A grey day on the Clyde Estuary.

This was the view today looking North from Largs Marina towards the town. The tower on the right was built in 1912.  Officially it was the Battle of Largs Memorial Tower but not surprisingly the local people soon stated calling it The Pencil and that has stuck. It commemorated the day in 1263 when Alexander III of Scotland defeated  King Hakon VI of Norway. A couple of years ago I took part in a citizen science project called Capturing our Coast, surveying rocky coasts. I chose the beach next to the Pencil, largely because of the proximity of a good cafe with loos. I roped in my husband and we scuttled around the rocks with a 50m tape measure, bamboo canes,  a metal grid and a camera, frantically trying to survey 20 areas before the tide came back in, looking for our chosen set of seashore life. We got pretty good at estimating the number of barnacles in quarter of a metre, but we were always ready for our tea and cake.