Seacliff beach is not far from North Berwick, so we visited one afternoon in March as part of our gadding-about-the-countryside explorations. To reach the carpark on the cliffs above the beach, you drive down a very very rutted muddy lane, enclosed by trees. On a cold March day, it wasn't particularly inviting, indeed, it had a touch of spookyness about it.
We left the car and followed the path down through a sparse wood towards the beach.
Near the beach, we looked up to see this lurking on the cliff above us: the ruins of Auldhame Castle. Look at the size of the central window.
A stream ran down from somewhere near the castle. The village of Auldhame used to be on the the headland, but the castle is now all that remains of it. Seacliff beach and the surrounding area was used as a base for troops attacking Tantallon castle (which is only about half a mile from Seacliff), so quite possibly the disappearance of the village is linked.
Another shot of the stream, and the ruin brooding mysteriously on the cliff top.
A few steps farther on, and we had our first sight of Seacliff Beach.
The rocky outcrop that you can see to the right of the picture hides St Baldred's Cave. This is much touted in the area, but is really quite small, little more than a rock overhang. Not a proper cave at all, really. St Baldred was an 8th Century Christian missionary who was based just a little way down the coast from here, so there are many St Baldred's [whatevers] scattered about.
Looking out to sea across the beach. There are a line of rocks jutting out to sea at the far end of the beach. These are known as St Baldred's Boat, presumably because he came ashore near here. I haven't found anything about him being wrecked, although if he had been wrecked it would fit nicely with him having to shelter in the cave named after him.
There were lovely big rollers coming in off the North Sea.
We crossed the stream and headed to our left, to explore around the headland at the near end of the beach. Walking under the cliffs, we saw this:
Someone really didn't want anyone getting on their land! I thought there was something utterly ridiculous about the attempt to put such a large fence all the way to the edge of a sandstone cliff that's constantly eroding. Further round the coast, there's concrete fencing like this enclosing the land that an MOD radar station/look out occupies. That's fair enough; but here, the cliffs are just occupied by fields.
Crossing the beach towards the sandstone outcrop which is known as the Gegan ("Churchman's Haven" - another reference to our friend Baldred. Unfortunately, whenever I read about St Baldred, my mental image defaults to Blackadder...) The blocks lying around are all man made, evidence of storm damage by the looks of it.
First glimpse of a man made structure: a slipway cut into the natural rock. The secret harbour is just beyond this; in fact, you're looking right at it, and you can see it if you know what you're looking at - otherwise, it's just rock. If you click on this photo it will take you through to the photo on flickr. If you hover your mouse over it you can see the notes I've made to indicate the harbour.
As you approach the slipway you come out beyond the headland, and get your first view up the coast towards Tantallon.
We climbed up over the rocks onto the Gegan, and came face to face with this:
The secret harbour! M and D expressed as much surprise as I did; apparently they didn't know about it either. Well, M didn't, D knew of its existance, but didn't know this is where it was. He used to sail out of North Berwick with a friend who knew about the harbour and was looking for it, though they never did find it. That's Tantallon lurking imposingly in the background.
Here's the harbour in colour. The water hasn't been photoshopped, it was that amazing blue-green colour.
The harbour and slipway were built in 1890, by order of Andrew Laidlay, who was the Laird of Seacliff at the time. A steam engine and compressed air were used to cut the sandstone; I think that's what's responsible for the horizontal lines across the rock face (though at least some of them are natural).
The pool in the foreground was excavated specially. The fishermen landed their catch here, and in order to ensure that the lobsters, crabs and fish were kept at their freshest, they were kept in this basin. The basin would have had a wooden lid to prevent the catch escaping - as you can see from the weed, this is all under water at high tide. The pool is pretty deep - much deeper than it looks like it would be from this angle. The left side is about two feet deep, and the right is about a foot.
The channel for the slipway runs along behind the pool.
Looking across the harbour, with a human for scale. The stone block debris in an earlier photo might be from the harbour wall on the left of this picture, which has been built up as the natural level of the rock wasn't high enough.
The basin for the catch again. The square holes at the back are for the hinges for the lid, and the slot nearest the bottom edge would have been for lifting the lid.
Looking out to sea across the harbour mouth. You can see some of the horizontal lines better now; some of them look like gouges rather than naturally occurring fault lines.
The ropes are new because the harbour is still used regularly by a small crab boat. He lands his catch at low tide, carrying the catch across the rocks and down to his truck which he drives across the beach. In some ways, things haven't changed very much.
These stairs are just to the left of where I was standing when I took the photo above. If you click through to flickr, I've marked what are stairs and what is not. They're the smallest, narrowest stairs I've ever come across. They're not even a foot deep, and very very narrow, and also very high. I couldn't imagine running up these with crates full of fish and crustaceans. If you notice, one step near the top is curved, it's not even an actual proper step!
Taken just to the left of the photo above; the stairs run down the wall of the channel to the right of the photo, running right past the notch. The notch cut into the rock was probably to make landing the catch easier. It was probably to ensure that when there was enough water for the boats to tie up in the channel, they weren't so low down that it was impossible to lift the catch onto the rocks. Probably this made coming up and down the stairs easier as well.
Another shot of the harbour. It's really very small. There's just enough room to moor two smallish boats, with space for them to manoever in and out.
Looking out to sea, an artsy shot.
Looking back across the beach. This is where the crab fisherman brings his truck to pick up his catch.
This is taken looking in the opposite direction to the previous photo. The stone is quite soft, so a combination of rain and spray have carved out a channel between the rocks next to the harbour. Bass Rock is visible through the gap.
Another "artsy" shot. I turned some of these into black and white, if the colour versions weren't good enough. I was struggling a bit with the light here - the sun was weak, and very low, so the shadows were very dark. In this picture I was also shooting towards the sun. It's amazing how desaturating it can make such a difference.
Look at that crack in the north wall of the harbour! The ladder is a wooden one, it's tied on because the old metal one was twisted off at some point, possibly during the storm earlier in the month. (There was a once-in-30-years storm in March.) The storm is also responsible for the amount of rubbish floating about in the harbour.
A view over the harbour to the cliffs. See how tiny it is?!
Slightly a vanity shot! I took this because I liked the contrast of the red rock against the blue of the sea. But bonus photographer too!
Another view over the harbour. There are only a couple of places where the walls have been built up with stone, the rest is cut out of the natural rock.
The channel entrance, with a sneaky bit of wiggle. The colours of the sea, rocks, foam/spray, and sky were at least as lovely as they came out in the photo.
The same thing, but black and white.
The rocks and Tantallon, but with less spray.
Looking straight across to Fife, from the rocks behind the harbour. The contrast of the lichen, rocks, and sea was stunning! And then there was just a little bit of spray at the right moment.
Heading for Norway! Look at the lines in the rock on the right hand side of the photo.
The white blob on the line of rocks in the distance is St Baldred's Cross, and the line of rocks is called St Baldred's Boat.
We wondered whether all the odd pools on this rocky ledge are natural - or not. We thought they looked a little suspicious.
Another spray, lichen and Bass Rock picture.
Another shot looking back towards the beach, this time from the rocks above the harbour. This shows how well the harbour is hidden from the mainland and from the sea (the sea is behind me in this picture).
Playing with my zoom lens:
Tantallon Castle, from the sea. Looking at the back and the inner courtyard. When the castle was in use, there would have been wooden buildings running along the walls of the building. The lower section on the right of the photo was an extension with kitchens, cellars, a bakehouse, a brewery, and the great hall, which was above the cellars and kitchens.
This is the lighthouse on Bass Rock. There's also an old prison (the darker building below to the left of the lighthouse. There's also a chapel - see if you can spot it. (I've noted where it is if you click through to flickr). At the top of the rock there's a very large foghorn.
All the white dots are birds, mostly gannets: Bass Rock is one of the largest gannet colonies in the world.
Closer - the chapel is much easier to spot now. It just looks like a roofless cottage, but when viewed from the side, one gable has what looks like a rounded window - reminiscent of a very small scale rose window (like in York Cathedral).
Fife, and cliffs on Bass Rock. Also gannets diving.
A couple of artsy shots of waves, foam and seaweed on the rocks. Totally accidental, but I'm very pleased with the way they turned out.
St Baldred's Cross. Baldred was an 8th Century Christian missionery who was based just a little way down the coast from Seacliff. He's given his name to lots of things in the area; there's the marker, the rocks (St Baldred's Boat), a cave with his name, and finally the rock outcrop/island which the harbour is cut out of is called the Geghan, or "Churchman's Haven".
This is the remains of a pulley system. It was probably used for closing the harbour off in bad weather.
The water was a lovely colour, and amazing clear considering it was March!
This was probably part of the equipment for closing off the harbour in stormy weather, although it was possibly also used for mooring lines.
There was quite a swell, creating a good current into and out of the harbour. The metal groove was for closing the harbour off - long beams would have been dropped into it (there's a matching one on this side of the harbour). That way the water in the harbour would be prevented from moving about too much if there were large waves coming down the channel.
It's very important to do this in stormy weather. The crane at North Berwick was broken over the winter (the council spent money putting up fences so that people don't have to use their common sense about going near the edge of the harbour, instead of fixing the crane). There was a good few hundred pounds worth of damage from boats smashed against each other as the waves came into the harbour. The harbour can look like a washing machine.
Winch system with chains.
Old metal ladder. This was replaced with a temporary one which was tied on to the wall. The metal one was probably broken during the storm earlier in the month.
The tide is about half way out; the harbour is very deep.
Looking up the gully between two lumps of weathered sandstone behind the harbour.
Right, that's quite enough for one post! Next, we head along the beach...
Those photos are amazing. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete