on Christmas Eve we drove up the east coast, over the Tay bridge, through Dundee and past Arbroath to Lunan Bay.

at one end are rocky cliffs with caves and interesting rocks

my photo and the low orange sunlight have changed the colour, but actually they looked almost as green as malachite, and I found a green pebble on the beach.

we found several beautiful almost egg-shaped quartz and schist pebbles – black with cream spots, translucent pale pink and white, black and brown flecked with mica.

the middle of the bay has big sand dunes, full of little banded snails which match the stripes on their shells to the narrow marram grass leaves.

at the other end is a red sandstone cliff with a red sandstone castle, or fort, overlooking the river, Lunan Water, which winds through reed beds and sandbanks behind more dunes and a little wood.

where fresh and salt meet the beach wrack is decorated with seaweed and reeds. this log just made me think of a beached sea-stag with prayer threads and papers attached.

and we found several of these magician’s cups, or earth ball fungi in the grass.

a particularly restful place.

but busy in the summer, with a cafe and campsite.