Geograph - photograph every grid square

You can just about see the Gordonstoun tower on the clifftop in the distance

These cliffs near Clashach, glowing gold in the late afternoon sunshine, are Hopeman Sandstone, a fossiliferous Permo-Triassic aeolian sandstone, deposited in a desert when what is now Scotland lay south of the Equator around 250 million years ago.

The entrance is slightly right of centre. It was taken at the top of a 4.3m high tide. Later in the day, coming back, I was able to go inside and found that there is an east entrance to/from the geo (steep sided inlet) about 90m to the left... (more)

The Moray Coast Trail has acted as a fire break here. To the south a large area of gorse has been burnt. Unfortunately this occurred in early June so a fair few nests would have been lost.

Fulmar sheltering in the sandstone cliff at Clashach Cove.

Our boatman related that the spoil heap had buried the small harbour that once served the quarry, but old maps show that this is not the case, although all sign of the harbour has disappeared. It was only capable of taking craft of up to 5... (more)

Known among the local fishers as Solans (Solan Geese) these birds are invaluable through their behaviour in signifying the presence of fish.

The Moray Coast Trail diverges to the right.

The entrance to the natural tunnel through the rock spur is just to my right, and I am looking eastwards. The rubbly slope with whins growing on it is not natural; it is the waste stone dumped from Clashach Quarry.