Smith, John
Its geology comprises a Jacob's coat of colours and textures, most memorably of
grey granite and red sandstone, the latter displayed in the glacially derived
soils of Mearns country and the landscape round and about Turriff. Granites are
majestically and architecturally displayed in the Cairngorms, in the many
abandoned granite quarries that stud the North East and on the eastern coastal
knuckle between Boddam and Bullers, there perversely for natives of the Granite
City, coloured pink. Geological contrasts, joints and bedding planes have
proferred ledges and yawns for skilful fisherfolk to anchor themselves in
seaboard nooks and crannies, while the kindlier and yielding sandstones have
bequeathed heavy but potentially productive soil for agricultural endeavours in
Angus. Elsewhere life was always more exacting and laborious, as melting ice
sheets discarded in their wake a mixed bag of boulder-ridden detritus as in
parts of lowland Buchan and coarse sands and gravels along the valleys of Ythan,
Deveron and Dee. The marked land use contrasts between the valleys of the Dee
and Don, summarised traditionally as fish and trees on the predominantly
gravel-based soils of the former as opposed to horn and corn on the softer
weathered soils of the Garioch reflect the differing geology's and glacial
histories. Where the land was bouldery or peat-covered and altitudinally low
enough to have a reasonable growing season, the farmers set to and struggled to
clear these impediments to agriculture, gradually reducing the former wilderness
to islands in a sea of small farms. Evidence of their efforts remain in the form
of stone clearance heaps and impressive consumption dykes - consuming the stones
brought up by land reclamation and cultivation. 5000 years earlier, their
prehistoric ancestors had manhandled carefully selected boulders to chosen sites
on summits with a good view to the south west. Their aim appears to have been to
construct a carefully coded stone circle to observe, celebrate and perhaps
predict the rhythm of the seasons - in short a lunar observatory. It is likely
that like their improving descendants of the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries these farmers and stock rearers had already developed a profound
affection and respect for the land that sustained them. As someone once astutely
observed, the North East has two voices, the land and the sea, and the sea is
the more powerful. Fisherfolk have ventured down to the shore - the High Shore
or the Low Shore, depending on the specific site topography - and have sought
the cod and the herring from open boats, with long line and net. Tucked in
beneath the cliffs, they looked to the sea only. Founder families sought
shorelines where, albeit exposed, the rocks and sediments were subject to slow
rates of change. Sandy shores with shallow water, mobile sediments and a paucity
of rocks to dry the fish were generally avoided. Like their invisible inland
neighbours working the land, fisher families developed an affection and a
respect for their place of work. Both developed a skill in harvesting their
respective resources, despite the rigours of weather and market vagaries. Modern
observers and commentators look back on times past with a mixture of nostalgia
and genuine respect. The North East landscape is one of Heinz-like variety over
short distances - both inland and coastal but two features continue to impress -
the way the men and women won the land and harvested the sea and an abiding
feature of Buchan and Angus in particular, are the big backcloth skies with
clouds piled up on the horizons. Truly the North East is an evocative place and
its geological skeleton its primeval stage.