SDH itself. Took path round south side, then up onto the steeper part nearer the top. Did a quick drawing of the views west / SW from here over the coast while Munros Man did a speedy scramble to the top. From here could see the whole of Ramsey Island, along Whitesands Bay, inland to St.David's, St. David's Head. In the distance to the south, the coast along St. Brides Bay to Skomer Island. Heather and gorse adding colour to the lower slopes of the hills.

Carn Llidi

Came down off the hill and followed the path round to the youth hostel, then tried for the next hill to the east. Initially, the paths went through cultivated / grazed land - horses in one of these fields  - but from then on, they got rougher and more fiddly. Some of them were very overgrown and clearly not walked very often. We left out the hill but then had trouble on the north side trying to rejoin the coast path. Here it was all open access land, but in practice much of it unwalkable, consisting of rough, scrubby bracken, bramble and gorse. Gave up on one path when it got too thorny to get through. Better luck when we came upon what was marked on the map as a permissive path. This was clear of bracken etc. Shortly after rejoining the coast path, we sat on a flat bit of rock and had her packed lunches. Views north now along the coast to Strumble Head, with the lighthouse flashing. 

St. David's Head

From here, we walked along the coast path to St. David's Head itself, an intrusion of gabbro. Along the way, we looked down on a secluded, inaccessible cove, down sheer cliffs and saw several grey seals with their pups. Most of them on the shore, or two swimming. 

After St. David's Head, we walked back to Whitesands Bay, now a bit busier, with a few surfers. We went down to the beach to see the cliffs there, formed in the middle of the bay of Neoproterozoic (later Precambrian) lavas and tuffs. Quite a bit of this  was buried under the vegetated dunes with the best exposures towards the south end of the beach. As with the younger sediments either side of the bay, they were steeply dipping. The BGS map marked some closely spaced faults here. Another fault separated these older rocks from the lower Palaezoic to the south.

It was then that we were caught in a heavy rain shower coming in from the north, over St. David's Head. We dashed back along the beach, only for the sky to clear once we were inside the cafe. 

North Pembrokeshire coast St. Justinians to St. Non's Nay

St. Justinian's - Ramsey Sound - Porthlsyg Bay - Porth Clais - St. Non's

Wednesday 18th September

Sketches at http://artywater.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/sketches-from-north-pembrokeshire.html

Dry all day, with mix of cloud and sunshine. Cold in the windier bits. Paths busy in places, awkward where narrow and exposed near cliff edges.

Lifeboat station - St. Justinians

Ramsey Sound and Ramsey Island

Cambrian sandstone near St. Justinians

Took the 9:00am Celtic Coast bus (minibus) from Oriel y Parc  - all journeys £1 singles and got off at St. Justinian, near the Chapel ( in private garden) and lifeboat station. Outcrops of the grey-purple Cambrian sandstone. From here, we began walking south along the coast path, with Ramsey Sound and Ramsey Island on our right. There were several remote, sheltered coves, where we saw quite a few grey seals, in and out of the water, one of them being swept along by the pull of the tide, albeit at the shoreward edge. 

Grey seals

The tidal race through the Sound was impressive, the roughest bit being The Bitches – very choppy white water racing between rocks just offshore from the island, birds above the wake. On our side of the water, a gannet. As the Ramsey Sound is another area where water is funnelled through a narrow channel, I wasn't surprised to see strong currents / tidal racing here, the rocks at The Bitches, aggravating the turbulence. There was a definite strong movement of water all along the Sound, the tide ebbing. What was more, the rough water / the strong currents / white breakers / larger scale swells persisting some way out to sea, at least half the length of the island again. There was a full Moon on the Thursday (19^th), making for spring tides (more about that in a later entry about the Severn Bore). I would like to have spent more time here sketching, but it was cold in the wind.

Tidal Race in Ramsey Sound - "The Bitches"

Both the wind and the sea calmed down as we rounded the headland and began heading east along the coast, now facing the more sheltered St. Brides Bay. There were clear views all along the near coast towards Solva and all round St. Brides Bay to Skomer Island, silhouetted against the sun. The rock formations continued to impress, though we didn't see any more seals. Some horses, shortly after we rounded the headland. As we stopped for a snack and enjoyed the view, we were unaware of one quietly coming up the hill behind us.

Pebbles at Porthlysg Bay

Explored and had our packed lunches in Porthlysg Bay. Rock outcrops here guided by several faults in / near the bay trending southeast. In the cliffs another outcrop of the Cambrian purple grey and green sandstones, wedged between to faults. Pebbles on the shore of similar coloured conglomerate. Either side of this outcrop, the Neoproterozoic volcanics. Gold colour to these cliffs. Layers foliated, steeply dipping and contorted. There was granite, also Neoproterozoic, on the east side of the bay, though didn't get round to that on the shore, and it wasn't obvious when we walked over it back on the coastpath after our stop. While on the beach, I sketched looking out to sea, towards the islet just offshore, formed of the granite. Granite bounded on both sides by faults. Back on the Cambrian sequence, continued on to Porth Clais.

Porthlysg Bay

Just before we rounded the cliff above the harbour, view across to the steeply dipping thickly bedded sandstones, pictured in the geology books. The narrow harbour inlet here, is the outflow of the river Alun. The harbour was virtually empty at low tide, the boats high and dry, the river running as just a small trickle nearer the east side. A small stone harbour wall near the seaward end, only accessible on the east side. We followed the path up to the road and crossed the bridge over the stream at the head of the harbour, where we'd come through on the bus this morning. More lime kilns. The path then ran along the cliff on the east side. Strangely, looking back down to the harbour, we saw a guy drive a standard hatchback car down there. Though this wasn't a thickly mudded harbour, it still didn't look suitable for an afternoon drive. Hope he knew what the tie was doing and didn't stuck. As he stopped and appear to moor it to his boat, assumed he probably did, though the classic builders backside was in our full view as he bent over, stood at the forward end of his boat.

Porth Clais

Steeply dipping Cambrian sandstone beds at Porth Clais

Coasteerers near Porth Clais

Coasteerers near St. Non's

Above the next bay, we found somewhere down a bit, off the path overlooking more of the steeply dipping sandstones. I tried sketching them, initially interested in the rocks, but was diverted by a party of coaststeerers. These are people, in this case predominantly in this case big young burly blokes, in hard hats and wet suits who jump off cliffs and ledges into water. We watched them dive and splosh, some of the more expert ones somersaulting. They made their way through the natural arch to jump off somewhere a bit higher. We Saw them in action again on the other side of the promontory, then out of the water, heading from St. Non's Bay car park, following the same path as us into St.David's at the end of our walk.

Leaving the coast path at St.Non's, we passed the remains of a chapel, built on the site where St. Non is said to have given birth to St.David, in a storm, in the sixth century. A newer chapel further up the hill here. Where we left the coast path, a well and shrine.

 

Pembrokeshire Geology Notes

With reference to BGS Geological maps – Bedrock Geology 1:625000 south sheet, St. David’s Head 1:5000:

South Pembrokeshire  - mid Palaeozoic sedimentary - Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous . Shaped by the Variscan Orogeny during the late Carboniferous. Rocks highly folded and steeply dipping. SE Pembrokeshire is similar to The Gower, Carboniferous Limestone series, still part of the south Wales syncline. Mid Pembrokeshire, inland of St. Bride's Bay, mainly Silurian, Ordivician. Carboniferous Coal Measures at Newgale, at the north end of the bay, on the south side of the fault. North Pembrokeshire - remnants of the Caledonian Orogeny, during the mid-Palaeozoic. Numerous faults, mainly striking E-W, including Solva where the harbour has been eroded along a fault zone in Cambrian and Ordovician rocks. North of St. Bride's Bay, early (lower) Palaeozoic -  Cambrian and Ordivician sedimentary shales, mudstones and sandstone. Ordivician volcanics (rhyolite lavas, tuffs) north of St. David's Head, Ordivician intrusives - dolerite, gabbro at St. David's Head, forming the hills. Also Ordivician, intermediate diorite intrusions, including The Gribin at Solva - outcrops of a sill?  Neoproterozoic granites and volcanics - lavas, tuffs, agglomerates. Exposed at Whitesand Bay. In the Cambrian, the Solva Group - mudstones, sandstone, greywackes. Cambrian sequence along the coast between Solva and Porth Clais to the south of St.David's. These include the purple-grey sandstone used to build St. David's Cathedral. Interestingly, as on the Gower, some springs inland, the river Solva's headwaters issuing from them. As these rocks are very old, therefore well cemented, they will be impermeable. Perhaps water percolates along joints.

Pembrokeshire - Strumble Head and Carn Fawr

Sketches at http://artywater.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/sketches-from-north-pembrokeshire.html

Thursday 19th September

View south towards St.David's Head

After a later start because of the rain in the morning, we headed north of St. David’s to Strumble Head. On the way, we stopped at Croes-goch, where John Knapp Fisher, now 82, had his gallery in an earth red painted stone bungalow near the main road. We saw many of the paintings, or at least large reproductions of them, in the book about his artwork in Pembrokeshire Munros Man had bought at Oriel y Parc. The artist was there. He looked a bit frail, but is still painting strong and asked if we knew when the weather was clearing. Presumably he hoped to get out later and do some art work, if not walk the dog. The gallery was in two small rooms of the downstairs of the bungalow. He had a big plan chest of drawers with numerous notes and sketchbooks. Near the entrance, scrapbooks of press cuttings. I thought of my painter and printmaker father.

Leaving the gallery, we turned off the main road and followed the smaller, more fiddly lanes north towards Strumble Head. Parked in the car park on the east side of Garn Fawr, which was still shrouded in fog when we got there. Then, the weather quickly improved, the coast revealing itself. Followed the paths round the south side of Garn Fawr and down to the coast path near the youth hostel. This walk harder going than the ones around St. David’s Head and Solva earlier in the week, so didn't walk as far. The first bit was a narrow path, with wet long grass. Don't know whether it was the geology - Ordovician volcanics, but it made for more steeper, more undulating terrain. Some of the slopes were slippery after the rain. We didn't see many other people on the coast path here as around St. David’s. Most of them were at Strumble Head itself where there was another car park.

Garn Fower

The views were good, though, and we saw some more grey seals in the remote coves beneath the steep cliffs. Could see St.David's Head in the distance to the south, Carn Llidli and the other gabbro outcrops here prominent on the skyline. Behind us was Carn Fawr. Tried to sketch the Strumble Head lighthouse over lunch, but cold in the wind. Better views of lighthouse further along the coast path, on a rock islet, linked by a bridge.  Sketched near the gate up to the lighthouse. We couldn't go through it, but we saw some seals in the cove beneath it.

Grey seal beneath Strumble Head

Strumble Head lighthouse

For simplicity, we walked back along the road, rather than reversing the walk along the coast. Though much quicker, it was no fun. The road was very narrow, with a tiresome number of cars, even off the route to Strumble Head, going steeply up the hill up to the fort at Garn Fawr. It was also sheltered from the wind and hot going up the hill in the sun. Glad to finally be off the road, we climbed the last steep bit up to Garn Fawr (213m). From the top, a view across the fields and farms to the lighthouse. Here, we reflected on a good week away and ideas for future holidays, Pembrokeshire well worth another visit. This one had been long overdue.

Strumble Head from Garn Fawr

Moray Coast - Inverness

Sketch at Clachnaharry, Inverness

Once again, we had our main holiday in Scotland. My Munros Man had headed north on Saturday 11th May for another round of Munro climbing. I followed a few days later. After meeting him in Inverness on the Friday, we had a week in the Northwest Highlands at Gruinard Bay, based in a cottage. Munros Man left somewhat pessimistic about the weather. The arrival of spring in Scotland was been even later  than on the south coast of England, though it was cool and windy at the mouth of the River Arun  the  Saturday - not many beachgoers / ice creams sold. On the Tuesday I left to head north to Scotland,  the daytime temperature was about 10C, both in Inverness and back home. Nonetheless, the weather  cooperated for Munros Man at least some of the time, enabling him to climb five more Munros, though it was very cold. In In his text messages, he reported snow on the mountains:

Hi, T and cake after 1 Munro in driving wet snow, had 2 wear orange-tinted ski goggles, made it look like Mars! 

River Ness - Grieg Street Bridge

While he walked 13 miles, in "endless snow showers, but still caught the sun" and saw golden eagle, who saw his lunch on the Tuesday, I took the train to Gatwick and flew to Inverness. It was a dull, murky down south, though from the train, I waved to the River Arun, passing close to the spot where Munros Man proposed to me. It took time to sink in that I was getting married, but about a year later, we had our honeymoon in Scotland. There, Munros Man introduced me to the Northwest Highlands, before heading over to Speyside for the second week. I now looked forward to returning to these areas again, all the more after the tough time I had last year when I was unwell and very uncertain about the future.  It had been a while since I'd flown anywhere, so I was a bit nervous, not about flying, but the airport stuff. I arrived with about three hours to spare before take-off, in case of any agro with the trains. In the event, everything went smoothly and I enjoyed the flight, espeically, the cloud formations and glimpses of the Scottish coast shortly before the plane came in to land.  Saw both coasts, beginning with lochs, inlets and islets of the northwest coast, then the Moray coast close to Inverness, the airport being on the coast at Fort George.

After taking the  no.11 bus from the airport, I arrived in Inverness city centre early evening. After checking in at the B&B, I had dinner the Chinese restaurant overlooking the River Ness.

On Wednesday, I walked along the River Ness and Caledonian Canal, before taking the bus to Elgin, my base for revisiting the River Spey on Thursday.

Inverness - Wednesday 15th May

Ben Wyvis from Clachnaharry

Typical confusing Scottish weather. A bright start first thing, but then it clouded over. Rest of the day was, in the main, showery, with the best of the weather in the morning. Milder than expected when the sun broke through, out of the wind along the river, only for showers to come in promptly from the west. 

Began by following the river upstream from the Grieg Street footbridge along Huntly Street, past Ness Bridge and along Ness Walk. Views across to castle - only not a castle, apparently and spire which leaned after an earthquake in 1816. Supposedly a bottle of whisky hidden in one of the balls on the weather vane. Crossed over to the east side of the river at another footbridge, the Infirmary Bridge. A wide river considering it's only a few miles long. Carries a lot of the water feeding into Loch Ness around the Great Glen. Recall major flooding in Inverness in early 1989. You'd think that at lake as deep and big as  Loch Ness ( greatest depth 745 feet / 227m) could hold back the flood. However, as I contemplated during our  the drive along the lochside in the Great Glen during the first half of our trip home at the end of the holiday, the loch has a bathtub profile. This was excavated by a deep glacier during the last ice age. Anyway, however deep the bath, it will overflow if enough water pours in. Effectively, the River Ness is the overflow pipe for the entire Loch Ness catchment.

RMS Titanic model, Caledonian Canal

In contrast to the loch the river, appeared to be very shallow. A good fast flow to it, though faster further upstream where the tide from Moray Firth wasn't running against it. Some bugs about in the sheltered areas. Don't think the midges were out yet, but they made it feel uncomfortable out of the wind nonetheless.

I couldn't get over to the Ness Islands, as there was work going on, closing the bridge over there, which was a pity. Crossed back over to Bucht Park. Quite a bit of greenery along the river. Reckon spring was 2 or 3 weeks behind the south of England. Some of the bigger trees had yet to come out. Daffodils still flowering.

Muirtown Locks

A rain shower as I followed the road round the Bucht Park, near the sports centre. It eased off for a while when I walked up the bank to the Caledonian Canal, only to start again later on. A towpath on both sides, though a couple of awkward A'road crossings at swing bridges. First the A82, near where I joined the canal, then the A862 Beauly road just after the locks. Past a marina and a model of RMS Titanic, then shortly after that came to the Muirtown Staircase, a flight of 4 lochs. View down from there to the Kessock Bridge. After crossing the Beauly Road, followed the canal to its exit into the Beauly Firth at Clachnaharry. Stopped near the railway swingbridge to sketch the view beyond the railway crossing to the end of the canal. Beyond the Beauly Firth, the tops of the Ben Wyvis mountain range were still snow covered.  Men in orange hi-vis working on the swingbridge. When I first arrived, it was open. While I was sketching, they closed it to let the train pass over it a bit later, as I began heading back up the canal (in the rain). At the end if the canal, a lock keeper's cottage.  A big slab of rock, marking the end of the canal, built 200 years ago as a shortcut for shipping along the Great Glen.  I meant to sketch the Kessock Bridge from here, but the wind off the firth was very cold. 

Clachnaharry swing bridge / railway crossing

A heavy, longer shower funnelled along the firth, making for a  wet walk back over the railway and road to the locks. Dried out fairly quickly once it stopped. Shortcut back to the city centre along Fairfield Road. As we saw on the way to / from the NW Highlands, major work on the Kessock Bridge, in all weathers, closing one carriageway. It has been going on at least since February when Munros Man was up here for winter walking. The queues during peak times haven't stretched quite as far back as Ullapool (where the road signs warning of delays start), but around Inverness, they've been significant. West of the bridge Beauly Firth, into which the River Ness flows, Moray Firth eastwards. The bridge was completed in 1982. Apparently, there are seismic buffers on the north abutment, in case the Great Glen Fault, which heads offshore NE from Inverness to Shetland, gets moving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessock_Bridge

Kessock Bridge from Clachnaharry

Back in the city centre, the rain stopped for now, I picked up a sandwich and ate it by the river, not very comfortable, some irritating mossies. Also eyed up by herring gull. Signs up about not feeding gulls.

Finally, I believe a relatively obscure Scottish punk band released a single, Inverness - what a mess, in 1979. I don't remember it registering during my listening to the Radio 1 Top 40 rundown of a Sunday evening, though earlier in 2013, Jarvis Cocker played a burst of it during his Sunday Service show on BBC 6 Music as part of his A-Z of Peel feature.

All I can find online for now is
http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/prats.htm

Moray Coast - Lower River Spey and Spey Bay

Digital sketch based on Spey Bay (Samsung Galaxy tablet, Sketchbook Pro), May 2013

Spey Bay (May 2005)

Munros Man's drawing inspired by Spey Bay on honeymoon

Sketch of Spey Bay, May 2013

Thursday 16th May

I got just the weather I wanted for revisiting the lower Spey and Spey Bay today:  sunny, milder than yesterday, but not not oppressive. Took the bus to Fochabers from Elgin. I was a bit taken a back the steep fare, but it got me where I wanted to be. There is now a new bypass around Fochabers, freeing the village of the oppressive traffic along the A96 Inverness-Aberdeen road we saw here during the 1990s.  It opened last year, though there were now  roadworks in square, shifting the bus stops and confusing passengers.  

Spey below Fochabers

From the square, I followed the old road down to the community woodland along the River Spey and Speyside Way, passing Gordon Castle on my right and new roundabout. This was mixed woodland.  The path ran under old and newer Spey bridges, the latter now carrying the main road, the former now a footbridge. Red sandstone cliff far side (Devonian), along with Baxters of Speyside, passed on the bus - soup etc. On the old bridge over a metre above ground level, a floodmark for 17th August 1970.  This was the highest recorded flood level on the Spey during the twentieth century - records for the gauge at Boat O'Brig dating back to 1952, part of the National River Flow Archive, now held by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. 

http://www.ceh.ac.uk/data/nrfa/index.html

There was an even bigger flood in 1829, also affecting the River Findhorn.

On the nearer pillar of new bridge, " Stod Boys".

Walked north from here to Spey Bay, roughly following the  Speyside Way, with some diversions nearer the river. The first bit of the path was a narrow stretch  through Bellie Wood; mixed woodland, then along the edge of Warren Wood, conifers. Mostly forestry tracks and shorter stretches along river bank. Gorse now flowering. Anglers thigh deep, though not in fastest bits of water. River fast but not angry or menacing looking, taking on  the colour of the sky. Peaty water, with a bedload of boulders and sand.

Came to a bend with high bank on the far side of the river, with layers of sand, silt and gravel layers on the red sandstone bedrock (photo above). Presumablyy river deposits laid down since the last ice age. A thin yellow line of a rape seed field on top, a red painted house beyond.

Spey below Fochabers

Moving downstream, the river became increasingly braided flowing between islets of boulders, some of them vegetated, with well-established grass, weed and bushes, particularly near Garmouth viaduct. A sign by the path, told the story of the Spey's habit of changing course:

Garmouth viaduct

Restless River - Shifting Shingle - Going with the flow  - Rivers take their course (Shakespeare ) -  Story of a stone - journey 1829-2000 from mountains, along river to Bay shingle. Moving and shaking  - longshore drift of shingle west towards  Lossiemouth, versus fast, relatively large river shifting channels, breaking through at different points. Spey, still a relatively unalterd natural river, almost as it was around 10,000 years ago, after the ice melted at the end of the last ice age. Most other rivers around Britain have constrained messed about, not least the Lossie, glimpsed from the bus on the eastern side of Elgin (see Lossiemouth entry). Every 30 years or so, they have to recut a new channel through the shingle to stop the village of Kingston, on the west side of the river,  being flooded. Kingston is named after Kingston-upon-Hull, after two Yorkshireman set up a shipbuilding business here in the late eighteenth century, using timber floated down the Spey from the Strathspey forests.

View looking along the Spey towards the sea from the Garmouth viaduct

Near the viaduct was floodplain wood - usually waterlogged and flooded by the river in spate. It was restored from 1998, though lots of trees lost were lost  during a major flood in November 2000 flood. The wood comprised alders  and other marsh / moisture loving plants.

Crossed the Garmouth viaduct - over and back again to the Speyside Way. This was once a railway crossing, now part of cycle route taking in a big loop along the Moray coast and inland round to Grantown-on-Spey. The path along the middle was narrow, girders either side with the river visible through gaps between them. Views through structure towards Spey Bay and upriver towards Ben Rinnes (granite). Kayakers went with the flow, under the viaduct. Saw them later at the Bay.

Near Spey Bay

The mouth of the Spey

At Spey Bay were the Tugnet icehouse and the Scottish Dolphin Centre (visitor centre) near the car park. There are sometimes dolphin sitings here, though nothing today. Further along the coast a hotel Spey Bay Hotel, painted on its roof.  Various birds - terns;  some ducks and swans on the calmer, shallower stretches of water among islets, away from the main channel and fast current.  Certainly a very dynamic looking coast, the shifting shingle, built up into a high bank above the main beach. Lots of woody debris strewn along the beach and along the river, washed dowriver during spates, including some sizeable trees. The tide appeared to be coming in while I was watching, so didn't get to see the full-on battle of speedy Spey versus North Sea. Even so, this went to show the potential power of this river, the fastest flowing major river in the British Isles. I was drawn to its mouth in the same way as that of the Arun down south, though there the rough waters are due to the tide, rather than strong currents of freshwater flowing against it.

The river flow is so strong that the tide only travels half a mile upstream river, even though the Spey reaches sea level above the Garmouth viaduct.

View across the Spey to Kingston

At river mouth, current apparently slowed by incoming tide, but still (note5) - sea waves deflected / converging. Eve

n with oncoming tide, definite movement of water out of river - exaggerated in pencil sketches. Sea relatively calm, with waves breaking near shore, none out to sea. No wind off the sea, being southerly. Lunch on the Bay, facing river - for wind to keep midges off. Upriver, sheltered, definitely midges about so didn't want to stop long anywhere.  pleasing variety of pebbles / boulders on beach. A change from ubiquitous flints from chalk down south.

RAF Rescue helicopter over the Spey

A variety of pebbles on the beach, brought down the Spey since the end of the Ice Age. They reflect the varied geology along the the Spey and its tributaries: Old Red Sandstone, quartzite, granite from the Cairngorms and Beinn Rinnes, granulite, along with schists, slates and phylittes, part of the metamorphic formations of the Dalradian and Moine complexes. Today, I spotted some granite, quartzite and red sandstone conglomerate. 

Sketch the view upriver from the beach, looking towards the viaduct, as I had much lunch facing the breeze. It was a southerly wind blowing along a north facing coast. Disorientatingly for someone used to a south facing coast, it wasn't off the sea, instead it was blowing downriver over Ben Rinnes (still a patch of snow here). A dynamic, changing sky to go with dynamic beach. A few drips on bay, otherwise the showers held off. Views west along the coast to Lossiemouth. Beyond it the higher ground jutting further out to sea on far side of Moray Firth. a wigwam shelter built on beach from driftwood branches.

As Rescue helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth, flew along coast from W, overhead, upriver, then back again over the bay out to sea to east. I saw one of these here in 2005, too. 

Busy in the car park / around the visitor centre. Mosaics, including leaping salmon, snake, birds, designed in 1988 as part of a project by local school children. More artwork / sculpture added around the visitor centre since my last visit: an eagle grasping a salmon in its talons. In the courtyard, a wall painted with yachts,  small bits of driftwood forming the hulls; A wall of netting strewn with scallop shells; and tree scultpture: Christian Gunn, Diving Cetacean. Indeed the upended base of the big tree trunk, excavated from the Spey Bay shingle, did look like a dolphin's tail. On the green area outside, a group of wood carvings together depicting a swimming dolphins. Good to see there was now a cafe in the visitor centre.  Had a tea and scone there. 

Christian Gunn, "Diving Cetacean"

Leaving the cafe, I did some very quick pencil sketches on the beach, before taking a faster, more direct walk back following the Speyside Way to Fochabers. Got on bus about 4.45pm, opposite Baxters of Speyside, after making my farewells to the Spey, crossing the old bridge to the Old Toll House. 

Now here's to the Severn Bore...

Links and Notes

http://www.scottishgeology.com/geo/regional-geology/grampian/spey-bay/

There's an impressive photo of the Spey in spate at the Garmouth viaduct in 2009 on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spey_in_spate_at_Garmouth.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Spey

Driftwood at the mouth of the Spey

Just before coming away, I found a free download online from the Moray Punk band, Genetic Mutation, called Spey Bay Area Hardcore (ref the [San Francisco] Bay Area Hardcore punk genre . It's mostly 1min:39 seconds of noise; the lyrics are hardly profound or sublime, though the volume and pace of the track seems reminiscent of the River Spey in furious spate. 

Link to video (track) on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM8YCSqT1uQ

My Spey Bay / River Spey videos on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsFPtEOqxio&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI2ydZ7AqOQ

You Tube also has quite a few canoeing videos along the Spey, including rapids nicknamed The Washing Machine. This is one of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo4AHjaj2Vo

Moray coast - Lossiemouth - Friday 17th May

Lossiemouth sketch

Cloudier than yesterday, but dry. Better than forecast. Before heading back to Inverness to meet up with Munros Man during the afternoon, I took the bus from Elgin to Lossiemouth. I seen it up the coast from Spey Bay, had heard of RAF Lossiemouth and the their aircraft, so I was curious to look round.  After stopping at the gates of RAF Lossiemouth, on the south side. I got off in the square. Most the town was on a cliff above the harbour, between the West Beach and East Beach. Came down to a marina with sturdy harbour walls on the sea facing north side. 

River Lossie

From here, I walked round to the more interesting of the two beaches, the East Beach and the mouth of the River Lossie. This river, much slower flowing than the Spey and the Findhorn either side of it along the NE coast, meanders through Elgin, though away from the city centre, near the Cathedral ruins / Biblical Gardens. I didn't really see it there, separated from the city by the main road. Also some very involved flood defence work going on around there. Glimpsed this on the bus back from Fochabers yesterday. It all looked a bit barren, rather hemming in the relatively narrow river. 

At Lossiemouth, it was tidal, diverted westwards along the coast by longshore drift - the direction of drift along this coast is the reverse of that on the English Channel coast of southern England, with weather fronts often coming in from the east. It flowed behind sand dunes separating it from the wide sandy beach. I hadn't expected a sandy beach: I'd thought it would be shingle drifted along the coast from Spey Bay. A bridge across the river to the dunes and beach. Behind me fishermen's cottages on shore, built with longer walls perpendicular to sea. Did my sketch (photo above) in this area before walking back up the hill and round towards the West Beach. Further along the West Beach a tall white lighthouse, though it wasn't as attractive as the East Beach, the dunes occupied by a golf course.

River Lossie and cloud coming in from the east

West Beach and the lighthouse