Where did the strange rocks on the beach appear from ?

The tens of  ‘stones/rocks’ found on the beaches at Lochinver, Achiltibuie and Ullapool where cast by me at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, using plaster  each containing a different object/s which came from the beaches I placed them on.

Each ‘stone’ was shaped in clay and cast in two halves to ensure we could open them to reveal the ‘fossils’.

The process of discovering and examining the stones certainly focused attention on the type of materials that litter the beaches.  Each beach litter fossil was discussed and identification notes made:  i.e.  material, location found, estimated date it could  be found if left on the beach e.g.  plasic rope  2413, aluminium container 2213,  cigarettes with plastic filters 2033, plastic carrier bags 2053, glass bottles ……

The full Littoral Future Fossil collection will be on show in the spring along with prints,  installations of timelines and littoral art project products such as postcards, posters and mugs …..a whole new range of holiday memorabilia  with an underlying message, don’t leave anything behind on the beaches, take care of our beautiful fragile environments.

My investigation into beach litter  around Ullapool  and beaches along the Coigach and Assynt coast this autumn was completed this week . An Investigation Exhibit is now on show at the Macphail Centre, displaying evidence of various types of litter found including a selection of ‘future fossils’ under magnification and specimen bottles ready for analysis to determine the  type of plastic they are made from and how long they would last in the marine environment. I am intending to show all our findings  and resulting artworks as a temporary installation at the Ullapool Museum and in a range of  locations throughout the town in spring.

Arriving back at the A.T.S laboratory a closer examination began with  a significant help from Portfolio Students studying at An Talla Solais .  The largest stone appears to hold a  cross section of all the objects we are likely to find on nearby beaches.

Tobacco pouch, plastic bag, rope,  cotton wool bud sticks. …..

The initial job of cataloging this weeks finds of our ‘ future fossils’ is now underway with samples being subject to  identification, to ascertain its possible origin followed by magnification, to establish the category of material such as polypropylene or polyethylene  which helps to determine the  timeline  of the object.

Specimens which cannot be identified are being boxed up and sent to the expedition consultant  Professor  Cowie at the Millport for further analysis. It is hoped that the full picture of what we have discovered this week will be revealed in the spring. Until then an initial display of the finds made along the coast over the past week can be seen at the Macphail Centre in Ullapool.

Looking for a weakness in the stones we began to tap a way in order to carefully see if there was any evidence held within the stones. The stones broke easily with our fossil hammers, chisels and scrapers.

Quite quickly we began to see that the stones held vital evidence in our beach litter investigation with materials from cigarette fibres, plastic caps, a lighter, fishing line to an aluminium food container. We discussed who might have dropped the evidence  originally and and how to came to be encased in stones like the fossils seen in the Geopark and museum.  It was decided to that the only way to understand what we had  found was to forensically  test our  samples. To do this we set off to the A.T.S temporary laboratory  with our array of specimens.

    the walk up up hill  to the lab.

My last beach search on this trip to the west coast  took place today on the west shore  of Ullapool harbour  where  we  found many more  odd looking stones .  One of which was so big we had to borrow a sack trolley to transport it along.

While pushing the trolley  along West Shore I received a call from the Ullapool CSI team  working unbeknown to us on the east side of the pier.

They informed me that they had found  three odd stones which I should take a look at . Sure enough they appeared to be of the same type as the ones we had collected so we compared notes of locations they were found in and we decided to crack open a few of the stones to see if there were also similarities within…..

Yesterday children from Achiltibuie School braved the gale force winds at Badentarbet beach to help me continue the hunt for more stones with their teacher and Highland ranger Melanie Gaff. The cold  encouraged us all to focus well and we  quickly managed to locate and collect 7  orange coloured  stones

We also collected stones we normally find on the beach  which Meanie was able to tell us about which helped us to begin to sketch out the  prehistoric history of our time line after which we began to crack open the stones to see what they held within. On Friday I will collect more samples at Ullapool Harbur Beach and all will be taken to the lab at An Talla Solais.  Please join us  at 10.30 am on the beach and 1pm at An Talla Solais.

Due to unforeseen circumstances Thursdays littoral event on the beach and at An Talla Solais  has been rescheduled to Friday at the same times . On the harbour beach at 10.30- 12 noon and from 1pm at the temporary laboratory at A.T.S

Please accept my apologies and I look forward to seeing you on Friday.