Pub Crawl

[macausland]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRG51zE-EEA

Here's a video of Calum Kennedy. There's no need to listen to the song. The interesting bit is half way through when there is a sudden view of a long series of angular sea 'arches' followed by a variety of caves and standing stones.

[Boreades]

In my other post regarding the Ferriby boats it is apparent that they were of similar design and make to the Dover boat which was unearthed in recent years.

Hi Mac,
It's true, there are a similar design.
So far so good.

It is claimed that they could have been used to cross the north sea and the video of the replica shows a very powerful and fast boat indeed.

Doh! It's gone wrong.

I'm afraid the people making the claim are victims of the same wishful thinking demonstrated by the people at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth. They recently built a replica of the Ferriby boat and a very nice replica it was too. Up until they tried to use it offshore. Even in the very sheltered waters in Falmouth Harbour they had troubles. Firstly, the Ferriby boats were boats used as ferries on the Humber. (The clue is in the name) Rivers like the Humber are relatively wide and tranquil waters, even with a tide flowing. That's why the likes of the Ferriby boat can have such a low freeboard (the height of the sides above the waterline). Fine for ferrying a few passengers a short way across a river. No good at all for going any distance at all offshore where even small waves would be higher than the freeboard. Especially if you were carrying a cargo. Especially across the North Sea which is notorious for troublesome waves, because wind blowing over shallow waters forces waves higher.

Anyway, "very fast and powerful" are very relative terms. Not sure what that is in comparison with. A coracle? Think of a University Boat Race boat. Very fast and powerful indeed, but easily swamped and likely to sink. As much use as a chocolate teapot on open waters.

Boats useful for North Sea passages would be made of sterner stuff. Like Guernsey's Asterix boat.

[macausland]

Did they find any of Getafix's magic potion?

The Ferriby paddlers would have made it to sea with that inside them I'm sure.

Doing some 'family history' recently I found that my great great grandfather was master on a Humber sloop sailing up and down to London.

I suppose it's not deep sea but a bit tricky for a flat bottomed boat nevertheless.

Here's a picture of one. A bit bigger than the Ferriby canoes and with sails. Any idea when sails were invented?

http://www.sloopphyllis.com/

I believe the sloops were like the Thames barges and had a large outside and outsize paddle of sorts to compensate for the lack of a keel.

[Boreades]

That's more like it!



Broad, shallow-draft boats that could get well upriver, but still with good sea-going capabilities.

[macausland]

Going back to Thirle Door the online Scots Dictionary gives this:

Thirl(e, v. [Cf. e.m.E. furle (1556).] tr. To furl (sails). — Tak in ʒour top salis, and thirl them; Compl. 41/24. [We] thirle our sailes if pirats but appeare; Lithgow Trav. vii 328.

Perhaps they were safe havens to hide in. Lots of them seem to be in series even if some of them have disintegrated over time. A perfect hidey hole perhaps?

'The Knee?' Short for The Needles perhaps?

[hvered]

You would be wise to thirl or furl your sails in a strait notorious for tidal races and overfalls

The tidal streams flowing through the Pentland Firth earned it the title of hell's mouth in the days of sail, and it is still a place where unwary ships can become the plaything of the sea. As the waters of the wide Atlantic flow into the North sea and ebb in the opposite direction, they set in motion a welter of eddies, races and overfalls, and in the neighbourhood of the Pentland Skerries they run at a speed of ten knots. So dramatic are the effects that each of these tide races has been given a name - the Swilkie, the Bore of Huna, the wells of Tuftalie, the Duncansby Bore, and the Merry Men of May.
In 1914 during the first World War a temporary fog signal was provided at Duncansby Head close to John O'Groats to be replaced by a permanent fog signal after the war.

Wiki quotes Alex Salmond describing the Pentland Firth as 'the Saudi Arabia of tidal power'.



In addition to inscribing rocks with enigmatic carvings and tattooing themselves, the Picts were apparently master sailors. Again quoting Wiki (my emphasis)

Prior to the Norse occupation of Orkney the strait was known as the "Sea of Orcs" - a reference to the Pictish tribe who inhabited Orkney. Such was their marine prowess that there are also instances of this name referring to the sea lanes of the entire west coast of Scotland down to Kintyre. One version of the 9th century Historia Brittonum states that "the Britons originally filled the whole island with their peoples from the English Channel to the Sea of Orcs"

Duncansby Stacks look square-ish not unlike a pair of gateposts.

[Mick Harper]

Has the Old Man of Hoy on the other side of the Pentland Firth been mentioned yet?



Far from being Megalithic in origin, Wiki says it is very modern!

The Old Man is probably less than 400 years old, and is likely to completely erode away in time.[1] On maps drawn between 1600 and 1750, the area appears as a headland with no sea stack

My own relationship with the Old Man goes back to watching Chris Bonnington climb it on telly one Sunday afternoon long ago. That's when my determination to stay in a lot more began.

[macausland]

Just in case you change your mind and decide to get out here are some pictures and instructions on how to climb these things. Or how not to climb them as the case may be.

http://www.chetwynd.info/guides/n_scotl ... of%20Stoer

Sorry about the links but I still haven't worked out how to paste photos on to the site.

The Isle of Skye has the Old Man of Storr which is either a giant's thumb or a natural rock formation which apparently is the Norwegian for 'big'.

http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2009/0 ... -skye-fall

Perhaps it is better to stay indoors.

[Mick Harper]

You just paste in the URL of the pic, highlight the URL and click Img which is just above the big white box where you write things.

[hvered]

The Old Man of Stoer is a landmark on a Great Circle line from the North Pole to the island of Tarifa in the Med.

The first point of land that the Line reaches is Scotland and it steers a middle course between the mainland and Lewis.



The Old Man marks the northernmost tip of Stoer (Stòr = steep cliff, cf. steer).

It may be a coincidence to find a sea stack just where it's needed east of the line but on the other, west, side is the Eye Peninsula, attached to the island of Lewis by a thin isthmus.



At the eastern end of the causeway are the ruins of Eye Church, dedicated to St Columba and formerly Lewis’ main parish church. [Nowadays the Eye Peninsula is usually called Point and has a lighthouse just as the Point of Stoer is marked by a lighthouse.]

The island of Tarifa is also called the Island of Palomas (=doves, cf. Columba)