taken 6 years ago, 4 km WNW of Roesound, Muckle Roe, Shetland Islands, Scotland
Swabistack Geo
This is the sort of scene that appeals to the sea kayaker - though nowhere near as much as it would from sea level ! With very little swell, the stacks, caves and natural arches of the Muckle Roe coast would have been a perfect trip, but we had a deadline to meet and a ferry to catch and exploring this sort of stuff from a boat takes time, so we had to be happy with a walk instead. Through the arch, the patch of sunlit rock is the base of Swabi Stack itself, separated from the headland by a narrow channel between two rock faces. The stack in the geo would appear from the map to be Harri Stack (though the OS fits names where they can without obscuring detail, and it's not always obvious to which feature they apply). The stack even nearer is connected to the cliff face below the photographer's feet by a bouldery bit of land. The red rock here (and throughout most of Muckle Roe) is a granophyre of Old Red Sandstone (Devonian) age.
In the distance, Esha Ness is partly hidden by the foreground rocks, the high point of the horizon is Ronas Hill, and the cliffs in front of that are those of Ness of Hillswick. The Drongs can just be seen sticking dramatically out of the azure sea in the gap above the arch.
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