There are many places in Scotland where the skeletons of whales sit, on beach or headland, being slowly worn away by water and by weather. And then there are other places where the rocks and stones themselves resemble bones. The Gauldrons, near Machrihanish, is one such place.
Stones? Or massive skeleta half-buried, unearthed by sand?
The twist of a huge spine, surely?
A giant knuckle?
a ball without it’s socket?
a great, lone shoulder?
The “real” bones of “real” creatures wear away alongside the calciferous remains that have been hewn from the crumbling cliffside, and strewn along the waters edge
I think of the great whale skeletons I’ve seen beached: at Berneray, at Colonsay.
I think of how, in primary school, we were told to divide objects into three categories: Alive, Dead, Never Alive.
I think of how St Ciaran (whose named cave can be found a few miles from this spot) instructed his disciples to leave his remains upon the open hillside.
“Go ye, let my relics bleach in the sun like the bones of a deer”
This place is no reliquary
But rather, a place where everything is moving: the quick, the slow
Out there in the bay of storms (which is what “gauldrons” means) gannets dive, and eiders gather.
A lone, lenticular cloud’s borne westward.
The hour, the day, the season, all move on.
With each tide, each stone is changed
Never Alive. Dead. Alive.
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I often think that rock formations are the most interesting feature of a place. Near our cabin there’s a bunch of exposed rock that’s so old you won’t even find fossils in it. And they’re so enjoyable to trace even when nothing is growing.
Such beautiful photos – thank you for sharing
What an amazing post—and spectacular photographs!
What fabulous, evocative photos.
I just love this, Kate! Six years ago I visited Bosnia & Hercegovina, near Medjugorje. The dirt was iron-red and the worn rocks that showed through looked just like “dinosaur” bones. I was just fascinated with the structure of the earth there, and how some of the “never alive” things are, in fact, very much alive.
Alive, dead, never alive – can be found in all sorts of unlikely places – not just Scotland – though it might take a bit of pondering to find them….
Ah! And then there are stromatolites in Shark Bay, Western Australia: probably the oldest form of life on earth: which are alive but form structures that do, indeed, appear very rock-like.
Oh, wow!
beautiful
Pure poetry – visually and in your prose. Thank you for enriching my evening and making me think outside the lines…
Just extraordinary images. wonderful, thank you for stimulating our ‘little’ brains!
What discovery! I always look up to see familiar shapes above me, but your account reminds me to look down for that same discovery. Thanks for sharing this topic, and the photos are, as usual, quite exquisite. The stories they tell and the stirring of the visual mind for its full history brings so much joy for discovery.
Oh my. I had to go back and reread the three categories. I had read them as: alive, dead and near alive. And thought that would be explicated/probed. But the reading went elsewhere, or did it? Since the rocks and the sky are transforming all the time just like everything else.
I think your categories offer even more food for thought.
The twist of a huge spine, indeed! And eroded sinus cavities and rough muscle anchorings on smooth, slow-dissolving bones. I will never look at rocks the same way again; thank you!
Beautiful
Sheer poetry. Thank you for expressing this.
Thank you, Kate and Tom, for this extraordinary post. I have never before seen anything like it.
exquisite. poetry.