Reading The Rocks

Follow the red sandstone edge of Scotland's east coast to uncover 400 million years of geological wonders

- History expert Ally Heather explores

MORAG SMITH led us along the cliffs before the storm arrived. She was expounding her theory that all things start with rocks.

“We are ruled by geology but we just don’t realise it,” she said. “The modern political boundary between Scotland and England is basically on the geological fault where we were separate.”

I'd been wanting to learn the story of Arbroath, so my pal Josh and I had booked onto a geology walk with Morag, founder of Stories of Stone in Angus, along the gorgeous Arbroath cliffs to learn all about the rock of which the town is built: old red sandstone.

The forecast was for a thundering downpour at lunch, but the morning got off to a glorious start: sharp, clear sun lighting up the stone and the crashing sea. A pod of dolphins harried and broke water just off the coast.

“The dolphins will be chasing mackerel. My dad’s out there fishing for the same thing,” she added.

Morag was raised in Arbroath by her fisherman dad before going abroad with her now husband to work as a mineral geologist in Australia, and she brings to her tours a professional depth of knowledge warmed by the passion of a local.

At the base of the cliffs were the clear lines of industry.

“You can see the parallel lines there,” Morag pointed out. “That's where the wagons went out to the quarry and back. My house was made of stones quarried from here, and we think it was probably the same quarry that built the abbey, too.”

Arbroath and the areas around the Tay were absolutely central to the emergence of an independent Scottish kingdom in the medieval period. Arbroath Abbey, Lindores Abbey and Balmerino Abbey all introduced new habits of farming, new trade and cultural links with Europe and England, plus new economic stimulus into the area they were founded.