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Category Archives: stones
Warp-weights or net-sinkers?
A man was walking along the shore, heading north-east towards Mawbray and Beckfoot. Perhaps in his late sixties, slightly stooped, he was carrying a plastic carrier-bag and occasionally bending down to poke amongst the shingle. I too was going in … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, archaeology, fishing, Found Objects, industrial archaeology, stones
Tagged Dumfries Museum, fishing nets, loomstones, warp-weights, weaving
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Protecting the coast: limestone rock armour
A local Cumberland councillor, who sits on the Board of the cross-border Solway Firth Partnership, often refers to the Cumbrian coast as being the ‘soft side’ of the Firth, in contrast to the rockier Scottish, side. And once you have … Continue reading
Posted in geology, LIMESTONE, limestone fossils, limestone rock armour, stones
Tagged boulders, corals, fossils, gabions
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Rocks and patterns: Fleswick Bay
Whatever the weather or state of the tide, Fleswick Bay never disappoints. Sheltered within the two arms of the St Bees headlands, it is an anomaly on the Cumbrian Solway coast – tall cliffs, caves, rocky platforms pitted with deep … Continue reading
Posted in geology, sandstone, stones
Tagged guano, guillemots, New Red Sandstone, pebbles, sculptures
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Fish traps on the Mawbray shore
It is a low spring tide, chosen especially because it allows us to scan a vast area of the shore. Above Mawbray Banks, pilot Andrew Lysser turns the gyroplane in a circle, its rotors buzzing and clattering, and I lean … Continue reading
Posted in aerial views, archaeology, fishing, stones
Tagged Beauly Firth, fish traps, Mawbray, Severn, Strangford Lough, weirs, yairs
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The Walls of Parton
‘Are you looking for the old port?’ The man seemed to have appeared from nowhere, yet he was tall and strongly built, white hair sticking up straight, not easy to overlook. ‘Port?’ I was bemused – I’d been poking at … Continue reading
Posted in coal, coastal heritage, fossils, industrial heritage, ports, sandstone, slag-banks, stones
Tagged coal, fossil plants, sandstone, ships, Solway
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Sandstone, ‘smooth as walnut turned on a lathe’
“Fine sandstone is quite silky, you get a crisp image, the maximum sculptural effect. With sandstone there’s no reflection of light to distort what you see.” Sky Higgins, sculptor. “Red St Bees’ is a fine-grained stone, dull red in colour… … Continue reading
Posted in coastal heritage, industrial heritage, quarries, sandstone, stones
Tagged Fleswick Bay, Sabellaria, sand, sandstone, sculpture, St Bees'
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The naming of stones
Nellie and Pintle, High Netherma and Maston; Metalstones, Archie and Popple scaurs. “The names go back a terrible long time,” Ronnie Porter tells me. They’re part of the oral tradition of the shore, and neither Ronnie nor his wife know … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, fishing, stones
Tagged boulders, fishing nets, rocky scars, Romans, shipwreck
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Solway Shore-walker 