I went out today with the intention of having a final recce of a future camping spot,to see if i would need tent or tarp and to see what the fire wood situation was like, through extreme stupidity i nearly killed myself at the end of it.I set off early from my house appox 9am,with the intention of getting back for 3pm(misses starts work at 5pm need to be home for kids) once i reached the area around St Abbs head i headed north along the cliff tops.The first thing i came across although the picture does'nt do it justice was the ruins of a iron age settlement the cliff's around here have quite a few,
basically alls thats left are circular stone walls about 4-5ft high covered in grass and with ditches running round them,
Further on i came across a good shot of one of the many beachs that just cant be reached,
you cant see if from here but there is a waterfall where the cliff ends,it can only be seen from
St Abbs end but my camera cant do a pic justice, as its a bog standard digital and the waterfalls way to far off from that end.
As i neared my destination a came across this underground spring, no idea where it originates or how safe it is,
Finally after 2hrs walking i reached the part of the cliffs where i could get down to the beach, dont know if you can make out the zigzag path down,
once down i had a quick bite to eat and a brew up.
then a quick look around, i think this lump of rock on the top of the cliff is alls thats left of Fast castle,theres reputedly a cave under it which was used by smugglers,will check it out when i camp here,
sorry again thats on zoom my camera just cant do much, apprently theres more remains and ruins if you look down on it from above,it had quite a colourful history.
This is looking in to one of the old timber shelters built between standing slabs of rock,
and theres a abundance of fire wood,
theres plenty of bits of the old wreck scattered about,
anyway when it was time to leave, id walked to the far end of the beach(opposite castle end) and i saw what i thought was another footpath back up,
Normally im very cautious and dont take risks but the further i went up it the harder it bacame,till i was crawling up and using my walking pole to dig in to the ground for support,why i didnt turn round then i dont know,the next pic is the last one i took before i realised i couldnt get any further up as id come to sheer rock,and before i realised that maybe i couldnt get back down,
having now gone about 300 up the approx 400ft high cliffs some of which had been almost vertical scree or moss slopes, and realising i couldnt go further up i was in trouble,because trying to go back down the scree, it just gave way and id slip and only stop myself by digging in my walking pole,the mossy area's where worse because the pole just ripped off the surface moss,and i only stopped myself by grabbing a clump of grass which held me long enough to dig my heels in.This is not me trying to sound tough because i was very scared,any rock that fell by my actions, went all the way down to the bottom, and i knew that if i slipped and couldnt stop myself id be in serious trouble, i sat there for about 20mins,at first panicking,and feeling sorry for myself,and also knowing if i didnt try to get down id be here for along time possibly when it was dark.My misses wouldnt do anything till she realised id make her late for work,say around 4.30pm, then she would have to tell someone where i was roughly,and having never been there herself and although id told her i dont think she could of give a precise location, then id need to be found, the wind was blowing very hard off shore so any shouting by me would go out to sea. To cut a long story short i very slowly went down on my left butt check holding what i could with my left arm,and using my right leg and my right arm holding the waking pole to act as a brake,i had a few near misses where id slip and manage to stop myself, and have pulled my shoulder,and have a few bruises but i did get back down unharmed and am very lucky, i dont know why i went up so high, i only can remember thinking it must level out, but it didnt, i was stupid and wont make the same mistake again, on the plus side it gave me one hell of a adrenalin boost because i got home in 1hr 15mins compared to the 2hrs to get there.
basically alls thats left are circular stone walls about 4-5ft high covered in grass and with ditches running round them,
Further on i came across a good shot of one of the many beachs that just cant be reached,
you cant see if from here but there is a waterfall where the cliff ends,it can only be seen from
St Abbs end but my camera cant do a pic justice, as its a bog standard digital and the waterfalls way to far off from that end.
As i neared my destination a came across this underground spring, no idea where it originates or how safe it is,
Finally after 2hrs walking i reached the part of the cliffs where i could get down to the beach, dont know if you can make out the zigzag path down,
once down i had a quick bite to eat and a brew up.
then a quick look around, i think this lump of rock on the top of the cliff is alls thats left of Fast castle,theres reputedly a cave under it which was used by smugglers,will check it out when i camp here,
sorry again thats on zoom my camera just cant do much, apprently theres more remains and ruins if you look down on it from above,it had quite a colourful history.
This is looking in to one of the old timber shelters built between standing slabs of rock,
and theres a abundance of fire wood,
theres plenty of bits of the old wreck scattered about,
anyway when it was time to leave, id walked to the far end of the beach(opposite castle end) and i saw what i thought was another footpath back up,
Normally im very cautious and dont take risks but the further i went up it the harder it bacame,till i was crawling up and using my walking pole to dig in to the ground for support,why i didnt turn round then i dont know,the next pic is the last one i took before i realised i couldnt get any further up as id come to sheer rock,and before i realised that maybe i couldnt get back down,
having now gone about 300 up the approx 400ft high cliffs some of which had been almost vertical scree or moss slopes, and realising i couldnt go further up i was in trouble,because trying to go back down the scree, it just gave way and id slip and only stop myself by digging in my walking pole,the mossy area's where worse because the pole just ripped off the surface moss,and i only stopped myself by grabbing a clump of grass which held me long enough to dig my heels in.This is not me trying to sound tough because i was very scared,any rock that fell by my actions, went all the way down to the bottom, and i knew that if i slipped and couldnt stop myself id be in serious trouble, i sat there for about 20mins,at first panicking,and feeling sorry for myself,and also knowing if i didnt try to get down id be here for along time possibly when it was dark.My misses wouldnt do anything till she realised id make her late for work,say around 4.30pm, then she would have to tell someone where i was roughly,and having never been there herself and although id told her i dont think she could of give a precise location, then id need to be found, the wind was blowing very hard off shore so any shouting by me would go out to sea. To cut a long story short i very slowly went down on my left butt check holding what i could with my left arm,and using my right leg and my right arm holding the waking pole to act as a brake,i had a few near misses where id slip and manage to stop myself, and have pulled my shoulder,and have a few bruises but i did get back down unharmed and am very lucky, i dont know why i went up so high, i only can remember thinking it must level out, but it didnt, i was stupid and wont make the same mistake again, on the plus side it gave me one hell of a adrenalin boost because i got home in 1hr 15mins compared to the 2hrs to get there.
but you're right, that's a real adrenaline kick 
