Monday 15 August 2011

Pebbles on a beach


It's a simple, everyday sort of thing; a pebble beach below a cliff.  The beach is near Hopeman on the Moray Firth, and I've taken pictures here before.

Landing here can be tricky in any swell but on a recent paddle there was the rare experience of a flat calm Moray Firth.  Once on the beach, I spent a good hour just looking at the pebbles as they emerged from the ebbing tide.


The cliff above is a soft sandstone which doesn't form pebbles although there are strata of pebbles within it in places, evidence that there was an ancient river here.

Mst of these pebbles seem to be granites, perhaps washed from the high Cairngorms by the powerful rivers of the Spey and Findhorn which both empty to the sea along this coast.  The rich colours of the wet stones simply shone in the diffuse light



The variety of colour and form kept me fascinated in this pebble collectors paradise

2 comments:

  1. Never thought a pebble post could be so good. I like these images a lot

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  2. Thanks Jay,

    I could have stayed there for hours! The ebb tide was revealing more and more pebbles (getting larger down the beach as they were graded by the surf). Lots of variety and colour

    Kind regards

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