Stones of the Sky...

 Barry has already posted on the adventure this quest ended up being, but I thought I should fill in some of the detail around what inspired the trek across the North to find lettering carved in stones...

I saw a picture on a FB page where somebody said something like hooray, I finally found them!  I thought wow, what an epic story, we should try and see them too.

The little research I did before heading off, said there are these words, carved in stones, only found at low tide. The words are from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's "Stones of the Sky" or "Sky Stones". The words are from number 17 in a suite of 30 from this series. I think...

I fell in love with the words, and the idea that they only revealed themselves for an hour a day.

Some folk asked in the comments where exactly?, and the answer was half the fun is finding them for yourself. All we knew was Sannick beach, walk towards Groats. No particular detail.

I figured that would be enough to go on with - how hard could it be to find a lengthy slab of rock with carved words on it?

Answer dear reader - very hard.

Barry took some photos of me attempting to work out where on earth we should be looking. I had two iPhones with me - one with a Scottish Sim and my trusty one from Oz, and neither of them helped at all because no, or wavering only, signal.

Maybe over there???

Because the words are only exposed at low tide, everything we clambered over was very slippery, and didn't really encourage ongoing exploration. But, we had a purpose and we hoped to fulfil it. I felt bad taking B on what increasingly appeared to be a wild goose chase without much clear direction, just a lot of enthusiasm and hope.

On the way back after a fruitless, almost hour long search. I stopped and stared at slabs of rock, making my eyes go fuzzy to see if there were shapes revealing themselves anywhere. It was with disbelief that I actually spied the line of poetry. After all that time.

Some of B's photos and some of mine follow.

The carving is very fine, but nobody has ever owned up to doing it and their identity remains a mystery.

It emerges from the water...

and goes around curves and corners...

I love the way the seaweed is embedding itself in nooks and crannies.

And how barnacles are beginning to fill some of the letters

So beautifully carved...

Such lovely movement and character in the letters.

And some beautiful moody shots with the iPhone on portrait and stagelight mode.

The rock poem was first 'discovered' in 2013. In 2022 a fellow found some more lines, carved in different stones and in a different place on the beach (again, no details as to just where). Some reports indicate there may be 20 more lines of poetry - mostly short, many excerpts, to be found. So I imagine we will try to head back at low tide and take another wander.

In the interim I think about how hard it must have been to do the work. With the rocks only available for an hour or so at time, it must have taken weeks. Plus the Scottish weather. Plus the slippery surfaces.

I quite love the mystery too - the quiet achievement of wonder and beauty, not trumpeted, just gifted.

Here and here and here are some links to articles about the poem in the stone...