Season: summer
Bright sunshine greeted me for this summer visit and I walked under blue skies. A high tide showcased the picturesque harbour, which had been repaired since the damage and disarray evident during my earlier wild weather spring visit. Pleasure craft for visitors’ mackerel fishing pottered about in the harbour on a flat, languid sea, such a difference from the storms during my previous visit.
Jim looks back in time.
A bright morning at Sandford Bay.
Season: spring
Sandford Bay features a small beach and sits just south of Peterhead. The bay is generally sheltered and the beach is secluded. Best access is via a footpath from Boddam. It’s off the beaten track and feels isolated, particularly out of season. A wild storm made this an invigorating visit, but in summer seals can be seen basking on the beach, which also lies next to excellent coastal walking.
The beach as a reference point for Brenda.
What the beach means to Frances.
In Boddam harbour on Sandford Bay.
Remembering warm summer days and picnics, with tea from a flask and sand in sandwiches and swimming costumes.
– Beach covered in banks of pungent brown seaweed after high tides and stormy weather.
Going with my father to collect the seaweed with a wheelbarrow to dig into the garden as fertiliser, and looking for lobster creels which had been washed up by the storms.
Walking with my dogs from Boddam harbour to Sandford beach early on a fine summer morning and watching a couple of little fishing boats hauling their creels .
Dogs chasing rabbits on the way and jumping into the sparkling water after stones.
Inquisitive seals popping their heads up to see what’s happening and collecting shells, newly washed up on the damp sand.
– and the sounds of the sea always there, from a gentle lapping whisper to an angry thunderous roar.