The beach was unusually busy today ...

Hackley Bay boasts an excellent sandy beach lying at the foot of the low cliffs that form the eastern boundary of the Sands of Forvie National Nature Reserve. Not the busiest beach in the world even on a splendid day such as this!

Hackley Bay Revisited

Here, on the margin of the bay,
Where the pale grasses meet the rocks
And, overhead, white-bellied flocks
Of Seagulls drift along the sky,

As I cast pebbles casually
Into the flowing tide that creams
Over the sand, yesterday seems
No more than a stone's throw away.

Yet, though I search for half a day -
Or half a lifetime - that stone lies
Elusive, hidden from the eyes
And fingers of mortality.

R. L. Cook 1969