Caer Rocks

These are photos I took on a trip through Great Britain, 2006. They are beaches at the far north of Europe, the northern coast of Scotland. Looking out to sea, there is little except more icy sea until one gets to the Greenland, the North Pole etc.

In 2004, I wrote the following scene for my first YA novel, The Runes of Odin:

Calum ducked under a low-hanging branch as he scrambled up a small incline along the path to Caer Rocks, the name given to a little stretch of beach between two sharp crags jutting out from the cliffs. A caer was a strong place, and the two crags were certainly strong as the rest of the rocks between them had eroded away from the constant waves, leaving a gentle beach and easy access to the sea, one of the only accessible places along most of the coastline of the Firth.

Now the beach in my story was black-pebbled and the sea never as calm. But add the long, black lines of a predatory Viking long ship and this place felt like I had summoned it from my pages.

Stunningly beautiful, even more so for an icy welcome.