Guest contributor – Clara
Hi, my name is Clara, and I live in Kemnay with Storm. I’m tabby and Storm is black and white.
Kemnay is famous for its granite quarry. Along the road from our house is a woodland with a sculpture trail called “Place of Origin”. If you climb to the viewpoint, you can see the quarry. We go walks there with our human.
For holidays, we go to our human’s parents in Castletown. Famous for its Caithness flagstone quarry. Along the road from their house is a woodland with a sculpture trail. You can see a quarry face and there’s a great view beyond it. We go walks there with our human. I hope you enjoy seeing the pictures we took along the way:
During the 19th century, flagstone was exported from Castlehill Harbour to pave streets of London, Sydney, Edinburgh and New York City.
When our human was young, the former quarry was a landfill. It has now been planted with trees which are maturing. This is where we went for our walk. We went down the road to the woodland entrance. There are paths through the woods and seats and picnic areas.
The sculptures are all made from Caithness flagstone. 1 represents Dunnet Head and animals found nearby. 2 had more detailed paintings of wildlife. 3 was also a sculpture and smelt the same as the others. Beside sculpture 2, you can still see an exposed quarry face.
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Beside sculpture 2, you can still see an exposed quarry face.
Beyond the (car park and) walk is a track down to the sea. I walked along the traditional drystone wall, but our human is too old for that now.
The track went down a slope but I wouldn’t go any further.
All I could see was a lot of water and I didn’t want to get wet. It was Dunnet Bay (now famous for another export – Dunnet Bay Distillery’s Rock Rose Gin!) I could see Dunnet Head from there, it’s the furthest north point on the British mainland.
On the way back, we explored ruins of quarry workers’ cottages.
We could see Dunnet Beach from the top of them.
As you can see, we had a lovely walk. I’ve really enjoyed sharing it with you. Storm will be posting a Cat-Walk soon too, remember to look out for it.
Clara
Thank you so much for sharing this with the Geography Cat Community, it is a tonic for the soul and you are an inspiration to us all. I can’t wait to see Storm’s cat-walk too.
Best wishes to your human x GC
What an interesting walk
What a beautiful walk, thank you for sharing it with us all.
What a lovely walk. Lots of interesting places.
Thank you Clara, Storm and your human for the lovely guided walk.
Thank you Clara, Storm and your human for the lovely guided walk.