The Scottish Border

The ruin of Melrose Abbey sits on the edge of the small town of Melrose, with great views of the surrounding hills.  Here is a view from the top of the abbey.

This is the dividing wall which separated the monks part of the church from the lay brothers' part. Apparently you had to have some status to even think of becoming a monk!

The tomb of the physicist Sir David Brewster is close here, surrounded by a low wall. Brewster was famous for his experimental work in optics, especially in the field of polarisation.  He developed the subject of the optical properties of the minerals of rocks.  His invention of the kaliedoscope was a great commercial success and these are still manufactured in quantity as children's toys!

And here is a flying pig.

Hopetoun Houes

Sneaking briefly over the Forth river we found Hopetoun House.  "I thought I parked the car here...".

The gardens are lovely and there are some interesting trees, such as the Chinese paper bark tree (I may not have that name exactly right) and the Dawn Redwood.

Volcanoes on the Fife coast?

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post - but the time has come!  And I have some great images for you.

The first picture is a dramatic column made of two volcanic rocks. The blue sky actually occurred on a lovely January day at the shore between St Monans and Elie in Fife. In the distance you can see a ruined castle and the steeple of Elie church.

This stretch of coast is intensely volcanic. A little further south a group of geologists traversed the Elie chain walk to view some exciting features.

During the lunch break a wave cut notch provided shelter from the rain.

But across this small bay there was a dramatic tower of regular columns of rock.  These are the remnant of a magma lake that lay within the neck of an ancient volcano.

Close up, these rocks are very impressive.