Sunday, June 24, 2012

Cliffs so vertical that the bottom overhangs.

 We were sorry to leave this glorious spit of sun bleached rocks below the lighthouse at Ailsa Craig.

 The tourists that arrived aboard MFV Glorious soon got bored and she set off again.

As we rounded the north end of Ailsa Craig, we saw the 500 ton STS Stavros Niarchos, a British sail training brig. She carries up to 18 sails on two masts. She was launched in Devon in 2001.

We passed the elevated railway and pipeline that carried granite from the blue one granite quarry and compressed air to the foghorn.

 As we turned the north end, we found ourselves under the dark vertiginous walls of Bare Stack.

 It is so vertical that the bottom overhangs.

This huge cave at the base of the cliffs is called Swine Cave. It is very difficult to get the whole rock face in a photo and to appreciate...

...the huge scale of these granite cliffs. The tiny blip on the shore at the horizon is Ashydoo Kirk, a group of fallen rocks as big as a house.