Port Erroll

A rough day at New Slains Castle with big waves battering the rocky Buchan coast.

Deep and extensive geo to the north of New Slains Castle.

Looking north-east towards the village.

Looking south-west.

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

Piers of an old bridge - although it is not clear what bridge this was. The houses of Port Erroll beyond.

A well-vegetated low-lying valley runs between the river front at Cruden Bay and the open coast at the Donnons.

The concrete structure in the field is probably the old dovecote for Slains Castle.

Looking downstream towards Ladies Bridge.

Looking upstream from Ladies Bridge.

The original bridge which provided the only practicable access to the beach was built in 1922, funded by a group of local ladies (hence "Ladies" Bridge). After falling into disrepair, it was rebuilt in 2015.

The original bridge which provided the only practicable access to the beach was built in 1922, funded by a group of local ladies (hence "Ladies" Bridge). After falling into disrepair, it was rebuilt in 2015.

Memorial commemorating the first flight across the North Sea from Cruden Bay to Maleneset in Norway by Tryggve Gran on 30 July 1914.

In Port Errol.

Useful facility on Harbour Street.

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.