Surprisingly Stonehaven

Last month we visited Stonehaven for a few days, or to be more precise the village of Cowie, which adjoins the north of Stonehaven.
We hadn't stayed in Stonehaven before so we did not know what to expect ..................and I am  afraid my first impressions were not that great. We did however arrived just as the weather closed in, making the view of Stonehaven Bay a bit grey and murky:

The Bay at Stonehaven on a Grey Day

Towards Cowie on a Grey Day

 We headed into what we thought was the town centre (Market Square) and it didn't exactly look appealing to visitors with most cafes/shops being shut (apart from the Co-op and Greggs of course).
So we decided to go back to The Bay Fish & Chip Shop for our tea ..............and things started to pick up right away. That has to be one of the best fish & chips I have ever had ..................and believe me I have sampled a few. It was so good I thought Stonehaven deserved a second chance to impress. The experience was further enhanced as we were greeted by a double rainbow when we got back to the campsite:

Double Rainbow over Cowie

Vannie, the Pot of Gold

Things were definitely looking up. In fact the next morning the sun was shining (albeit through a few clouds) and Stonehaven Bay looked like a completely place than the day before:

Sunny Cowie Beach

Beautiful Seaview

Sunny Stonehaven Beach

 We took the opportunity of good weather to take a stroll along the beach-front walkway heading towards Stonehaven Harbour, which proved to be both interesting and surprising.
First up we were greeted by a Caterpillar climbing the sea wall:

Caterpillar on Sea Wall

I think it might be the caterpillar of the Clouded Drab Moth ................... but I am no expert on caterpillars!!
Further along the coastal path we saw a little bird darting in and out of the rocks, feeding on insects hiding in the seaweed washed up on the shoreline. After closer inspection I identified it as a Rock Pipit:

The next thing that surprised us on this walk round the bay at Stonehaven was the number of brilliant sculptures along the edge of the coastal path. This included life-size wire Dolphins:

Dolphin Sculpture Stonehaven

Dolphin with a belly full of stones

There were some fantastically detailed fishing boats (which if you look carefully are manned by fish?).

Fishing Boat Sculpture, Stonehaven

Fishing Smack Sculpture, Stonehaven

I have called the second boat a 'smack' because traditionally if it had a sail it was a smack, if it had an engine it was a boat (I think!)
But my favourite sculpture along the shoreline had to be the lighthouse:

Lighthouse Sculpture, Stonehaven

Why was it my favourite?........... simply because it had a Fish/Whale as a weather vane and a Pterodactyl on the railings............. I loved it!!

Top of Lighthouse Sculpture

Yes it is a Pterodactyl on the railings!

I was impressed with both the quality of these various sculptures and the fact they had not been vandalised in any way.
At the end of the bay lies the historic Stonehaven Harbour and it was very quaint and picturesque:

Boats in Stonehaven Harbour



Looking back from Harbour Wall

Stonehaven Harbour (Ship Inn on left)

As it was a nice day and not too windy we decided to brave the climb up to the harbour wall to see the sea:

Moira on Harbour Wall

View from Harbour Wall

Downie Point from Harbour Wall

Back in the harbour itself there were quite a few things of interest.
As well as having its own lifeboat station Stonehaven Harbour is also home to a Survival Craft Training Academy (for the inspection and maintenance of the type of survival boats they have on oil rigs and large ships):

Survival Craft

Survival Craft Training Academy

As you can see there were one or two boats in the harbour which were a bit older and more traditional:

Maggie fae Fife

The Toolbooth Museum was also worth a visit, there were lots of interesting artefacts........... and it had its own jail cell:

Toolbooth Jail (not Premier Inn)

On the way back from the Harbour we were treated to one more surprise,  a helpful lady pointed out to us that a couple of Dolphins had just been spotted in Stonehaven Bay. We quickly had a scan for them and were fortunate enough to see them on their way out of the bay.
I grabbed my camcorder and tried to video them............ with limited success........... here is the video I took (I have slowed down the video playback speed when the Dolphins appear) watch out for the first leap on the right hand side:

Sorry it is not my best video, but hopefully you managed to pick them out.
At Stonehaven there are two rivers that feed into the bay, the River Carron and the Cowie Water, and these rivers seemed to well populated with my favourite bird........... the Dipper.
Our first sighting of these wonderful, semi-aquatic birds came when we were out for a walk to Mineralwell Park and I was filming some Mallard ducklings at the weir on the Cowie Water:

As you can see there were a couple of Dippers there and they seemed to be chasing each other, whether they were being territorial or siblings mucking about I am not sure. We carried on with our walk to Mineralwell Park, which boasted a model car racetrack, a real train viaduct and some lovely wildflower meadows:

Radio Car Racetrack

Railway Viaduct

Lovely Wildflowers

Cowie Water also ran through this park and at a small waterfall on this river we were treated to some good views of another Dipper feeding:

The River Carron also featured Dipper, near one of the ornate bridges that cross the river. I will not bore you with another Dipper video, but I have included a photo instead:



Ornate Victorian Bridge over River Carron

Slightly Fuzzy One-legged Dipper

The Dipper did have two legs, it just chose to use half of them.
I also liked the nearby Art Deco Carron Restaurant, although it was closed when we were there.

Carron Restaurant across the River Carron

We also had a short walk along the coastal path that runs through the village of Cowie and it was quite interesting as well.

Moira at Cowie Harbour

Cowie Coastal Path

Moira on Cowie Coastal Path

Despite being late September there were still some nice wildflowers along the coastal path:

Devil's Bit Scabious

Harebell with Teasel Leaves?

They even had a street in Cowie Village named after Boatie McBoatface:

Named after a Rowing Boatie?

So Stonehaven proved to quite a surprise package and we were pleased that we had visited the area.
After all the excitement of Dolphins, Dippers, Sculptures and Rock Pipits I will leave you with a soothing video of waves crashing on the shore:

 

 

............and relax.

Take Care

Teddyedward

Queensferry Crossing Walk

Cast your mind back to March this year when I posted a blog about the construction of the latest bridge across the River Forth, called the Queensferry Crossing. Well, as you have probably heard in the news recently, this new bridge is finally open........... and I was lucky enough to be allowed to walk across it before the Queen performed the official opening ceremony.
I was part of a group of volunteers from Echline Community Woodland who (together with thousands of other groups and individuals) were given the 'once in a lifetime' opportunity to walk over this new bridge.
Unlike the original Forth Road Bridge, there are no pedestrians or cyclists allowed on the new bridge so this meant the traffic used the old bridge whilst we did our walk.
This is a brief story in pictures and video of our walk across the Queensferry Crossing:

Huw, Keith, John and Janet at the start

 

Huw and Janet

John raring to go

There were five of the ECW volunteers (me, Huw, John, Keith and Geoff) to start with and we met up with Huw's wife Janet and Geoff's wife Brenda, who had come with another group.
We were given an hour to cross the 1.7 mile long bridge, but we weren't in a hurry so took our time and enjoyed the experience. Some of our group wanted to cross a bit quicker so we were happy for them to go ahead.

Plenty of people were crossing the bridge

We took plenty of snaps

I was there as well

The views from the bridge were pretty good as well, considering it was a bit of a grey day:

The Inner Forth Estuary

Rosyth from Queensferry Crossing

The views of the bridge were pretty spectacular, and as we approached the first tower you really got a feel for the scale of this engineering marvel:

Web of cables on first tower

Information Board at first tower

The cable work looked like the strings on a giant harp.............. however there was no giant there to play a tune............... that would have been impressive!!
The sign says 'you should be 20 minutes into your Queensferry Crossing' but in reality it took us 40 minutes to get there............... nobody was chasing us along so we were not bothered.
At the mid point between first and second tower, the cables for these two towers crossed over and resembled some sort of giant fishing net:

Criss-cross of Cables

Towards the second tower

Can you spot the Storm Troopers

I meant to say that as we crossed from South to North there were also people crossing North to South on the opposite carriageway, including a small band of Star Wars fans dressed as Storm Troopers.
We stopped for a short break at this point so I took the opportunity to take some photos and videos of the surroundings:

Midway between Tower 1 and Tower 2

John calls time-out

As well as enjoying the scenery and the bridge construction, there was also plenty happening down on the water............... we saw a Police Rib (rigid inflatable boat) milling around under the bridge and a cargo ship leaving Rosyth dockyard....................... it was all going down as they say:

As we approached the second or central tower you got a real feel for how high this bridge is.......... and the stats confirm that at 210 metres it is the highest bridge tower in the UK:

Approaching the Central Tower

Heading in the right direction......North

Central Tower.........pretty high

More useful information

I can't understand why they use London buses to represent the height of the tower on this bridge??
Buses are not allowed on this bridge, they are supposed to use the original Forth Road Bridge.............doh!
I also can't remember them lifting elephants during construction?
Meanwhile we carried on with our walk:

John and Huw forge ahead

We might not have had Storm Troopers to accompany us on our walk across the bridge but we did have Supermen (no I don't mean Huw and John):

Superman and Superboy

As we approached the third tower I noticed that the Fred Olsen cruise ship that was docked at Rosyth was on its way out:

Cruise Ship leaves Rosyth

Cruise Ship steams towards bridge

 

There are several cruises that leave from Rosyth, I think this was one which visits various Norwegian Fjords, so anoraks and warm clothing required.
After we passed the third tower we were on the home stretch, in fact we stopped for a little break with only about two hundred yards to go:

Only Two Hundred Yards to go!

As well as this sign and several huge information screens there was also some very useful Health and Safety signage on the bridge:

Useful to know

We refrained from any of these activities, including the walking hand-in-hand.
At this pit-stop we noticed that the Fred Olsen cruise ship 'Black Watch' had sailed right up to the bridge.......... and that all the passengers were on deck waving to us (and others on the bridge). They even blew the ship's horn as they passed under the bridge, how cool is that!:

Buoyed with our reception from the cruise ship we pushed on with the final leg of our journey, crossing the finish line in a record breaking 2 hours ..........................We were so pleased with ourselves:

Huw and John at the finish line

A look back along the bridge showed that we were not the last to finish:

Looking back, but not in anger.

OK they might have started later then us, but we did it!!
Who knows the next time they will close the bridge for people to walk across, so I am glad I was given the opportunity to do this 'once in a lifetime' walk.

Take Care,

Teddyedward