When is an Island not an Island ?

 

 

 

Cramond’s Tidal Palette in Drum Sands

Nature’s Golden Realm in the sandflats are of international importance for thousands of Wading birds and Winter Fowl.Designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the sands form part of the Firth of Forth Special Protection Area (SPA) and a RAMSAR Site,which is an intergovernmental environmental treaty established in 1971 by UNESCO, and coming into force in 1975.

Beautiful was this world,nature’s potential indescribable;

The shapes of the tidal waters entrancing ; they were slipping with a glossy sheen into the brown reflections of the flats as the waves were slapping away …

 

I felt like a bird in the Estuary that never wants a cage …

 

Cramond Island Connected to the Mainland at Low Tide

 

Here’s Cramond’s Causeway & the Concrete Pylons from a distance.

View from the island,near a gun emplacement,looking back to the mainland and to Scotland’s history.

Cramond is a 19 acres,uninhabited Tidal Island located 1.5 km out to sea just off the mainland in the Firth of Forth and it is connected to the mainland via a Causeway at Low Tide across the Drum Sands.Firth is a Scots word which means Estuary & Forth is the name of the River.

Geologically, the Firth of Forth is a fjord, formed by the Forth Glacier in the last glacial period.The island is part of the Dalmeny Estate.

The causeway runs at the foot of a row of Huge Concrete Pylons which were constructed as a submarine defence boom during the second World War and they are one of the most striking sights in the area.At High Tide, which comes in deceptively fast,the path is covered by seawater which cuts the island off from the mainland.

 

Vestiges of History in the Tidal Island of Cramond

Wartime Concrete in a Tidal Island among the Shadowed Cones.Remains of WW II in Cramond through Time where stripped-out gun-emplacements gawped at ships …

And,in the distant horizon beyond the headland,faint sunrays with the colours of the rainbow spread out freely on the dark silhouettes of Arthur’s Seat and over Auld Reekie,the Athens of the North,yon Empress of the North,Edina,Britaine’s other Eye,as Ben Jonson describes it …

You have to check the crossing times,which are posted at the start of the causeway,otherwise you’ll be stuck there until the coastguard comes to rescue you.

 

The submarine boom connecting Cramond Island to the mainland is part of a larger network of anti submarine defences constructed during WWII to protect the Forth and its dockyards.

 

Undiscovered Eastern Scotland – Drum Sands Hound Point,near South Queensferry

Next time, when I come back from my summer holidays,we’ll visit Stirling Castle

Exploring Places of Power & Beauty

 

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