Newburgh seal colony, Scotland

About 16 miles north of Aberdeen is a little village called Newburgh. We went there for lunch today, to the Newburgh Inn. The food was terrific. I highly recommend it. They put on a typical Sunday roast pub lunch but there were a couple of options for vegetarians. I had a chick pea and sweet potato curry and it was delicious.

After lunch we walked to the beach and this was the highlight of my day. There’s a seal colony and it is huge. I’ve never seen so many seals all one place before. It was like King’s Cross Station for seals.

See that thick black line on the sand across the estuary? Those are all seals. Hundreds of them.

Let me zoom in for you.

Many were swimming in the estuary and came quite close to the shore, like this one in the next photo.

There’s something a bit doggy about their faces. This next seal could almost be Freud swimming. He loved swimming.

The beach is very nice as the shore is lined with sand dunes, just like at Balmedie Beach, and these seem to go on for miles and miles. It’s also fairly quiet and undeveloped.

I took a short video.

Posted

January 15, 2017

Journal, Travel

Rachel M

Tags:

beach, Newburgh, photos, Scotland, seals

Comments

11 responses to “Newburgh seal colony, Scotland”

Denise

January 15, 2017

Wow, that looks so lovely. You’ve also inspired me for cooking with the idea of a chickpea and sweet potato curry. Just the thing for a cold grey day.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  January 15, 2017
  
  Great idea! We’re having soup which is also good on a cold winter’s day.
  
  Reply
  1. Denise
    
    January 15, 2017
    
    Yes, soup is good too, especially as I just bought a blender. (Although the man in the shop tried to sell me a whisk.) We’ve been soup-less for a while since our last blender burned out (I put a hard chunk of parmesan in it, it wasn’t through too much soup).
  2. Rachel M
    
    January 15, 2017
    
    I use a stick blender for soups and then I don’t have to take it out of the pot. But the soup I’m making tonight I don’t bother blending at all – it’s a chunky one. It’s this one – https://rachel.blog/2014/06/28/french-lentil-soup-with-tarragon-and-thyme/
  3. Denise
    
    January 15, 2017
    
    Oh yes, that looks good. Chinese people like barley and think it is good for you too. Funnily enough I made lentils. I’m working late tomorrow so made dhal and rice for the girls for tomorrow. But I was too tired to do the full thing with the fried spices and garlic – it isn’t as good without. I ought to find some different lentil recipes, and yours looks a good place to start.
sevencyclist

January 15, 2017

Wow, that’s a lot of beached seals. And I thought all the beached seals in SF was a lot.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  January 15, 2017
  
  I love that there’s nothing else there. No shops. No houses. No-one selling tickets. Anyone can walk along the beach and have a look.
  
  Reply
PedalWORKS

January 15, 2017

That’s a lot of seals. You jump so high you almost jumped right out of the picture.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  January 25, 2017
  
  It’s just a trick of perspective 🙂
  
  Reply
Michael Lloyd

January 25, 2017

That is a lot of seals on that beach. We don’t have that many down here in one place. There is a secluded cove round the headland from where I go surfing:

http://www.123rf.com/photo_27373529_seals-on-the-beach-in-mutton-cove-near-godrevy-st-ives-bay-cornwall-coast-england-uk.html

You can see the seals from the top of the cliff but, fortunately, the beach is not accessible.

We often have a single seal around in the line up when out in the surf. They are used to the surfers and can be quite curious. The last time I was out a week or so ago, there was a single seal with its nose just poking out of the water calmly floating through the line up and fast asleep! Apparently, this is called “bottling”

http://www.lifeintheseas.com/bottling.html

Did you see any seals doing that?

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  January 25, 2017
  
  Yes! There were lots of seals floating by doing that. I thought they’d sleep on land. How strange!
  
  Reply