An Old Gate

This gate has stood on the ancient coast track which runs northwards from Golspie, after it has passed below Dunrobin Castle. It's an old, wrought iron gate, perhaps Victorian, hung between two massive stones. The track is much-used but for the last few months it's been impossible to open the gate, giving those following the track the choice between climbing over it, scrambling over the stone wall to its left, or making a hazardous passage round its right-hand end, above a near-vertical drop into the sea.

The problem has been the chain, which replaced the rather fine iron latch after the stone began to lean outwards. Someone had jammed the chain between a metal plate and the stone. Only recently has it been freed.

It wouldn't have been necessary to pass through the gate had the sea not....

....undercut the old kissing gate which is now half-way down the cliff and, some time soon, will fall the last few feet into the sea.

The cliff is being very actively eroded. Its base is formed of a Jurassic clay but the upper part is unconsolidated sand and stones. It won't be long before the right-hand stone is undercut, at which point it, too, will fall into the sea, taking the gate with it. If the erosion continues, the track itself, which has been a highway for thousands of years, will also be lost to the sea.