Barnacles at Glencaple

This is a dreich view of the Nith at Glencaple, where I stopped this morning for tea and a spot of birdwatching.

Glencaple was once a busy place where ships were built and from where they sailed. Three oak benches, shaped like boats, tell of its maritime history. The first lists 28 ships built here between 1806 and 1858. The second says that "in 1853, enough tealeaves were landed here to make 14 million cups of tea, and in 1750, enough tobacco leaves were landed here to fill 750 million pipes". The third tells of a ship called the Duchess of Buccleuch, built here in 1735 by William Thomson, which sailed from Bristol and was wrecked off the coast of Cuba. All passengers survived to reach the Cayman Islands, where most of them caught a fever and perished.

In 2012, a huge new shop and tearoom was built here and opened by Princess Alexandra. It looks rather like a boat, and is run by Lady Mary Mumford, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk (who owned most of the land around here) and her sister Baroness Herries, who married the cricketer Colin Cowdrey.

The Barnacle geese know nothing about all this. They just spend their days eating grass.