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Back The Caiplie Caves
Chapters (71)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. PREFACE
  5. Epigraph page
  6. “In this foggy, dispute-ridden landscape”
  7. I
  8. THE NORTH
  9. SAUCHOPE LINKS CARAVAN PARK
  10. CRAIL AUTUMN
  11. A PLENITUDE
  12. NO 59981 05825; 56.24324° N, 2.64731° W
  13. Having abandoned his mission . . .
  14. Efforts are made to dissuade him . . .
  15. Evidence of his own cult in Pictland . . .
  16. “Ethernan” likely derived from the Latin . . .
  17. THE DESERT FATHERS
  18. “WHEN SOLITUDE WAS A PROBLEM, I HAD NO SOLITUDE”
  19. TENTSMUIR FOREST
  20. A MISCALCULATION
  21. THE SPIES
  22. MERCENARIES KNOW THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR SPECIALISTS IN THE MARKET
  23. THE MERIDIAN
  24. WHOSE DEATHS WERE RECORDED OFFICIALLY AS CASUALTIES OF “THE BATTLE OF MAY ISLAND”
  25. SONG
  26. II
  27. NO 59981 05825; 56.24324° N, 2.64731° W
  28. He remembers a friend . . .
  29. Like Cormac Ua Liatháin, he sought . . .
  30. Hostilities were inevitable among the four peoples . . .
  31. Now blood on his lip . . .
  32. Tomorrow, for sure, he will make a start . . .
  33. A vision . . .
  34. He reexamines his practice . . .
  35. A visitation . . .
  36. He enquires of the silence . . .
  37. AN ENTHUSIAST
  38. FROM THE INVERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH, PART 2, 1881
  39. THE SHAGS, WHOSE CONSERVATION STATUS IS “OF LEAST CONCERN”
  40. “GOODBYE TO COCKENZIE POWER STATION, A CATHEDRAL TO COAL”
  41. A TRAWLERMAN
  42. SHE IS BURIED ON THE WEST BRAES
  43. WHITE STRANGERS
  44. ORIGIN STORY
  45. KENTIGERN AND THE ROBIN
  46. TO THE EXTENT A TRADITION CAN BE SAID TO BE DEVELOPED; IT IS MORE ACCURATE TO SAY IT CAN BE CLOTHED IN DIFFERENT FORMS
  47. AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER WITH HE WHO HAS BEEN LEFT ALONE TO HIS PERILS
  48. A RETREAT
  49. SONG
  50. III
  51. SONG
  52. A LESSON
  53. THE INTERCESSORS
  54. CRAIL SPRING
  55. THE SHARING ECONOMY
  56. TIME AWAY WITH THE ERROR
  57. TWO CHAPTERS ON ANCIENT STONES
  58. ANCIENT REMEDIES WITH CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT
  59. 56.1833° N, 2.5667° W
  60. The Isle of May lies just outside the western boundary . . .
  61. Its paved road, which has all the appearance . . .
  62. Having once dwelt at Caiplie, “place of horses” . . .
  63. In a purposeful adoption of an ancient burial site . . .
  64. YOU CAN’T GO BACK
  65. STINGING NETTLE APPRECIATION
  66. THE HERMITS
  67. CLARITY
  68. NOTES
  69. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  70. THE CAIPLIE CAVES
  71. ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

of the Devonian fossil record. Pyrope garnets at the foot

of Lady’s Tower aren’t quite rare enough to accrue significant

market value, much like the self-taught experts

in autobrecciation and exfoliation weathering

who work their way to the surface of the Coastal Path

at the close of a hard winter. Amateur geologists,

rockhounds, and collectors may be distinguished

by their commitments to task-specific outerwear

but a bin bag rain poncho is not the measure of a person.

Ideas gather around phenomena as though for warmth.

Between art and science, our method is the stage

upon which the universal plays in the fragment.

Form in number, ratio in form. A nice bit of white-trap

or ironstone in a setting of green tuff

inspires a loyalty appropriate to no other relationship.

In the floodlights of taxonomy subjects evaporate,

at peace, and an uncompromised image steps forward.

I like it at sea level. It’s the right amount of exposition for me

on the shores of the Great Archive. When you bring pain,

as you feel you must, when the exhausting singularity

spreads through my limbs, I look to sandstone

comprehending itself by breaking at joints produced

by the forces. To the stacks, preferentially

and justly eroded along their planes of weakness by seas

four metres higher. As again they well may be.

FROM THE INVERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH, PART 2, 1881

i.

On the long-lines, Newhaven
under the name of Menipea ternata		 very rare
We dredged this species
last summer The Canda reptans
of various authors
we dredged several times last summer
on Newhaven pier		 found it in refuse
Bicellaria ciliata
we dredged last summer and previously Bugula avicularia
west of Inchkeith, 5 fathoms B. murrayana
on fishermen’s nets, Cellaria fistidosa is common in the Forth
We’ve dredged it frequently on the oyster bank  
in 14 fathoms off Longniddry		 and took it last summer
The Salicornaria farciminoides
Flustra foliacea		 of Johnston, and others
in 4 fathoms, at Aberdour
F. carbasea last summer, off Fidra
M. pilosa cast ashore after storms
C. denticulate, in the firth, not uncommon We dredged it last summer
south-west of Inchkeith, 5 fathoms 9 fathoms
off Aberlady Bay
Vesicularia spinosa we have dredged in abundance
It’s often found deprived of the polypites
The Serialaria lendigera tangled in masses among other Polyzoa or Zoophytes
Awnella fusca among rejectamenta, on corallines
Styela grossularia under large stones at Newhaven
Peltogaster paguri
of Carcinus maenas
to floating timber		 attached to the abdomen
Lepas anatifera
Balanus balanoides

abundant between tide marks

we have dredged very frequently in pretty deep water

ii.

We have dredged it. We have taken this species.

Dead valves at Cramond Island, and St. Andrews Bay.

T. pullastra, pure white, occasionally.

We dredged it last summer off the Isle of May.

Scrobicularia prismatica sparingly alive at low water.

Empty shells, with valves still united, are commoner.

On the beach. Brought up by storms. S. piperata

well preserved, but not living; they lie in a bed of blue clay.

iii.

Limnoria lignorum, we obtained at Elie. Nephrops