Seeing the big picture

Not appreciating the inherent beauty of rocks and stones has meant not seeing nature in all its glory... until now

Something rather uplifting happened the other week that has opened my eyes to a part of the natural world hitherto unknown to me.

I was walking in the eastern Ochils with my wife when we came upon a young man crouched down by the edge of the track, busily clawing at the ground with a small hammer. We exchanged pleasantries but curiosity overcame me, so I asked him what he was doing and it turned out that he was looking for agates.

He showed me some stones he had collected; little rocky nodules infused with pink and white concentric swirls. How interesting and so very attractive as well. Polish these agates up and I imagine the end result would be truly stunning.

Although he was digging in a prolific spot on a spur of the slope, and had already found two or three, he said agates can sometimes be found lying on the hill tracks too. For the rest of our walk my eyes were firmly planted towards terra firma but, alas, I couldn’t see any.

We returned the next day, took a different branch of the track and soon struck lucky. Oh yes, I’m now the proud owner of my very own piece of Ochils agate. Well, I think it is agate, as I’m no expert and perhaps it is a stone that goes by some other name. But no matter, for it has a lovely warm pinkish hue and I enjoy having it.

And that’s the thing; I actively seek out animals and plants so as to appreciate their beauty and form but have never looked upon stones and rocks in the same way. That’s a pretty big omission on my part and one that I intend to rectify.

So from here on, when out walking and scanning the ground for flowers and insects, I’m going to be searching for minerals and rocks too, so as to hopefully build some knowledge in an area of the natural world I know precious little about.

To this end, I’m lucky enough to have the Ochils on my doorstep, for it is a great place to learn about geology. Silver used to be mined in the western part of the hills in the early 18th Century, with the mine said to have held one of the richest deposits of silver ever found in the British Isles. In another glen not too far away, I know of an old lead and copper mine.

In the Perthshire and Angus hills, glittering schist – a coarse-grained metamorphic rock – is often a feature of the rocks. I recall last year, at the bottom of Corrie Fee in Glen Clova, watching small trout dart in a burn that was illuminated by tiny flecks of schist which glistened in the sun.

But it was the trout my mind was focused on, not the sparkling schist. I was missing half the picture, and as such, not really seeing much at all.

info

Agates can be found throughout many parts of Courier Country, including on beaches and in fields. Hotspots include the Montrose and St Cyrus areas, around Dundee and much of Fife.

The Ochils, where Keith found his prized agate, are a great place to learn about geology.