Showing posts with label Chapel of St Dennis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chapel of St Dennis. Show all posts

Tuesday 29 August 2023

Skulferatu #103 - Skateraw, East Lothian


Skateraw is a small hamlet, farm, and area of land by the coast in East Lothian.  It sits very close to Torness Nuclear Power Station, which dominates the skyline of the area.

 

A photo showing a green field in the foreground and a large white building behind it.  The building, Torness Nuclear Power Station, is windowless and is dominated by a big white square of a building in the middle.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Torness Nuclear Power Station

 

The coastline around here is very picturesque, despite what many may see as the carbuncle of the power station that sits over it.  However, I think that it actually adds to the area in a way.  This stark industrial building of blue grey melds into the changing light of the sky and almost compliments the more organic remains of the stone buildings of old industry that sit here.  For this is an area with an industrial past.

 

A photo showing a view across a rocky bay to the large industrial looking building of Torness Nuclear Power Station.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View from Skateraw to Torness

 

Skateraw is in an area rich with limestone deposits, and this was quarried and burnt to produce lime.  Lime was used in the manufacture of mortar and as an agricultural fertiliser.  In the Eighteenth Century a lime kiln was built on the shore of Skateraw, and the kilns produced lime on such a massive scale that a harbour was built so that it could be easily exported by ship to other areas of the country.  The harbour was destroyed by the sea in the late Nineteenth Century, though the remains of it can still be seen at low tide.

 

A photo showing a view along a beach and along the curving coastline.  In the right of the photo is a square brick building with arches at the bottom.  This is the limekilns at Skateraw.  On the left of the building is the large industrial looking complex that is Torness Nuclear Power Station.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The limekilns at Skateraw

 

The destructive powers of the sea are something that have haunted this area over the centuries, from washing away buildings on the shore, to wrecking and sinking ships that were passing by. 

 

On a piece of land projecting out of the shore, there used to stand a small chapel that was dedicated to St. Dennis.  It is rumoured that the chapel was often used to store the bodies of those washed up from the numerous ships that were wrecked on the offshore rocks.  There, they would lay to either be claimed by their relatives, or to be buried in the nearby fields.   It appears that the chapel eventually fell into disrepair and the ruins of it were washed away and reclaimed by the sea, disappearing forever under the waves sometime in the 1830s.  Bones were later recovered in vicinity near to where the chapel had stood, leading to the belief that it must have been the burial ground for the chapel.

 

There are many stories of the ships that were wrecked on the rocks by Skateraw.  One of the most remarkable was that of two frigates, the Nymph, and the Pallas.  On the night of the 18th of December 1810, these two ships were returning from a patrol of the North Sea when they mistook the lights burning from some of the limekilns for those of the Isle of May, and those on the Isle of May for the Bell Rock.  Changing course, they both struck the rocks at Skateraw.  The Nymph ended up right by the shore and tipped so that its masts almost touched the limekilns there.  This was a spot of luck for the sailors on board, as they all managed to scramble over the masts and get safely to land.  In the dark of the night no one could see what had happened to the other ship, the Pallas, and it was feared it had sunk.  Then at daylight it was found that it was stuck on the rocks with many of the sailors clinging to the wreck for dear life.  Boats were launched and most of the men were rescued and brought to shore, where they were provided with shelter and blankets to warm them.

 

Unfortunately, most were not as lucky, and there are various accounts of the shore being scattered with bodies and wreckage from ships that had floundered on the rocks.

 

A view showing rock formations stretching down to the sea at Skateraw.  The rocks are in lines of descending height and look a bit like waves breaking on the shore.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Rocks at Skateraw

 

A photo showing a view across the rocks to a lighthouse in the distance - this is Barns Ness Lighthouse.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
View over rocks at Skateraw to Barns Ness Lighthouse

 

Unlike many places in Scotland, Skateraw does not appear to have any connection with Mary, Queen of Scots, or to have been visited by her.  However, there was one rather famous visitor who stayed in the farmhouse there, that being Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns.  On a visit to Dunbar in 1787, he made the acquaintance of a Mr Lee, who owned the farm at Skateraw, and was invited to dine and also to spend the night there.  Burns described Mr Lee as ‘a farmer of great note…an excellent, hospitable, social fellow, rather oldish; warm-hearted and chatty – a most judicious, sensible farmer.’ Indeed, Burns must have taken to the old fellow, as in the morning, before he left, he took a volume of his poetry, owned by Lee, and especially for him, filled in the blank names of those he had mentioned in his poems.  This book was then kept in the Lee family for many years, before being sold for the princely sum of £50 at Sotheby’s, around 1892.

 

During the First World War there was an airfield as Skateraw.  Well, I say airfield, it was actually what was called a landing site and was really there to be used in emergencies, such as, if the planes couldn’t get back to their permanent base because of bad weather or engine failure.  It was used by the No. 77 Home Defence Squadron, and when they were out flying, the farmer who owned the land would be telephoned and asked to make sure that there was no livestock wandering on the landing strip.

 

A photo showing a stone memorial with a plaque on it, which reads - in memory of Skateraw Airfield opened 01.1917 closed 1919 dedicated to all units and personnel based here.  Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust www.abct.org.uk  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Memorial to all personnel and units based at Skateraw Airfield

 

During the 1930s, the minister of the Canongate church in Edinburgh, Reverend Ronald Selby Wright, set up the Canongate Boys Club for the poor boys living in the parish. He frequently took them camping at Skateraw where they built a hut at Chapel Point.  Near to where the hut used to stand, there is now a memorial cross to six of the boys who were killed in the Second World War.

 

A black and white photo showing a memorial cross sitting on a triangular pedestal lined with pebbles.  In the distance Barns Ness Lighthouse can be seen.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Memorial cross at Skateraw

 

While out on my walk around Skateraw I clambered over some of the rocks that were exposed during the low tide.  On them were lots of limpets that had created patterns that almost looked like the symbols of some strange and alien language.

 

A selection of four photos showing white limpet shells on brown rocks.  The limpet shells are in patterns that look like letters from some alien alphabet.  Photos by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Limpet symbols on the rocks

 

I then headed round to the remains of an old cottage.  The cottage, rather than becoming a ruin due to abandonment and decay, was demolished in 1981, during the construction of the nuclear power station.  This was so that those protesting against the power station couldn’t occupy it.  Bit of a waste of a cottage if you ask me, but no one did.

 

A photo showing the side wall of a ruined cottage.  It is almost hidden by the sea grass and on the right hand side of it there is a green and lush looking tree growing.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Cottage wall almost hidden by the sea grass

 

A photo showing three yellow Buttercup type flowers growing amongst the grass.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Flowers by the cottage ruins

 

A photo showing the ruined cottage at Skateraw, viewed along the walls that must have at one time enclosed the garden space.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Ruins of the cottage

 

In the warm and lovely afternoon sunshine of my wander around Skateraw, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me in the wall of the ruined cottage.

 

A photo showing a hand holding up a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 103).  In the distance are the ruined walls of the cottage at Skateraw.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #103

 

A photo of a stone wall of uneven higgledy-piggledy stones.  In a crack in the wall, barely visible is a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 103).  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Spot the Skulferatu

 

A photo of a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 103) in a gap in the stone wall of the ruined cottage.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #102 in a gap in the walls of the cottage ruins

 

TomTom Map showing location of Skulferatu #103
Map showing location of Skulferatu #103

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.973844

Longitude -2.421947

 

what3words: harshest.cherub.retract

 

I used the following sources for information on Skateraw –

 

The New Statistical Account of Scotland

Vol II, Linlithgow-Haddington-Berwick

By the Ministers of Respective Parishes, etc.

1845

 

The History of Dunbar

By James Miller

1859

 

The complete works of Robert Burns

by Robert Burns & Alexander Smith, Alexander

1887

 

The Athenaeum Journal of Literature, Science, The Fine Arts, Music and the Drama

January to June 1887

 

Canmore

Skateraw Harbour

Skateraw Landing Ground

 

Scram, No 24 – June/July 1991

 

Our Club

By Ronald Selby Wright

1969