Wrought in fire

On the windswept coastline west of Fishguard harbour, Pen Anglas, unlike most headlands that rear high above the sea, dips down and stretches out long and low like a bony finger. This means that on a calm day like today it can be traversed all the way to its barnacled-encrusted tip where water, rock and air merge into an elemental union.

The stone pillar bears no date or inscription and I don't know whether it was placed here as a warning or a memorial but these rocks have proved fatal to many ships whose wrecks are still strewn over the seabed, visited only by divers. Behind where I am standing a small boxlike structure once held a foghorn to keep vessels from coming near.

The very bones of the land protrude here as they do all over this ancient landscape. Pen Anglas lies some distance away from the well-trodden coast path and most who make the detour to reach it have one thing in mind: geology. It's noted for its remarkable igneous rock formations, easily missed if you are not aware of them. The flat surface sloping to the right displays (I quote) 'some excellent examples of columnar jointing. This inclined rock face shows sections through the columns demonstrating the hexagonal cooling joints.' (Seen best LARGE).

In other words, the molten liquid lava extruded by erupting volcanoes many millions of years ago shrank as it cooled, and cracked, just like drying mud, into these hexagonal shapes which reach down below the surface to form columns. On the other side of the rocky ridge the columns can be seen lined up almost vertically in concertina-like folds. The same process formed the Giant's Causeway in Ireland and Fingal Cave's in Scotland. Wrought in heat, they are now frozen in time.