Tuesday 12 August 2008

Strathy Point

Sorry, no lovely sunset pictures - the sky was flat last night. But today has been absolutely gorgeous, clear skies, sun and not too much wind, so I awarded myself the afternoon off and went to see if I could spot anything in the sea off Strathy Point.

Of course, British weather being what it is, a grey cloud turned up just as I got there. Which is why these cormorants were all hanging around on a rock rather than fishing:

Cormorants

Nothing in the sea, so I decided to walk slowly along the fence by the cliffs to the lighthouse and then back up the road, hoping that something would show up. And it did:

Seal (1)

He was swimming around by some rocks and just at that point there was a stile over the cliff fence and a path. So since there was very little wind, I decided to be intrepid and hopped over it. The path led down to a wide ledge where I could sit and watch the seal in comfort:

Seal (2)

Seal (3)

But there were boot prints leading further down the path. I had a look and saw that the rocks below the ledge could be easily climbed down, almost like a ladder. Ten minutes later and I was seated on the pyramid-shaped rock at the centre top of this picture:

Rocks

I'd spent a good quarter of an hour watching it to make sure the waves weren't getting anywhere near it first :o) I unpacked my camera again, sat there and waited. The seal popped up about 10 feet away, saw me, boggled, dived and wasn't seen again! This was the only shot I got - bear in mind the ones above are all heavily cropped in. This one isn't cropped at all:

Seal (4)

Fabulous view from that rock though:

East side of Strathy Point

And this is what's at the end of the point - the lighthouse. It's a private house now and was up for sale at about the same time we found our house. Quite glad we didn't buy it, it must be a nightmare out there in winter:

Lighthouse at Strathy Point (1)

2 comments:

Browniegirl said...

Hi I like your photos. They are great.I found it interesting to see that part of Scotland because I'm reading a novel set in that part of the country. Strathy is the local village though I expect it is fictitious since it is a novel.

Anonymous said...

Hi I was at strathy point the other day looking for the spot that you went down on the rocks and I found a stile going over the fence and what looked like the path going down. It looked like there was no way down to the rock except a steep fall. I may be wrong as I didn't go down the path as it looked rather dangerous although the locals directed me to the same spot so I assume it's where you was as the locals also said about a flat rock which I couldn't see. I'm just wondering do you have to go down the path to see the flat rock and is it really that easy to get down ?