05/08/2026
Wee bitta witchcraft at what remains of Dunbar castle… which has since become a summertime kittiwake stronghold.
Was reading into the history a bit and “Dunbar” came from Gaelic, roughly meaning ‘fort of the point’ or ‘summit fortress’, for its longtime strategic geography in preventing English sea invasions during the wars of independence. Dunbar castle repelled a 5-month naval siege in 1338, under the direction of “Black Agnes” or Agnes Randolph, a 14th-century Scottish noblewoman and Countess of Dunbar at the time… “She’s famous for her fierce defense of the castle. She refused to surrender and openly mocked the enemy’s weapons. When the English threatened to execute her captured brother, she insisted they do so, as she would only inherit his lands.”
LEGEND 🐈⬛
Despite the very badass history, that’s not what attracted me to this place initially.
Fun fact — the kittiwakes (white sea birds, kinda like mini sea gulls) return to this castle ruin all the way from South Africa, for each summer’s breeding season. I think they’re set to fly back South in the coming weeks when their babies can properly fly. The castle ruin in this frame holds hundreds of nests at least. The air is thick with salt, seaweed, and screams of hundreds, if not thousands of these birds, culminating in a kind of thunderous silence in the sirens and crashing tides.
I’ve become mildly obsessed with this spot over the years, and not entirely sure why. It is by far the most energetic zone I’ve come across in Dunbar — arguably its energetic zero point — possibly due to its history, but moreso for me its RICH bird activity.. and exceptional rocks!
I only got one go with this balance, as the top’s contact edge broke with its first collapse. The headspace during this creation was pure foolish flow state — where something flowed through me!
