Retro Reworking: Cove, Scottish Borders, Autumn 2017
With a better eye, and better tools, I’ve revisited my photographs from our time in Cove and the coast of the Scottish Borders.
Cove Harbour from the cliffs above. The geology of the Scottish Borders coast is absolutely fascinating to me. At Cove, there’s a band of Carboniferous limestone and sandstone ridges that bend towards the north. This is due to a downthrust of the Cove fault about ½ mi southeast.
It’s something of a tradition for me and Lisabet to spend a couple of weeks in autumn somewhere in Scotland.
In 2017 we split that fortnight in two: the first week we stayed in the tiny Scottish Borders coastal village of Cove, then drove across Scotland to get the ferry to the Isle of Arran for the second week.
Cove and the surrounding coastline is delightful. The Scottish Borders, especially the coastal area, is often spared the numbers of people who might otherwise head towards Glasgow, Edinburgh, Loch Lomond, and further north.
With a better eye, and better tools, I’ve revisited my photographs from our time in this beautiful area.
I hope you like what you see. I did.
A longer exposure shot at dusk, showing the craggy cliffs and sea stacks of Cove as well as the “finned” ridges below.
A composition that attempts to feature those finned ridges in Cove Harbour. It’s hard to capture their curvature towards the sea unless you’re above them.
North Berwick beach with the tide out, exposing some of the more unusual rocks and boulders that the sea normally hides.
A simple composition featuring this wonderfully triangular boulder, pointing towards Bass Rock in the distance.
The incredible shapes and colour of Seacliff’s coastline. Here I found a groove running diagonally through the twisted rocks, which I used to try to point towards Tantallon Castle in the distance.
More of the incredible geology around Seacliff, with the ever-present shape of Bass Rock slightly obscured by the haze in the distance.
Slightly separated from the coastline of Seacliff is a rocky outcrop called The Gegan. I intensely scanned its lower slopes, working all its various shapes and forms for compositions.
Seacliff beach, its cliff to the left and the rocky outcrop known as The Gegan in the middle. In the distance, Bass Rock, an ancient volcanic plug made of tough igneous rock that’s survived everything the Firth of Forth has thrown at it.
Further southeast along Seacliff’s beach you can find more igneous intrusions and weird rock formations to play with.
Probably my favourite formations I found on the Seacliff beach.
St. Abbs coast on a seriously foggy day.
It was nice to experience a thick harr around the St. Abbs coast, gave me an opportunity to play with more minimalistic compositions.
Up on the cliffs above Pease Bay, looking back to Cove and its harbour, trying to document the unusual geology of the area.
I was captivated by the vivid red hues of Pease Bay’s sandstone cliffs. This composition is essentially 75% cliff, with just a bit of beach and sea to provide context.
A different section of Pease Bay’s western red cliffs.
I loved the contrast of the vivid red sandstone around Pease Bay against the dusky blue tones of the water. This was a longer exposure to capture that water motion as the tide came in.