It is more than 20 years since US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, delivered what became his most famous speech: “We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.”
Mention Scotland’s coast and many will know…bits! The Firths of Forth and Clyde. Skye. The Tay Bridge. Sea Lochs. West Sands beach in St Andrews used in the opening sequence of the movie Chariots of Fire. But Scotland’s coast extends to more than 7,000 miles. When you think the land border with England is less than 100 miles, there are a lot of, well, unknowns!
I suspect there are some square feet of Scotland’s highlands that have not been stepped on in, well, perhaps ever, so vast is the countryside. But the coastline is different. The country’s growth through the centuries relied on seafarers. Here, I take a journey to discover what many in Scotland might describe as ‘weel kent’…well known to those who live here,