A speleological, ornithological, meteorological kind of day (part 1)

Opportunities to paddle the North Sea coast of Aberdeenshire have been fleeting for the last few months as the winter has seen a pattern of easterly and northerly airstreams which create big swells on this east facing coast.  A few days of westerly wind had allowed the swell to drop, offering Allan and I the chance to paddle up the coast from Catterline towards Stonehaven.

Heading north in bright sunshine we soon came to the first of many interesting rock formations - the Garran, which has an arch right through into a bay beyond.

Paddling back out against a stiff breeze funneling in was hard work!

The coast here is a conglomerate rock with rounded pebbles and boulders set in a reddish matrix, a legacy of when this part of Scotland was an arid landscape washed by periodic and devastating floods.  In some places the different flood events can be clearly seen in the cliffs.  The rock is reasonably soft and forms caves, some very large and surprisingly long.......

...and some narrow slots which penetrate the cliffs, often with the boom and roar of surf somewhere in the gloom at the back - there are cave monsters here!

The highest stretch of cliffs are managed by the RSPB as Fowlsheugh reserve, known for the staggering numbers of breeding seabirds.  The birds are just arriving back from a year at sea, beginning to pair up and squabbling over nesting sites.  There's lots of coming and going and plenty of noise.  Once the birds have begun to lay their eggs we keep well out from the cliffs to avoid disturbance and reduce the opportunities for predators to snatch an unguarded egg or chick.

Not all the birds are back yet, but already the cacophony, noise and movement assault the senses.  Out on the water great rafts of Razorbills, Fulmars and Kittiwakes congregate, while their partners on the cliffs squabble over nest sites - the round holes where boulders have fallen out are particularly favoured.  Fowlsheugh is the largest mainland seabird colony in the north east of Scotland, these 60 metre high cliffs form the breeding ground for upwards of 130,000 pairs of birds - mainly Razorbills and Kittiwakes but there are also large numbers of Guillemots and Fulmars and small numbers of Puffins.

At the northern end of the main cliff face there's yet another speleological opportunity, and if this particular one doesn't take your fancy......

....there's plenty more just around the corner!  This slanting cave opens up into a long chamber at right angles within the cliff.

One cave we didn't visit is this one tucked at the back of a long geo.  It has a fine waterfall positioned right over the highest point of the arched mouth and a beach of red pebbles within.  It's a favoured spot for Atlantic Grey Seals to haul out undisturbed and we could see around a hundred animals on the beach, many of them the pups born in November.  Their somewhat otherwordly wailing calls were echoing out of the cave along the walls of the geo; in it's own way this is as good a wildlife spectacle as the seabirds - only not so many folk are lucky enough to have the the opportunity of seeing and hearing it.

Another headland with another cave - this one is actually a tunnel right through the headland.......

...emerging into a bay on the other side of the headland.  The exit appears blocked by rocky walls, but a sharp right turn in a narrow channel leads to open water.  As with all the caves on this coast, safe paddling is limited by the swell.  I've paddled here many times in conditions which didn't even permit going near the entrances.  Although most don't have inward sloping roofs, swell is still greatly amplified in all of them.

One of the options for a lunch stop had been one of the beaches at Tremuda Bay, but it seemed we were far from the only sea kayakers to be enjoying the fine conditions!  A group from Stonehaven Canoe Club were doing a trip and also conducting a beach clean-up.  They'd done a great job of it too, there was no plastic rubbish at all on the two beaches we landed at.

With hardly room to land another boat on the rocky beach, we decided to push on to another lunch spot a little way up the coast.....

Narrow places - exploring the geos of the Angus coast

The delights of the Angus coast from Auchmithie to Arbroath weren't over by any means.  We left the beach on which we'd taken luncheon and almost immediately passed the prominent sandstone stack known as the Deil's Heid (Devil's Head).

There are some great rockhopping opportunities here too, and with the sun high in the sky the pools inside the geos we paddled were lit with a lovely and luminous light; almost as if the light was shining from below rather than above.

There's a perception that the North Sea is always grey and devoid of the colours of the west coast, but this is a long way from the truth; in fact the red sandstone against the water on this part of the coast is one of the most colourful sights anywhere.

In the calm conditions we were able to thread some narrow channels which wouldn't be advisable with any swell running......

...including one which narrowed to just about shoulder width and required us to propel ourselves through using hands on the rock.  The slant of the rock and the narrow nature of this particular slot put Douglas and I in mind of the angled sea cave which cuts through beneath the island of Dun in St Kilda, except here there was light from above!

Next comes Dickmont's Den, a geo formed by an enormous cave collapse which will be the eventual fate of Gaylet Pot further north.  It's possible to paddle around a central ridge of rock here, so several of the party did a couple of laps , one each way :o)

The rock architecture continues almost to the edge of the town of Arbroath itself, ending suddenly as the bay is reached; guarded by shelves of rock which make it a long way from the low tide mark to the seafront promenade near Whiting Ness.  This has its attractions too in the shape of an ice-cream van which we took full advantage of!

Whilst eating our ice creams we heard a call to Aberdeen Coastguard from a yacht which had become entangled on a creel float line.   Douglas and I spoke to the yacht skipper and established that we could see him about  a mile offshore.  We offered to try and help by either passing the rope up or, if we couldn't manage that, to cut it away.  We headed out but were overtaken by the Arbroath Lifeboat on its way to the yacht - the RNLI lifeboatmen are much better trained and equipped for the job than we are, so we were very happy to see how quickly they had responded; only 10 minutes from the original VHF call.

As our group reconvened on the water it was clear that the weather had (as forecast) come up a couple of notches.  A wind swell against the tide was being complicated by clapotis from the cliffs and the combined effect made for a jopply sea and an engaging paddle back up to Auchmithie.  We were certainly glad that we'd fully explored all the great rock architecture on the way south as the narrow channels and caves would have been a very different on the way back!

We rounded our day off having fun with some balance exercises, rolls and self-rescue practice just outside Auchmithie harbour, the chilly water reminding us that summer is not quite here yet.

Once again the Angus coast had given us a day of superb sea kayaking; and its noticeable that our paddling group grows a little every time we visit - the word is out!

You can follow this trip in "Sea kayaking TriVision" by reading Duncan & Joan's blog here and here and Douglas' blog here

Colours and caves - Arbroath to the Deil's Heid

The Angus coast is a stretch which I've walked along but not kayaked.  Joan and Duncan have recently been exploring the caves and bays around Auchmithie and I joined them at Arbroath harbour on a warm sunny morning when we hoped to investigate some more of this coast. 

There's a good place to park and launch immediately south of the Bell Rock signal station and Tourist Information centre in the outer part of Arbroath harbour.  It was around low water Springs when we were preparing to head out and although there was some gloopy mud exposed we were able to avoid it and were soon heading out of the harbour entrance.

 We paddled north across the bay and soon came across the first of the geos as the cliffs start to rise.  The rock of this coastline is Devonian sandstone laid down in alternate arid periods and floods 400 million years ago.  The strata are easily seen, some with fine grained red sand and some of conglomerate containing polished river pebbles. The dominant colour is a really vibrant red shade which we had to great effect as we'd chosen to paddle north during the morning and had the sun behind us

The day we'd chosen was completely calm, and the low tide enabled us to get into just about all of the caves we found.  Some were quite narrow chambers straight into the cliffs.......

.... whilst some had exquisite lighting effects; in this one a tiny sea-level secondary entrance had the sun shining diectly through it to light the water but not the cave.

A well-known feature of the cliffs is the "Needle's E'e", an arch formed by the collapse of a sea cave.  The cave would have been on the original shoreline but is now 7 metres above the sea, the result of the land lifting as the weight of ice from the last Ice Age has been released.

Farther along and the bigger caves start to appear.  This one was definitely better to explore at lower states of tide, when we passed back in the afternoon near to high water it looked difficult and low at the entrance.

This cave had a spotlighting effect from a hole in the roof at the rear of a long geo.

Gradually the cliffs get a little higher on this section, as do the caves themselves and we continued to explore where we could reach, the five kilometres north from Arbroath took us the best part of two hours to paddle - it's a place to savour when conditions are so good!

The collapse of a long cave with a double entrance has formed the geo of Dickmont's Den,  at high water it would be possible to land on a small beach of rounded boulders at the back of the geo.

We emerged from the northern entrance to Dickmont's Den and got our first view of one of the best known landmarks on the Angus Coast - the Deil's Heid (Devil's Head) sea stack.  The promontory adjacent to it looks like it will form a similar feature in the future - we wondered whether people who walk out to the end in order to photograph the stack realise what's below their feet!

The seaward face of the Deil's Heid was climbed in the 1970's when four pegs were placed for protection, but these have now been replaced by steel and resin protection, making a superbly situated and no doubt atmospheric climb.