Some rocks and stones

I find myself fascinated by visual geology, and usually end up taking far more photographs of rocks and stones than I should.  Here is a selection taken over the past couple of days.

A seat welcoming travellers to Newton Stewart.  Carved out of one rock it is extremely comfortable, but placed right by a busy main road along which the great trucks thunder to and from the Stranraer Ferry.  Not calm.

The first thing I noticed as we arrived in the area is that the stone walls differ from those in Cumbria.  The latter are made up of close fitting stones, either the appropriate size for each gap, or knapped.  Here the stones are round, and piled up with gaps as they come.  I wonder if the rock is harder here, and not easily knapped.

In the fresh air of course there are multiple lichen growths, but I particularly liked this splash of orange.

I was delighted to find a complete stone circle just outside Wigtown, the book town - and right by the road.  Torhouse Stone Circle is a dumpy wee group with great charm - and surrounded by molehills!

This trip involves allsorts: towns, gardens, forest, loch, moorland, hills, and sea.  I was particularly taken with this combination of white stone and black dried seaweed.

The thrift blooms happily on this rock because although surrounded by sea at high tide, it is never covered - not at this time of year, anyway.

Today we visited Glen Trool, climbing first to Bruce's Stone and the lovely view of the valley from there. 

I was attracted also by the abstract formed by outcrops of rock around the path.

 

The Glen Trool Visitor Centre not only provided us with refreshment, but also the pleasant sight of two burns running over rocks towards the loch - bright on one side of the path, and peaty dark on the other.  The photo above shows the confluence of the two before they flow under the Stroan Bridge.