Saturday 14 February 2015

Famous Flagstones of the North

One of the things I noticed on our recent trip to the north of Scotland, when we first arrived in the Strathy area, was that a lot of fields had upright flagstones around them, rather than dry stone walls or hedges.

The mystery was solved when we discovered Castlehill, an abandoned flagstone quarry and workers' village on the coast near Castletown.

The beach is full of old flagstones, left over from what used to be a major source of flagstones exported across the world.

 The village and quarry are now a very low key heritage site, with information boards that inform the visitor without dominating the site.

When we later in our trip visited Forsinard Flows nature reserve, we were interested to see that the pathways across the peat bog were constructed of Castlehill flagstones.






15 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

oh, that's awesome!

Lynn said...

I've always wanted to visit that part of Scotland - thank you for this intriguing glimpse. (I've just been to the touristy part.) :)

Unknown said...

What a beautiful place. Being an American, I am always in awe of how much history there is in Europe. It sounds like a great trip.

Magyar said...

__It is grand... learning the value of those forgotten skills, and the natural resources that have helped build their region, and other lands worldwide.
__Learning, so often brings such bypassed and valued histories to the fore. _m

RG said...

Pretty sturdy fences!

Mavis said...

Reminds me of the slate areas in North Wales.

eileeninmd said...

Gorgeous landscapes and a neat fence and I love the pathway.. Happy Sunday!

Little Miss Titch said...

oh that's lovely,xx

Bob Bushell said...

Solved that mystery, excellent photos.

Donna said...

What beautiful landscapes....

Bill said...

Sounds like a great trip.

driving north
a look at the future
that used to be

Gingi said...

Seriously jealous of where you live!!! It's on my bucket list of places to visit before I die! <3 - www.domesticgeekgirl.com

Optimistic Existentialist said...

I love all of these photos - especially the first one at Castlehill!

sage said...

Interesting and beautiful. I am always surprised here how in certain parts of the city, there are stones and bricks from various parts of the world that were ballast in ships and was unloaded so they could load up the goods and ship back (back when we produced stuff) I wonder how many stones from there may be here?

Caroline Gill said...

I don't this top NE corner of Scotland at all, but it looks full of fascinating things. The landscape and coast look amazing ... We know the the bit from Durness going east ... but have not to date ventured as far as Tongue.