At Montrose

While Endlessly Restless had visited Peterhead and was posting delightful postcard pictures of colourful fishing boats (on a sunny day with a decent camera), we were walking along the coast at Montrose. Here in dull light and a through a dodgy camera we saw a different aspect of Scotland's surviving maritime industry.

While Peterhead's traditional fishing boats ooze charm, and invoke all kinds of nostalgia, Montrose's heavy industrial traffic was all about brute strength, oil and heavy seas.

The narrow shipping lane that connects the open water to the natural harbour, is itself the gateway to the Montrose basin. Here a powerful tug, called the Netherland Tide, negotiates the channel after a brief meeting with the harbour pilot who sailed out to meet it a mile or so off-shore. The kids were fascinated with this - and tried (and failed) to race the ship from the lighthouse back to the harbour, while hailstones pelted them! The point of the day had been that they had asked to sample genuine Arbroath Smokies (I wonder if they have been told about them at school?), and so we went initially to Arbroath harbour where the genuine articles can be as much smelled as tasted! Our next planned stop at Lunan Bay was interrupted by rain - but they seemed delighted with these unexpected views of ships instead.

My camera takes nice pictures in good light but, as soon as perfect sunshine disappears is only capable of annoyingly grainy shots. An upgrade required, one day!