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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Land of stone



The beach at Dunnet surprised me with its angular stones. I'm used to the smooth, rounded stones of the east coast beaches. In the almost tree-less landscape of Caithness the bones of the earth were much more evident than in the Lowlands.
Stone fences made from upright slabs were everywhere. When I got out of the car to take this photo I was met by the unmistakable and - if you've grown up in the Scottish countryside - comforting smell of sheep.

These fences were a surprise to me. I had taken photos of stone fences in the foothills of the French Pyrenees this summer, little thinking that they also existed in Scotland.

The stone dykes (walls) were of a different construction to the chunky construction that I know. In Caithness they're made from horizontal layers of stone slices, and topped with rough semicircles of upright slabs.

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