Bullers in spring

I've been to the Bullers o Buchan before, but not in springtime. The wild flowers were beautiful.

 Red campion

 A great bank of red campion and primroses

 Violet

 White campion

The views were stunning too, from the Bullers o' Buchan itself...

... right up the coast towards Peterhead.

Plenty of bird life too.

Fulmar

 Razorbill

 Kittiwakes

A short walk along the coast you can see Slains Castle in one direction...

... and the Buchan Ness lighthouse in the other.

I must go back again soon and see the bird life as there should be some chicks hatched by now.

Roseness

After visiting the Scottish lighthouse museum a few weeks ago (which I will get round to blogging about eventually, I'm sure) I was inspired to visit a local lighthouse I'd never been to before - Roseness.

It was a lovely walk on a sunny, but cold, day. The coastline is lovely, with great views towards Copinsay, and lots of evidence of otters in the area. If you've got sharp eyes, you might spot some kayakers too!

The Roseness gloup, while not being the most impressive one I've visited, is still well worth a look.

The coastline is really interesting, with lots of rock stacks, which had a lot of fulmars on them.

A bit further one there's some sort of structure very visible on the skyline.

When I got up to it, this is what I saw. I'm not sure what it is, and as far as I know it hasn't been excavated.

A little further on again and I was at the old beacon. I've heard that it was an early form of lighthouse - a navigation beacon, built in 1867. There's also another story locally that it was built around the turn of the century to commemorate a shipwreck and lost sailors. Either way, it's beautifully built, with a cross on top which has been designed to look like a cross from all directions. The beacon certainly stands out for miles.

There's obviously been a ladder to the top at one time, as the rusted remains testify to.

It was gifted to Orkney Islands Council in 1995. Previously it was in the ownership of the Northern Lighthouse Board, who also have a modern lighthouse nearby.

The modern lighthouse is a 'prefab' - bolted together in sections. The original NLB 'modern' lighthouse here was cast iron, built in 1904/5, and is now in the Scottish lighthouse museum as an example of the newer light and lantern housing developed by David A Stevenson. I'm not sure what year it "came to the end of its useful life" (as the lighthouse museum puts it) and was replaced by the newer prefab which is there now.

The lighthouse stands out clearly against the low winter sun, but the modern beacon dwarfs it from a distance.

I'm really glad I've done this walk, but am now at a loss to work out why I've never done it before. I wonder how many other great walks and sights I've missed during my time in Orkney....

Rosehearty Tower

From a distance along the coast, looking towards Roseheaty (near Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire), you can see what looks like a lighthouse. However, it isn't a lighthouse - it's the Rosehearty Tower. I visited on a dull, grey, drizzly day...

I was a bit intrigued by the tower, and wondered if it had ever been a lighthouse, so looked it up when I got home. It was an observation tower for the former bombing range at Rosehearty. It was apparently operational as a RAF bombing range from the 1950s until 2000, when the buildings were sold off.

Apparently the tower has bomb-proof and bullet-proof windows and cost £750,000 to build. It was sold for a mere tenth of that and is now a private house, with, I'd imagine, a great view.

The real lighthouse in Rosehearty is a beacon on the end of the pier. I'm not sure whether it's operational or not.

The fishing boats were all ashore, presumably for shelter from the winter storms.

Buchan Ness

I seem to have had a bit of a thing about lighthouses over the last few days, visiting the Lighthouse Museum in Fraserburgh (of which more later) and staying at Rattray Head ligthhouse. I also visited Buchan Ness lighthouse.

It was established in 1827. The red bands were painted on in 1907, to allow mariners to distinguish it in daytime.

It was auotmated in 1988, with the foghorn being switched off in 2000.

The lighthouse buildings are now holiday cottages.

Rattray dawn

I was back staying at the bunkhouse at Rattray Head again this week. I was south for another interview, and also spent a bit of time exploring the area (more of that to follow in further blog posts.) This time I managed to get some dawn photos of the lighthouse.

It was a beatiful morning, as the sky gradually lightened.

Sadly, the early promise of good weather didn't last all day as it dulled down a fair bit, but it was still a pretty good day. The forecast for the next day wasn't too promising though, leaving me a bit worried about the ferry journey home...

That evening, after managing to cover over 200 miles in my wee car, I relaxed by the fire with a small  glass (well actually a cup, as the hostel unsurprisingly isn't stocked with wine glasses) of red wine (and I do mean small, this is one of these peedie bottles, not a full-sized one.) 

I like this hostel. :-)

A photogenic lighthouse

Rather than stay in a hotel or B&B in Aberdeen, I opted for the comforts of the bunkhouse at Rattray Head. Actually, it was extremely comfortable and I'd highly recommend it!

It's a couple of miles along a rather interesting road, but it's well worth the visit. The bunkhouse is in the old lighthouse keepers' accommodation on the shore behind the sand dunes, while the lighthouse is built on a concrete platform out at sea beyond the dunes.

Looking back across the dunes to the lighthouse buildings, now a bunkhouse.

I had the bunkhouse to myself. It was warm, comfortable, and well equipped and to my amazement it had wifi!

 

 

I went for a walk on the beach in the afternoon, and stayed for quite a while as it gradually got darker.

I found the lighthouse rather photogenic - and did take quite a few photos of it....

The Stevenson lighthouse was completed in 1895 (work began in 1892). It apparently cost £18,949 1/1d to build. It's possible to walk out to it at low tide - but it was pitch dark at low tide, so I didn't do that. The lighthouse keepers were heading out to do some maintenance at night while I was there - I think they were going to be staying out there for a few days until the work was completed.

Apparently in 1977 a mains electricity supply and telephone cable were laid under the sea-bed. Shortly after this, in 1982, the lighthouse was automated. This seems very early to me, considering that Fair Isle South, the last to be automated, was only automated in 1998.

I wonder what the first Scottish lighthouse to be automated was? There's a lighthouse museum in Fraserburgh, where I guess I would find out, but I didn't have time to visit it. Maybe another time...

Looking south along the beach to the St Fergus gas terminal. North along the beach is Fraserburgh and I think the beach itself is something like 11 miles long.