Collieston calling

Collieston is one of my favourite places on earth.

It is a small seaside village, 25 miles north of Aberdeen. A solid albeit slightly crumbling pier and assortment of cottages tumbling down around the cove gives it a rugged beauty. I tried to express this ruggedness in this cover photo by post-processing the digital image into a high contrast black and white image.

More traditional photos of the ‘Low town’ are in the Extra Photos section.  Other images there are from the Sands of Forvie Nature Reserve, which sits just south of Collieston. At first when I lived there, I thought of it as an odd place to make into a nature reserve – New Zealand’s conservation focus was then mainly on saving native forests that were being felled by state-subsidised and unsustainable commercial forestry companies.  But as I walked the Sands of Forvie at all hours and weathers, the moods and rugged nature of the place became apparent.  The light can be amazing (unfortunately it was very uniform and dull at the time of this return visit) at dawn and dusk, or when a storm is approaching. New Zealand has denatured many of its sand dune habitats, partly by planting marram (introduced from Denmark) and pine trees (introduced from California) to ‘stabilise’.

Collieston is where wonderful friends of past years still live.  I spent most of my four years of PhD study (1978-1981) at Collieston when based at Culterty Field Station (University of Aberdeen) in nearby Newburgh.  I returned with my partner and children for a 6-month sabbatical in 1995.  It was a real pleasure to revisit this time round to reconnect with friends and walk on the nearby Sands of Forvie Nature Reserve (see Extra Photos).  We are all a bit older, feel the odd creak and utter occasional groan, but friendships endure 40 years of separation by half a planet.

The generosity of Scots is never-ending.