Coast & Seascapes

The 'Lighthouse Beach' pier in Paphos is the spot where this pier lives. For us, just a few meter's away from a nice beach cafe, and so a place where I can see the waves hitting the end whilst drinking my coffee and thinking, "should I go take a shot or not", you know the answer to that.

A view of the Connemara 'Dogs Bay' in County Galway. A wonderful peaceful, almost deserted bay of pure silver sand surrounded by fences like this. A must -full screen. HFF and have a great weekend

Almost concluding my 2018 Ireland trip, I will end where I started on our second week, with another view over the bay situated in front of our holiday cottage. Each night the views here were tremendous with dancing clouds and light -how could I not just love the place. PiP Enjoy big.

A rather dramatic view of this splendid castle upon almost an Island just south of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was possible to visit inside too but I had to resist that temptation. Dunnottar Castle is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the northeastern coast of Scotland, about 2 miles south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been fortified in the Early Middle Ages. More Info As always best viewed full screen.

Enjoy with me these pieces of drift-wood battling it out for dominance on this beach of St Cyrus, Scotland. We are just short of some teeth on the highest sea-serpents head here. Enjoy large.

A bit of good weather brings me back to this castle for a blue-sky traditional shot. Dunnottar Castle is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the northeastern coast of Scotland, about 2 miles south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been fortified in the Early Middle Ages. Follow PiP for more info Enjoy large.

Enjoy another lighthouse from me. This at Ferryden, Montrose. "Scurdie Ness is a headland located on the South side of the River South Esk estuary, Montrose, Scotland. The lighthouse is listed as a building of Architectural/Historic interest. In 1867 the sea-faring community of Ferryden made representations to the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses to have a light established on Montrose Point at the rock-bound shore stretching between the Bell Rock and Girdle Ness which had been the scene of numerous shipwrecks and great loss of life. The lighthouse was built by David and Thomas Stevenson and on Tuesday 1 March 1870 at 1800 hours the tower was lit for the first time amidst cheers from the multitude gathered on the links and the sands. Originally the light character was fixed white but in 1907 was changed to isophase white 60 seconds (i.e, light 30 seconds, eclipse 30 seconds). The light currently flashes (3) white every 20 seconds and has a range of 23 nautical miles."

Another construction by the engineer Robert Stevenson, completed in 1833. It is situated near Torry Battery on the Girdle Ness peninsula just south of the entrance to Aberdeen's harbour, in Scotland. In 1813 the whaler Oscar was blown ashore in a storm into Greyhope Bay, at the entrance to Aberdeen Harbour. Despite rescue attempts only two men of the forty four on board were saved. The disaster had nothing to do with the lack of a light – the crew were drunk and incapable – but there were strong calls for a lighthouse to be built on the headland above the bay and this was achieved twenty years later here.

A wonderful side-trip brings us to these cliffs, south of Aberdeen. The spectacular cliffs at Fowlsheugh Nature reserve are packed with more than 130,000 breeding seabirds during the spring and summer months. These include guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes, along with some puffins and fulmars too. You see here, only a tiny part of these cliffs. See PiP Better full screen!

When walking around these cliffs, one cannot hold back from taking hundreds of photos of the birds here. Spoiled for choice as to what to share on Ipernity I give you these four which were some of my favorites. They are, from top left: Razorbills, Guillemot looking backwards, Puffin and Guillemot pair. Everyone's favourite of course is the puffin. Enjoy large

Enjoy this North facing view from the end of the the Fowlsheugh Nature reserve at Crawton Cliffs. You get a better idea of the sea-bird population with the PiP maybe. These are mostly guillemots at this time of year. Enjoy large. PiPs

Guillemots by the thousands. They thrive on jellyfish. A city for birds here, here and all around here at the Fowlsheugh Nature reserve for a few hundred metres. These share the cliffs with their razorbill cousins (both part of the Auk family) and gulls. At times this is also the home to many of our puffins.. In excess of 170,000 birds inhabit Fowlsheugh at the peak breeding season between April and late July. This value places Fowlsheugh as the second largest seabird colony in Britain Enjoy large.

Taken in the small fishing port of Gourdon in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Still a working harbour since 1820 but now a shadow of its former glory days. In the 1881 season over 8,000 barrels of herrings were exported from Gourdon. The herring declined in the early 1900s and by 1912 fishermen from Gourdon had switched to long line fishing from motor boats, some of the first in Scotland to do so. Long line fishing entailed laying a series of lines about 1,000m long across the sea bed, one for each man on the boat. Attached to each line were around 800 hooks, baited with mussels by the women of the village. Getting the mussels and baiting the hooks could take up to 9 hours per day and each fisherman had two lines, one being used, the other being baited for the following day. A must, full screen.

An old fence marks our way along this S-bend path to Scurdie Nes lighthouse here at Ferryden, Montrose. Like many lighthouses on this coast of North East Scotland, it has history. (see the PiP). First lit in 1870, still lit today, but as with all these, there is no lighthouse-keeper now, as it is fully automated. I wish you all, a great weekend, Herb Nice full screen. PiP

A last look at this Scottish Eastern coastline (for now). The historic harbour village of Johnshaven is where we stayed for a week. Sleepy at this moment but it has many tales to tell. 'Johnshaven was one of the most successful fishing harbours in the early days of the 18C. In 1722 it was the fifth largest in Scotland with 26 boats sailing from there. From about 1743 it began to decline, firstly with 2 boats being lost and a few years later with crews being press ganged into the Navy. In 1753 sea-faring people and their families made up a third of the population of the parish, but by 1793 that number had fallen to less than a fifth.' ~ Johnshaven.com Enjoy large.

The walk up to Start Point Lighthouse is one of the best coastal walks in South Devon, along the South West Coast Path. The dramatic cliffs and stunning coastal landscape is breath-taking. Just below here, we saw seals playing. I wish you all, a great weekend, Herb

Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island nation has many appealing aspects which include beautiful golden beaches and wonderful countryside as well as incredible mountains. A nostalgic photo here from a catamaran trip along the coast taken in 2014. The mountain with the high rock is Rempart Mountain (I think).

Anther Island here in the Andaman Sea some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. The islands are a part of the state of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border. Just a whistle-stop here for us but with beach scenes like this, altogether too little time sent here for us. This is actually near Star Cruises jetty on the southwest corner of the island beside Awana Poroto Malai Resort. Nice full size!