Sand Craig

Looking north-east towards the village.

Looking south-west.

A line of anti-tank blocks on the far bank.

Just under my feet there is a major pipeline bringing ashore Scotland's oil. The complex Forties pipeline system carries about 700 thousand barrels per day, 30% of the UK's oil. It is owned and operated by UK-based global energy company BP. The system, which consists of a 36-inch pipeline originating at the Forties Charlie platform, carries crude oil 169 kilometres to the Cruden Bay pumping station, mile or so from here. From there, the crude flows a further 209 km south to the processing facility at Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth. North Sea oil is in fact Scotland's third oil industry. The first was based not on petroleum oil but on whale oil. In the 18th and 19th centuries whalers sailed to Greenland from Scottish ports, particularly Dundee, Aberdeen and Peterhead. There they harpooned Bowhead whales and brought back their blubber in barrels. The blubber was boiled back in Scotland and the oil used for a range of purposes including street lighting and textile and jute manufacture. The second oil industry came about thanks to one James 'Paraffin' Young. In 1851 he began to distil oil, at first from coal and later from rock shales, near to Bathgate, in West Lothian. This was the foundation of the modern oil industry, providing the raw material for a new range of chemicals. His legacy can still be seen in the landscape of West Lothian in the form of huge red mounds or bings, of spent shale from which oil has been extracted NT0873 : Red bing and dark sky.

Whinnyfold is a tiny village sitting atop the cliffs at the southern end of the Bay of Cruden in Aberdeenshire. The village consists of a handful of old fisher cottages built in the 1860s. Whinnyfold has no harbour, just this natural haven and the fisherfolk had to scramble up and down a steep grass slope to reach their boats hauled up on the shingle beach and to land their catches. In the nineteenth century and early twentieth century the village housed a thriving fishing community, with some 200 fishermen operating around 20 boats. Today, however, there is no commercial fishing and no local amenities, and the houses are occupied by commuters and holiday makers. The seas around Whinnyfold are treacherous with numerous rocky headlands and offshore a semi-submerged reef known as the Skares, the site of many shipwrecks. Little wonder that every rock and headland has its own name; the large rock in the foreground, for example is the Godman while the headland beyond is the Cruner.

The harbour was built by the Earl of Erroll, owner of nearby Slains Castle, in the late 1870s, at a cost of £14,000.

These are bag-type nets used to catch salmon migrating along the shore. There is a good description of how these nets were used at Link

The bag nets for catching migrating salmon need to be dried periodically to keep them in good condition. There is a good description of how these nets were used at Link

From the sea wall behind the head of the harbour, looking along the drying salmon nets towards the mouth of the Cruden Water.

That's Cruden Bay as in the curving sandy beach. The village of Cruden Bay is a little inland, hidden from here by the line of sand dunes. The Water of Cruden enters the bay between the cottage and the dunes.

Several boats lie high and dry on their trailers between the harbour head and the drying salmon nets at Port Erroll Harbour.

A few boats are moored in this harbour. Port Erroll is the harbour of Cruden Bay.

Former fishing village perched on a clifftop above a small bay.