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| Looking towards Hawk Ness |
The
high cliffs along our stretch of coast are a good place to look for
peregrines. The inaccessible ledges provide roosting and breeding
sites with the rock doves and sea-birds as a continuous food supply.
After
a steep climb, you are rewarded with views up and down the coast. The
peregrines have been here since before people came to name these
places so that the highest point on the cliffs is called Hawk
Ness.
I
saw no peregrines but watched a lesser black-backed gull harassing a
great northern diver. The gull had obviously sussed that the diver
couldn't swallow its fishy prey while underwater so was waiting until
it surfaced then trying to grab the fish from the diver's bill. The
diver responded by diving again and resurfacing somewhere else to
gulp down the catch before the gull could paddle over. The gull could
see the diver under the waves and was turning to follow its path.
An act of piracy worthy of a skua.
Climbing
down the grassy slopes, I came across a ruined building that I had
always thought was a sheiling built for the salmon fishers netting
the fish on their coastal migration, albeit a more elaborate one
compared to those further down the coast.
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| The smugglers' retreat |
A
new notice informed me that I was wrong. It had been built by a
smuggler, one Alexander Robertson who smuggled the then highly taxed,
tea into the country presumably landing it on the flat rocky shore
line or in the adjacent bay, well out of sight of the coastguards and
gaugers. He was so successful that he bought the mortgage of
Gunsgreen House, an impressive Adams mansion built in the nearby
fishing port by his great rival in the contraband trade, John Nisbet.
Gunsgreen is perfectly fitted out for the smuggler with false
walls and secret doorways.
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| Gunsgreen House |
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| The tools of the smuggling trade |
The
waters below the old sheiling now attract surfers and sea-anglers but
with a little imagination you can just see the men in their thigh
high sea- boots splashing through the shallows or working the winch to
bring the cases of tea and the barrels of brandy ashore.
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| Surfers below the sheiling |
No
peregrines to be seen to day so a steep haul up to the coastal path
then home for a cup of untaxed, VAT-free tea.
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