Further along toward Hopeman, there is an unusual sight on the shore - a pineapple made of wood and stone.
A long-dead, bleached pine stump has been upended and stones carefully arranged in a cairn around it to support the stump and create a striking pineapple shape. I've no idea how long this has been here or whether it was done as an art installation or just spontaneously. Perhaps more intriguingly, how long will this transient naturalistic artwork resist the winter storms?
An equally bleached and battered tree trunk nearby provides a leading line to the main piece.
Nearby are several "chorten" style slender piles of small pebbles, but this simple arrangement caught my eye. the contrast between the smooth sea-washed rock and the featured sandstone boulder plus the colours of the stones separated by vibrant yellow lichen had a striking simplicity.
These pieces were most unexpected and added a lot to the day's paddling.
There is a long tradition of art along the Moray Firth coast. Nearby is the Sculptor's Cave, a dry cave famed for Pictish carvings. Burghead was a Pictish power base, fort remains and numerous symbol stones can be seen in the area.
That pineapple is great -hope to get to see it one day.
ReplyDeleteCool. Last time I took a walk along that bit of coast about there were a number of stone works, not as large as that but still enough to make me go and have a look at. Was staying in Hopeman two weeks back but never made it that far along this time, wishing I had now! I guess there's a beach stone artist in residence :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Morag & John,The pineapple is a really nice piece; I must check periodically to see what other pieces appear
ReplyDeleteJohn - great blog! Can it be "followed" in the same way as Blogger or just via RSS feed?
Kind regards
Ian
Hi Ian
ReplyDeleteThanks, been reading yours recently reliving the trip on the Cuma I had last year, it has spoiled me for life though! I'm from Hopeman originally so this post pulled me in :)
I think you can just add the RSS feed link in to the Blogger reading list if you use that for reading posts?
I spent a lot of time when a kid exploring that bit of coastline, there are loads of caves that you cant see from the sea or until you are about 10/15ft from the cliff base as the entrances go down due to the mound built up in front of the entrance, as there's a lot or nettles they don't often get explored but have seen some makeshift beds in them which is a bit spooky when in a cave! There's one there with a full on cut stone door way and window.
My gran was always telling me about secret tunnels that went to Gordonstoun and on to the Bishops Palace in Elgin. Being 9 or 10 I told some mates at school about the tunnels and the treasure of course so we snuck out for the day with helmets, ropes, spades, torches and a packed lunch to tried to find the tunnels. Of course we hadn't told any adults and had a near death job trying to get back around a headland when the tide came in (risk death over being told off for being late home for tea, 10yr old priorities!) but hey that's growing up and we learned a bit about tides that day ;)
John
What a funny pineapple thing! Very creative, though.
ReplyDeleteI see that you're interested in pictures of Britain! I thought you might like my blog, www.PictureBritain.com. It's a journey in pictures from the Shetland Islands to Land's End, along with videos, recipes, and interesting tidbits of life in Great Britain!
Here are some of my posts from Moray: http://www.picturebritain.com/search/label/Moray