walking the rainbow trail: Walk round the Pits of Hell

This morning was the first time that Rufus has walked on Rosehearty beach, the sand is remarkably white and is often littered with cowrie shells. Grey Granite remembers collecting these lucky shells, called John o' Groats, for their supposed place of origin, when she was a very small child. There were many waders , including ubiquitous oyster catchers, along the shoreline.

As we turned up by Mains of Pittullie, the sun broke through the clouds. The bright blue flowers are monkshood.

Pitulie Castle, memorably described by Charles McKean as being in, 'the delectable flatlands round Fraserburgh and as, 'sitting like a stranded battleship in the midst of fields within sight of Pitsligo Castle'. This small but pretensiously ornate chateau was built by the Frasers of Philorth from 1596.

Trees at Peathill, almost all the sycamores and ash trees are now bare the alders seem to retain their leaves longest. There were rooks circling and cawing above the wood as we passed

The ruins of the auld kirk at Peathill, built by Lord Pitsligo (1632) in response to a ranting sermon by an Aberdour minister about the 'three Pits of Hell - Pitsligo, Pittullie and Pitendrum' The birdcage bellcote was carved by Dutch masons and erected firstly in the courtyard of Pitsligo Castle so that the dying Lord Pitsligo could see it from his deathbed.

Bare autumnal trees but the new green shoots of recently sown grain are already forming a mantle of green over the fields. The cycle of constant regeneration of life continues as on Darwin's tangled bank.

Pitsligo Castle, a gradually decaying treasure, the square tower on the right is the original part of the castle and dates from 1424

One of the Burgh of Rosehearty boundary stones, Grey Granite is irked by the recent sanctioned vandalism, which in the misguided interests of clarity, resulted in the clumsy daubing of black paint on each of the stones.