Flooding at Philorth

The heavy rain of four days ago, when 58mm fell in 24 hours at Rosehearty, has caused extensive flooding in the fields along the Philorth section of the Buchan Line.



The Water of Philorth and tributaries have burst their banks

The flooding has attracted many gulls, including black headed and herring gulls. This afternoon there were four herons solemnly standing in the flood water at the far side of Mill Haugh. There was a large flock of lapwings moving from loch to loch on the North side of the line, geese were flying in from the sea but passed over towards Strathbeg as did a single swan, trumpeting noisily as it went. (Later in the evening thousands of geese flew over Fraserburgh towards Strathbeg)





A late flowing dog rose near Philorth Station. We also noted a single harebell and the remains of pink and white campions. Many trees along the Line and in the Philorth Woods are almost bare of leaves.



Philorth woods, a new route

Grey Granite and Rufus explored a new route this afternoon. Setting out from Corbie Hill they walked past Philorth Halt and down to Philorth woods, following the path through the woods to emerge at the rather spookily neglected South Lodge. The muddy track skirts The Wilderness then leads along a rhododendron lined avenue of magnificent trees; oaks, horse chestnuts, sycamores and the splendid copper beech pictured above. Unfortunately, it also leads past  a large German Shepherd dog. There were huge bunches of ash and sycamore keys along with conkers lying under the trees, presumably casualties of the recent gales.

Shortly before the Lodge a track leads off to the left by Kempen Hillock, emerging from the estate woods East of Mains of Philorth. We explored this track before returning to the main (dubby) track through the woods. During this diversion we heard, but did not se, a clamorous rookery in a group of tall pines at the edge of the wood. This explains the presence of the vast groups of rooks we have seen  on the Line and in the harvested corn fields close to this point.

The dookit at The Gash

From the Gash a pleasant tarred road leads past Mains of Philorth and over the fast flowing Water of Philorth enabling the Line to be joined at Craigiewan for the familiar walk back to our starting point.





Late Rosa rugosa and hips in the hedge at Craigiewan, along the line we saw greater bindweed, tansy, rosebay willow herb, hawk weed and pink and white campion. There were pheasants in Wet Fold and a few swallows swooping over Mill Haugh.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Grey Granite remembers her Dad often (annually) quoting W.H.Davies:

'Welcome to you rich Autumn days,

Ere comes the cold, leaf-picking wind;

When golden stooks are seen in fields

All standing arm-in-arm entwined;

And gallons of sweet cider seen

On trees in apples red and green.'

The gales of the last few days have brought autumn precipitously upon us. Geese honk in the evening skies, there are red berries on the hawthorns, leaves have been striped from exposed trees. The chestnuts deep in the Philorth woods are more sheltered but are yellowing and shedding conkers.

Yesterday the Wastart had taken on a seared autumn look with huge field mushrooms in the grass and  a sudden dearth of flowers.

There was  still a huge swell leaving Crag Ogston Pot a boiling cauldron

At the Mill Shore sea foam has blown over the rocks in rather a horrid wobbling mass. Rather more attractive blobs of foam detached themselves and blew inland. Rufus was much amused these but much perplexed by the impossibility of picking them up.

Some flotsam was less ephemeral....

Mary Warnock in the Observer

Rose hips at Monthooly

Grey Granite has long been an admirer of Mary Warnock and was particularly interested in this article which appeared in The Observer on Sunday 5 September 2010

We must learn morality from each other, not God

The latest outbreak of hostilities between atheists and believers rehearses the same old confusion about what God stands for Thursday's headline in the Times, "Hawking: God did not create the Universe", reached new depths of absurdity. It provoked an immediate outbreak of hostilities between atheists and believers, raising again the question of the status of religion in an age of scientific advance that has been accelerating since the Enlightenment. Hawking appears to believe (and so far I can judge only from the extracts in the Times magazine, Eureka) that he has proved the nonexistence of God. But the trouble with his proof, as with so much religious discussion, is that he takes the name "God" to be used to refer to an object that exists (or does not exist) in the world as other natural objects exist.


And most people who are religious believers fall into the same confusion. They assume that God the Creator is a being, albeit supernatural, to whom can be ascribed other praiseworthy attributes, who can be identified with God the Loving Father, or God the Founder of all Morality, who literally, at one and the same time laid down both natural laws and moral principles.


It would be as well if people could take time off from the battle to read Section XI of David Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. It isn't very long. But it contains the argument that even if we could infer from the nature of the world that God must have created it (a fashionable form of theology in the 18th century), this would be a useless inference, since we would have no grounds for ascribing any other characteristics to this creator. All the characteristics usually attributed to the deity – that he is morally perfect, that he loves his creatures, that his human creations are images of himself – all these are quite gratuitous additions to the inferred creative function. We would be landed with a God about whom nothing could be said except that he made the world.


The antagonists in the present engagement might prefer to read Kant, who denied that God's existence could be either proved or disproved, but held that all our language about God must be metaphorical. To think otherwise, he wrote, would be grossly anthropomorphic. Whence could we get the idea of perfect goodness or infinite forgiveness except from our knowledge of human goodness and human forgiveness?


The great monotheistic religions are powerful works of the human imagination that have woven themselves deeply into our culture. To some people, their imagery still appeals most strongly; their narratives convey truths and insights not elsewhere available. To others, they no longer have any but historical significance. The mischief done to science and religion by the current battle lies in the belief that all truth must be literal truth. One thing is certain. Just as, if Hawking is right, we do not need the idea of God to teach us the origin of the universes around us, so we do not need the idea of God to teach us what is good and what is bad. We can learn this from society itself, not from tablets of stone handed down from Mount Sinai.


Whatever the continuing role of religion today, in philanthropy, in education, in ceremonial, in music, in personal comfort and hope, there is no obligation to believe. We can value things without God to tell us what is valuable. We know, without faith, that love is better than war.

Mormond Hill

Evening sunshine on Hunters Lodge

For over half a century Grey Granite has harboured an ambition to reach the Hunters Lodge on Mormond Hill. This she has at last achieved, having walked to the Lodge one evening last week. This was after after several earlier abortive attempts to find ways up the hill which were not blocked by cattle and other obstacles. We ascended the hill by walking along a footpath from Brandsbog to the quarry on Pluck Hill. From here  well defined tracks, grassy but with large edging stones, zig-zag across the hill to reach the summit ridge where a line of conifers leading towards the lodge is followed. The white horse is below these conifers but cannot be seen  from above. Approaching the lodge it becomes surprising how large it is, not the 'wee hoosie' on the top of Mormond Hill that it appears to be from the Buchan flatlands.

The two storey lodge was built around 1779 by Captain Fraser, Lord Lovat of Strichen. An inscription above the lintel reads: 'In this Hunter's Lodge Rob Gib commands, MDCCLXXIX.' According to local tradition Rob Gib was a locally born  court jester to either King James V (1513 - 1542), James VI or Charles II who said "I serve your Majesty for stark love and kindness". The name  Robb Gib was used in a covert loyal toasts by Jacobites so it is possible that the inscription is a political statement in support of Charles Edward Stewart who was still alive and in exile when the lodge was built.

The ground floor of the Lodge consisted of just one room, used by Lord Strichen and his guests after a days hunting on the hill. The fire place was said to be large enough to roast  a deer. The upstairs provided accommodation for the estate gamekeeper.

 Mormond Hill has 2 summits, both rising to around 230m here looking from behind the lodge to the Waughton Hill summit. This is covered in 'saucers and masts',  the remains of 'Station 44 of the US North Atlantic Radio System (NARS), which followed the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, and provided a similar function, serving as an early warning radar system between 1961 and 1992. While the DEW Line was originally intended to provide a warning of enemy bombers, the later NARS system was intended to warn of missile launches. The station was built in 1960, as the penultimate link in a chain of radio sites reaching from Iceland to Fylingdales in Yorkshire.' (Secret Scotland)  The dishes and masts are now used by various telecommunication companies including Bt.

Following her death in Hollywood Lorna Moon's ashes were returned to Scotland and scattered close to the Hunter's Lodge.  On the evening when Grey Granite visited the Lodge the peat reek rose in a feint cloud from Strichen and could be smelt, incense like, on the hill.

The lodge fireplaces, the orange rectangles are the setting sun shining through window spaces in the west wall of the ruin.

Garmouth Standing Stones

Garmouth standing stones, probably the remains of  a 'four poster'

Looking over Spey Bay from the Water Tower hill in Garmouth

Grey Granite recently visited Garmouth, where Charles 11, seeking restoration to the throne, signed the Solemn League and Covenant in 1650.  Grey Granite was, more modestly, seeking the Garmouth standing stones. The stones are situated beside a late 19th century water tower which has panoramic views over Spey Bay