Walk to Egypt

Grey Granite and Rufus walked, under wide Buchan skies, along the back road from Craigiefold towards New Aberdour. On the left the hanging stone on Gallows Hill was conspicuous standing sentinel above a field of barley. Grey Granite has seen this stone hundreds of times, but having recently read Hilary Mantell's extraordinary novel, Woolf Hall, with its vivid descriptions of public executions of various sorts, the stone in what now seems a tranquil location, sent a shudder down her spine. She wonders what terrible scenes this field must have witnessed.

The main objective of the walk was to check that there is still a stranded railway carriage by the dam at Ironhill Farm.

Grey Granite was pleased to see that the carriage has survived recent building work and is still in place, bizarrely decorated with bird boxes and planters. There is a duck house attached to one end.

 

Grey Granite and Rufus continued to along the road, passing Stonebrigs, where Rufus was astonished to meet a flock of indignant peacocks, peahens and chicks. As Rufus passed some of the peacocks strutted self importantly across the road, rustling their tail feathers, reminding Grey Granite of  a photograph of Queen Alexandra, complete with bustle.

Beyond Stonebrigs is Egypt Farm, apparently  so named after a gypsy encampment. From the farm road end onwards there are impressive views of the cliffs across  New Aberdour Bay and beyond. By now there were heavy rain clouds gathering, showers were clearly moving round the coast. Grey Granite and Rufius had clearly had 'the best of the day'.

Bluebells Campanula rotundifolia

This magnificent clump was growing in the ditch close to the Hanging Stone. These, according to folk lore are used by fairies to make hats and are rung by them as  a warning to hares of approaching danger.

Rufus at the Swallow Pool

Grey Granite and Rufus walked beyond the Point of Ironhill in glorious sunshine this afternoon. They noticed several changes since they were this far over the Wastart a few days ago. Their last visit was before the heavy rain of Wednesday when 38mm was recorded at Rosehearty weather Station. Everywhere the vegetation has greened up and is looking refreshed. The Pouk Burn was running fast and the sound of rushing water was audible above the reeshling of the reeds in the marsh.The Swallow Pool just before the Piper's Gwyte had dried up completely several weeks ago but today was brimming with water again.

Rufus, who has probably never seen the pool full of water, felt that this strange phenomenon ought to be fully investigated so he intrepidly waded in to the shallow water.

There was a flock of sheep grazing on the cliffs above the Pinkie Shore. This included several magnificently horned rams.

 Looking back at the Point of Ironhill from the cliffs above the Auld Mill Shore Grey Granite realised how aptly named it is, particularly at low water. A small flock of gulls was wheeling beneath the cliffs, their calls magnified by the cliff face. There are several patches of rather dwarfed bluebells in the heather on the cliff tops, a reminder that summer is well advanced.

Van Gogh at Chapelton

Grey Granite and Rufus had a hot but leisurely Sunday walk from Happy Hillock, round to Red House farm, where they explored the start of the track to Percyhorner, returning home by way of Bridgend of Phingask and Chapelton. From the start the walk went well, we saw a flotilla young ducklings on the burn near Happy Hillock, there were swallows, a languid heron  and many butterflies (mainly painted ladies). The track by Chapelton is unspoilt by herbicides and has dense flowers along the verges, these form an ever changing tapestry attracting many butterflies. The  gowans are particularly beautiful at present. Grey Granite was reminded, by the wide sky and quality of the light on the ripening grain fields,  of some of the Van Gogh Arles period 'wheatfield' paintings she has seen at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

The dairy cows at Red House found Rufus particularly interesting and came to peer over the fence at him.

Grey Granite was entranced by an elegant roe buck which bounded across one of the Van Gogh the wheat fields. The deer was absolutely silent and seemed quite unhurried as it bounded clear of the wheat up the brae side. It paused several times to look back; Grey Granite could clearly see his rusty pelt , short antlers and rather long alertly swivelling ears. Grey Granite felt privileged to have such a good view of so beautiful an animal. 

Last casualty of WW2 in Scotland

Pitblae, looking towards Greenbank

Grey Granite is reading an excellent book by Les Taylor,  'Luftwaffe over Scotland'. From this she has learned that the North East was nicknamed 'Hellfire Corner' during WW2 because of the frequency of German raids on the area. Fraserburgh received 23 bombing attacks and Rosehearty 4. The lighthouse at Rattery made a good landmark for enemy aircraft approaching over the North Sea from Norway and it was then a very easy flight to the busy harbour areas of Peterhead and Fraserbugh with their associated industries, notably the huge Consolidated Pneumatic toolworks factory,  ' The Toolies' in Fraserburgh. German crews who had failed to find their targets jettisoned bombs over the area before returning to Norway. Grey Granite clearly remembers her mother and aunts talking over the Rosehearty raids during the 1950's. Her Gran described running out on to the Cairnhill for safety when the German planes came over. There were stories of Germans flying low over the town and machine gunning Pitsligo Street, of standing in the Square at night to watch the raids on passing convoys and the bombing of a house in Pitsligo Street in which several people were killed. These stories made attacks sound like regular events so vividly were they described. From her reading Grey Granite has learned that the last actual casualty of the war was a Mrs McGregor who lived in Greenbank Cottage. On 21st April 1943 a Dornier which had failed to find it's target in Peterhead flew over Fraserburgh at jettisoned 9 high explosive bombs in the vicinity of Smiddyhill, North Pitblae and Greenbank Croft.(Grey Granite and Rufus regularly walk round this area, although it is rapidly disappearing under new housing)  Mrs McGregor went to her door when she heard the plane and was injured by a slate, dislodged by the blast of the bombs, falling from her roof. This was the last air raid of the war on Scotland.

Grey Granite was pleased to find Corn Marigolds, (Chrysanthemum segetum) growing at the edge of a barley field at Pitblae. Once common to the point of being a nuisance, these cheerful flowers are declining because of the increased use of weedkillers.

Known as gules, the marigolds were hated because they were slow to dry out and caused straw to rot.

'The gule, the Gordon and the hoodie craw are the three warst things that Moray ever saw'

Point of Ironhill 2

Grey Granite and Rufus made the most of the glorious morning following yesterday's gale by walking over the Wastart, reaching the Point of Ironhill. The Pouk Burn was flowing fast after the heavy rain which fell in the area yesterday and Rufus enjoyed paddling in the main channel before attempting to catch the small cloud of small blue butterflies flitting about over the boggy area. There was a flock of curlews plaintively calling as they circled  round the Pouk and Silver Gwyte . Grey Granite thought this an autumnal sound.

 

It was a very hot morning and Grey Granite and Rufus enjoyed the cooler breeze on the high  cliff tops between the Pinkie Shore (above) and the Point of Ironhill (Below) There was  a large raft of gulls on the water, but no sign of the dolphins this often indicates and which we have yet to spot this year.

At the Point Grey Granite was again  pleased to find a black guillemot, this time swimming in the Lady's Basin and showing off his red wellies. Grey Granite has a great affection for the small colony of these birds which has inhabited this patch of sea for several years. She admires their smart dense plumage, their vivid scarlet  legs and their air of complete self containment when swimming off shore. She often wonders what attracts the birds to this particular place, they are almost always here, but are infrequent else where along the Wastart. On each of two recent visits only one bird has been seen, in previous years  Grey Granite has counted as many as five. This is a little concerning given the general decline in all the auks in recent years.

Evening light on the Wastart

The last couple of evening have been perfect for Wastart walks - mild with wonderful clear light. At 8.30 the temperature has been 17.5c. Grey Granite and Rufus have enjoyed pottering as far as Craig Ogston admiring the orchids and enjoying the calm evenings. There have been several small boats out in the bay, last night joined by a canoeist and line fishermen on the rocks by the car park. In the low sunlight the gannets look especially bright white. Grey Granite was surprised last night to see  a group of 3 herons in  a slow ponderous fly past towards Quarry Head. They were quite far out to sea and flying as a group, crying harshly to each other as they flew. Grey Granite thinks that herons are more numerous this year but usually sees solitary birds closer to shore along the Wastart.

Walk to the Point of Ironhill

Grey Granite, Rufus and Dr Anne enjoyed a companionable walk over the Wastart. This was the first time Dr Anne had experienced the Wastart and she was impressed by the range of wildflowers. Both Grey Granite and Dr Anne thought that the heather coming into bloom was a sign that summer has reached it's zenith. They walked through the fields as far as Haven of Braco then along the rocks to the piper's Gwyte (pictured), the Pouk and beyond to the Point of Ironhill, returning along the rocks. The Point is one of Grey Granite's favourite places for birdwatching and the trio were not disappointed seeing several species including cormorants, fulmars, black backed gulls and kittiwakes and  a few seals. Grey Granite was particularly pleased to spot a black guillemot

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/blackguillemot/index.aspx

swimming in red wellies some distance off shore.Grey Granite has  a particular attachment to this beautiful species, to the small colony at Ironhill especially. The roseroot is now in flower on the cliffs of the Lady's Basin.

Close to the Round Brae a snipe crossed the track, the first Grey Granite has seen here, although she is reliably  told that they used to be common.

Pitheughie

Yesterday being very hot, 21.5c by 10.00, Grey Granite and Rufus decided on a pottering about sort of walk on 'The Heights' behind Pitheughie, the ruined mill on the Wastart. Here there was gentle breeze and an extraordinarily rich flora in what, at first sight, seems an unpromising 'nothing but heather' place.

Already the bell heather (Pronounced vulgar by Queen Victoria) is starting to flower, but amongst it are the yellow stars of  tormentil and, in places, so many orchids that it is impossible not to walk on them. In damper spots bog asphodel is just opening, there are marsh thistles and heath bedstraw. Everywhere in the boggy places are the small round leaves of marsh pennywort, after years of searching and close peering, Grey Granite has yet to see it flower. All these attract many butterflies, we saw several small blues, and a host of six spot burnet moths and what were probably large heaths. The food plant for the burnets is birds' foot trefoil which, earlier in the season, was flowering plentifully right across the Wastart.

Marsh thistle (Cirsium palustre)

Wall Pepper (Sedum acre)

As we left the Wastart we were surprised to see several patches of yellow stonecrop or wall pepper (Sedum acre) growing on near vertical rocks near the Mill Shore where Grey Granite has never previously noticed it. Rufus carried out a close investigation.

New Aberdour, the Boat Shore

When Grey Granite was Acting Head at New Aberdour School she noticed a lane leading behind the school and was told that this leads down to the Boat Shore. Grey Granite and Rufus decided to explore the lane. The lane leads down towards Mains of New Aberdour, there are excellent views towards Quarry Head and since the lane is quite untouched by herbicides there is a rich and varied flora, including the hawk weed below.

As they walked down the lane Rufus and Grey Granite could hear larks singing over head and watched small blue butterflies and cabbage whites. They were surprised to see  a tall ship out in the bay  and assumed that it was connected to the Portsoy Boat Festival. Being an aging Hippy grey Granite found the words of 'Sloop John B' running through her head. However, a friendly postie who stopped to admire Rufus told Grey Granite that it was the training ship Lord Nelson.

http://www.jst.org.uk/lord-nelson.aspx

Aberdour Shore was reached via the road down to the old church. At the deserted beach yellow flag irises were just going over and the spear wort was coming into bloom in the damp areas. Grey Granite was interested to note that an lower, presumably older basin, has been revealed at St Drostan's Well. Rufus, who was feeling the heat, enjoyed a drink from the well before the climb over the cliff to the Boat Shore.

On the climb down to the boat Shore Grey Granite noticed a patch of thyme and kidney vetch growing on the dry sandstone cliff face, in damper areas there are patches of ragged robin, campions and meadow sweet.

At the shore, where the coarse sand has a distinct reddish tinge from the sandstone and conglomerates, the intrepid Rufus hugely enjoyed digging and tried his paw at sea bathing. Grey Granite and Rufus spent sometime relaxing on the beach listening to the seals singing off shore whilst  watching the gannets fly past and  a particularly elegant heron perching on the cliff above the cave, deciding to go home only when they were hungry.

On the climb back up the cliff Grey Granite saw two small blue butterflies and a several fritillaries.

It was dissappointing that the style which Grey  Granite remembers as leading to  a short cut back to the road has been vandalised along with a considerable amount of fencing near the car park. However, Grey Granite and Rufus enjoyed the expedition and intend repeat it shortly taking suitable provisions (Mini Bonios, muesli bars and bananas) with them. Rufus, Grey Granite reflects, is already the perfect companion for such expeditions.