Top of the rock

Today's the day ......................... to climb the Law

It's a long, long time since I've climbed Berwick Law - but that's what I did today.

Berwick Law is a proper little conical hill - a volcanic plug of hard Carboniferous phonolitic trachyte rock - which rises incongruously from the surrounding landscape to overlook the East Lothian town of North Berwick. It's only 613 feet high, but the view from the top on a lovely clear day like today was superb.

The main difference today was to see that the ancient whale's jawbone on the summit that I remember from my youth - has been replaced by a fibreglass replica. Apparently the original collapsed in June 2005 after rotting away, and was removed by helicopter, much to the surprise of North Berwick residents.

Call me old-fashioned - but you'd think they could have found an actual whale's bone, wouldn't you ........................?