Moray has many links to the Picts.

The Picts were a group of different peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland, up to the early Middle Ages.

Though their Latin name, Picti, appears in written records from the 3rd to the 10th centuries, we know surprisingly little about the details of their way of life and culture.

We have had to infer a lot about them from various engraved stones which have survive these last thousand or more years.

Our feature story about Moray this week centres on a massive, decorated stone which dates from Pictish times and may be their work (or it may not).

What has come to be known as “Sueno’s Stone” has attracted and continues to attract speculation about its origins and meaning. 

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Firstly, let’s see what has been cropping up on the internet about Moray over the last wee while.

Kimberley Inn Review

The Sunday Post was in Findhorn to review the food and hospitality on offer at the Kimberley Inn which “dates back to 1777 and oozes character, built with natural stone, and featuring traditional square-paned windows overlooking the bay and it has extensive wood panelling inside, giving it an olde-worlde marine vibe.” (The Sunday Post)

Moray’s Most Popular Books

A local authority-published list of the area’s most popular books for 2021, shows that Moray library users were dedicated readers of books written by Scottish authors. (The Northern Scot)

Macbeth Unhinged

Shakespeare scholars will tell you that Forres features in the original play. The title character is en route there when he first encounters the three witches. However, neither Moray nor Scotland feature in a new film version of Macbeth, starring Denzil Washington and Frances McDormand (Forres Gazette)

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The swirl of theories surrounding Sueno’s Stone

It is visible from the A96, as it bypasses Forres, but blink and you will miss it.

Instead, from the eastmost roundabout on the A96 giving access to the town, make your way along Victoria Road (B9011) and turn right into Findhorn Road. This is a dead end and has you almost completely doubling-back on your westerly direction along Victoria Road.

There is no official car park for Sueno’s Stone but the on-street parking should be fine. And entry to this Historic Scotland visitor attraction is free.

Weighing over 7 tons and standing 6.5m (21 feet) in height, it is an imposing, decorated Pictish stone.

Carved in the 9th or 10th Century from local sandstone, it is an artistic masterpiece and seems almost impossibly enormous for its age and relatively slender design.

It is Scotland’s tallest surviving cross-slab and one of the most richly-carved examples of Pictish art in the country.

What the artwork commemorates is still the subject of discussion and unlikely ever to be definitively settled.

It seems to tell a tale of warlike slaughter.

On the front side, there is a ring-head Christian cross. It takes up most of that face of the stone. Its shaft, base and background are infilled with interlaced “celtic knotwork” decoration.

But it’s the abundance of motifs on the back which is most striking.

Across 4 separate panels, densely-packed, almost geometrically abstract-looking groups of figures ride into battle. They strike each other on the head with swords. Some appear to be beheaded corpses.

We have a number of possible options for the “true story” of Sueno’s Stone.

In the 10th Century, for example, when Scotland consisted of several different Kingdoms, Dubh (anglicised as Duff but meaning black or dark in modern Gaelic) was King of Alba (King of the Scots) from 962 to 967.

To place him better on a timeline, it may help to know that King Duncan the First’s dates were 1034 -1040 and Macbeth’s 1040 – 1057.

Dubh was reportedly murdered at Forres in about 967 as the result of an internal dispute among the Scots. Sueno’s Stone may be a monument to Dubh, erected by his brother.

Another possible version is linked to the man apparently known as “Sueno” – King Sweyn Forkbeard (King of Denmark from 986 to 1014) – and a battle between his Viking forces and the Scots. Because Sueno’s Stone displays mainly battle scenes, this would fit with the theory that the Picts must have had conflicts with the Vikings.

A further possibility – if the battle scene represented is one we know took place – is that it could depict a victory of Kenneth MacAlpin (who ruled from 843 to 859) or of his successor, Donald I (860-863). Their reigns strengthened the House of Alpin’s hold on this part of Scotland. In that case, the inauguration scene could refer to the enthronement of either of these important kings.

There is evidence to suggest that the stone fell or was toppled at some point around the 17th Century.

It was uncovered again within a century or so – in 1726 – and re-erected nearby. It was at this time that the name “Sueno’s Stone” was invented.

In the early 1990s, the stone was encased in reinforced glass to minimise further erosion.

The Moray coastal town of Lossiemouth hopes that 2022 will be the year that its lengthy wait for a new bridge will finally be over.

No one foresaw the suddenness of the closure of the pedestrian bridge to the majestic sandy dunes of Lossiemouth’s East Beach – the only easy means of access to the beach – in July 2019.

No one could have predicted that the “fix” – a new bridge from the Esplanade, rather than from Seatown – would take approaching 3 years.

It has been a frustrating time for locals and tourists alike. The beach is in full view from Lossiemouth’s Esplanade. Tantalisingly close, yet out of reach to most of us.

With the likelihood that the new crossing will be in place from around April 2022 and the fact that the present iconic structure will have to be removed completely, for safety reasons, there’s a lot of interest and motivation to preserve as much of the history and “story” for future generations as possible.

In this edition of the Newsletter, we look at one film which has been produced – by Lossiemouth Community Development Trust – explaining their somewhat rollercoaster journey with the bridge, from its worryingly-deteriorating-health-yet-stubborn-resistance-to-the-elements phase, through closure and frustration, to the brink of a new era.

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We begin with our usual look at other recent internet links with a Moray (mainly Lossiemouth, in fact) connection.

A way of life now gone

Yvonne Findlay knows that , as long as there are people left to tell their stories and others to listen, the legacy of Lossiemouth’s fisher folk will live on. She has ensured that happens with a new book, A Way Of Life Now Gone, which provides a voice for those who no longer cast their nets. Yvonne has a long and impressive record of promoting Lossiemouth through various media. (Press and Journal)

“All of a sudden, April doesn’t seem that far away.”

The Northern Scot newspaper’s take on the anticipation that locals and avid beach goers alike will finally regain access to Lossiemouth’s East Beach with the expected completion of the new bridge in April 2022. (The Northern Scot)

Bow Fiddle Rocking

River City star Iain Robertson, on his love for a spectacular Moray landmark – one he visits as often as he can. (The Herald)

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Bridging the gap to Lossiemouth’s East Beach

2022 is the year Lossiemouth hopes it will get a new bridge.

The town’s Community Development Trust (LCDT) have released a short film explaining their ‘journey’ with the bridge from the time of the creation of the Trust in 2014 up to the present day.

As the film sets out, Lossiemouth is home to around 8,000 people.

The people and buildings are protected from the waters of the Moray Firth by stone seawalls – and by magnificent sandy dunes.

Unfortunately, the dunes at the East Beach are only accessible via a solitary footbridge.

As LCDT Chairman, Alan MacDonald, explains, “The development trust was formed in late 2014. In early 2015, a five-year plan was put together following consultation with the local community. At the top of the agenda on that plan was the East Beach Bridge which, at that time, was in a poor state and had had no maintenance for the previous 20 years.”

LCDT therefore set about trying to establish the structural safety of the bridge and, at the same time, discover the true ownership of the bridge.

Back in those early days, from 2015 onwards, LCDT had no idea that some years later they would be involved in a major project leading to the replacement of the bridge.

You’d have thought that the question of who owns the bridge would be simple enough to answer.

Especially when it’s something as “important” as a bridge.

However, LCDT were to find the ownership issue was quite a puzzle, in practice.

It turns out that the “original” bridge was in a different location altogether – from the Esplanade to the west end of Lossiemouth East Beach.

That bridge was built in 1908.

It was then moved in 1918 to its present location at Seatown. (Lossiemouth is an amalgamation of three villages: Stotfield; Branderburgh; and Seatown).

The move was required because the Esplanade bridge was restricting access for boats to the “Old Harbour”, which was upstream of the bridge.

The bridge was owned by a company called the Lossiemouth Old Harbour Commissioners (LOHC).

LOHC ceased to exist by around the middle of the 20th Century, at the latest – which became a bit of a problem for the ownership of the bridge later on.

“Ownerless” property in Scotland generally falls into the ownership of the Crown.

But it does so in such a way that the Crown does not need to do anything with the property if it doesn’t want to.

The procedure for LCDT – over a period of about 18 months – was to negotiate with the person who looks after matters of ownership on behalf of the Crown. They’re called the Queen’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer (QLTR).

LCDT had to locate and provide to QLTR various documents from public records, including the National Library of Scotland.

The upshot was that QLTR agreed that the ground in question had fallen into the ownership of the Crown. The Crown didn’t want it, though.

On 03 October 2017, the Crown issued a Notice of Disclaimer of Ownership.

Was this progress or a backward step?

One thing was for sure: with no owner in sight, the question “who will own and maintain this bridge?” became intrinsically linked to the question “who will pay for this bridge at all?”

When LCDT had first embarked on the bridge project, they thought (optimistically) that all they had to do was discover who owned the bridge and then guide them as to what they could do to repair it.

By October 2017, of course, it was clear that no one owned the bridge.

LCDT arranged for professional engineering surveys on the bridge to establish the extent of the problems and get a feel for the likely cost of repairs.

The reports were pessimistic. The parapet of the bridge was in very poor repair. It would have to be repaired in full.

From the end of 2017, LCDT had been lobbying politicians for funding. Local councillors and Moray’s MSP were supportive but the amount of money required was too great for there to be any hope of a public appeal raising enough revenue.

Furthermore, though LCDT had legitimate concerns based on the structural surveys, there was no apparent urgency for major works at that stage. The counter-argument was: “The bridge is open; why are you worried about it?“

And there was an even bigger snag.

The wood which supported the parapet was 100 years old. You’d be putting a new parapet on top of wood which was in uncertain condition – particularly the part of the structure which gets submerged by the combination of river and tidal water.

This inability to get to the heart of the structural integrity of the bridge meant no one could reasonably fund a repair to the existing crossing.

Following the closure of the bridge to the public in July 2019 due to safety concerns, oddly enough, the funding stream opened up to an extent.

When it became apparent both locally and beyond that the bridge was closed and no simple alternative access existed, interest increased dramatically – especially when it was clear there was no likelihood of a bridge crossing being re-established any time soon.

Against this background, LCDT continued with their quest to find funding.

Ultimately, The Scottish Government agreed to fund the project, subject to a feasibility study.

An options appraisal identified three possibilities.

• Firstly, to replace the current bridge in the same position.
  
• Secondly, to build at a new location downstream of the present bridge but not as far down as the original Esplanade bridge position, or
  
• Thirdly, to rebuild the bridge in its original 1908 position and provide access from the Esplanade.

The Scottish Government stipulated that any new bridge had to be “best value”.

In practice, that meant that the shorter the span, the lower the cost.

Unfortunately for the majority of Lossiemouth residents – who would like to see the bridge remain in its present position – the present bridge is one third longer than it would be to build the bridge from the Esplanade. In other words, the costs involved would be at least one third more to rebuild the bridge in its present position.

Given that the “best value“ option was the only one on the table, it was an inevitable decision to build the replacement bridge from the Esplanade.

The whole community has helped in moving the project to the point where a new bridge from the Esplanade to the East Beach – at a cost of £1.8 Million – may be operational as early as April 2022.

You can view the LCDT film below.

You can view the 24/7 livestream below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUX9J0yM9CA

Other articles about the East Beach Bridge post-2015

The Lossiemouth Community Development Trust website contains a couple of articles – from 2016 and 2017 – setting out the stage LCDT had reached in terms of research and investigations into the health and ownership of the bridge.

Lossiemouth Seatown Bridge Ownership up for grabs

Lossiemouth Seatown Bridge in failing health report warns

The Moray Firth is the largest firth in Scotland.

Approximately triangular in shape, it takes in about 500 miles of coastline from Duncansby Head (near John o’ Groats) in the north, via Inverness in the south west, to Fraserburgh in the south east.

This week, we’re concentrating our attention on perhaps the most famous inhabitants of the waters of the Moray Firth: the resident population of bottlenose dolphins.

We’ve covered dolphins elsewhere for YourMoray’s website already but this examination takes us away from our usual narrow focus on “Moray, the Region” to a broader view of “Moray, the Firth.”

Drawing information from a 2012 BBC Radio “Open Country” programme (now available as a podcast), together with photos from the more recent past, we hear from some of those people for whom the dolphins have become their life’s work.

This longevity (obsession?) is highlighted by the fact that Sarah Pern, Charlie Phillips and Professor Paul Thompson are still ‘on the dolphin hunt’ locally, almost 10 years later.

Our article about the dolphins and other sea mammals in the Moray Firth is down below.

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As usual, first of all, here’s a few links to recent noteworthy Moray-related items in the online world

Still Life

Plans for a new distillery and heritage centre at the Cabrach in Moray have received a significant funding boost. “The Cabrach is a unique community with an incredibly rich heritage. It is widely believed that the Cabrach is the birthplace of Scotch whisky and plans for a new distillery and heritage centre are not only fitting but also hugely exciting.” (Scottish Construction Now).

Whisky Hall of Famers

John Grant (Glenfarclas) and Peter Gordon (Glenfiddich) are two key players in the Moray/Speyside whisky industry recently inducted into Whisky Magazine’s Hall of Fame. (Grampian Online).

Away with the Fairies

Picking up where we left off in last week’s Newsletter, here’s a ‘classic’ interview with The Waterboys from 2003 (Mike Scott of the band was based in Findhorn at that time). “Maverick genius or away with the fairies?” (Hot Press).

Bye Bye Buccaneer

An Elgin landmark has gone, with the transfer of the Buccaneer jet from outside what used to be known as “The Buccaneer Garage”, on the northern outskirts of the town, to the Scottish Deer Centre in Fife. (Press & Journal) (Cuparrrrr, here it comes…).

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Why dolphins and other large marine animals have such attraction power for the Moray Firth

The Open Country podcast on Radio 4 for 13 September 2012 (i.e. 9 years ago) involved a visit to the Moray Firth, checking on the health of its marine mammal population.

The beaching of 26 pilot whales in Fife had made the headlines shortly before that and the programme also included discussion of a previous beaching of about 77 pilot whales near Durness in Sutherland.

These events highlighted the importance attached by many of us to the creatures which live, largely unobserved, in the seas around our shores.

This radio-programme-as-podcast was trying to figure out what it is about these creatures which strikes such a chord with us humans.

The presenter, Richard Uridge, begins the programme having just stepped aboard a RIB (a ‘rigid inflatable boat’).

Although there is no real explanation of where he is exactly and who he is travelling with out onto the Moray Firth, we can deduce that he is in the village of Cromarty on the Black Isle.

We can also figure out that he is on a trip with Ecoventures.

Ecoventures specialise in leading wildlife-watching trips using a custom-built 9.5 m RIB.

On their trips, they frequently encounter the resident colony of bottlenose dolphins, harbour porpoise, minke whales, seals and a wide variety of seabirds.

Ecoventures has operated from Cromarty since 2004 and is owned and operated by local skipper, Sarah Pern.

As the trip begins, there is a palpable sense of anticipation. The skipper, Sarah Pern, is just casting off the rope and moving the boat away from the pontoon, before the engines rev up.

As Sarah explains, the bottlenose dolphins in the Moray Firth are the biggest, fattest dolphins you would see anywhere in the world.

What you’re looking for is something that is about 3.5 to 4m in length.

They weigh about 350kg.

Even if a dolphin is just surfacing quietly, they will show quite a bit of their body to any observer. You will see a good bit of the fin and the back.

if they are jumping and landing, on the other hand, you will just see a big splash!

You tend to see them in groups – anything up to about 20 in a pod is common. There are about 200 dolphins which are thought to regularly inhabit the waters of the Moray Firth.

They have a sighting of some porpoise.

Again, as Sarah explains, porpoise are from the same family as dolphins but are a lot smaller.

You will quite often just get 2 or 3 little ‘surfaces’ by them and then a slightly longer dive, out of sight. You have to be a bit patient sometimes with porpoise.

If there is any wind at all, disturbing the surface of the sea, porpoise can be difficult to see at all.

Porpoise don’t show a lot of the body, as they surface. They have quite a small, triangular fin.

It’s quite difficult to individually identify propoise as well. Dolphins are much, much easier to tell apart. They are also much easier to spot, in general.

You tend to find porpoise are much less inclined to interact with the boat.

Sometimes they will, but generally they are a little bit shyer and a little bit harder to get close to.

Dolphins are not always inquisitive of the boat – it depends what they are up to at the time.

Ecoventures is an accredited operator with the Dolphin Space Programme, a voluntary initiative set up by a number of local organisations to safeguard the welfare of the cetaceans in the Moray Firth. As a result, in manoeuvring the RIB, Sarah tends just to approach the dolphins to a distance at which they do not feel threatened or intimidated and then it is up to the dolphins whether they want to come closer to the boat or not. More often than not, dolphins will choose to engage with you.

As Sarah says, it can be quite difficult to enthuse people about porpoise. They don’t tend to interact with the boat to the same extent as dolphins. People don’t feel that same connection. Because dolphins are actually choosing to spend time with you, to check you out, people respond to that.

Taking people on dolphin-watching trips is a rewarding job.

The best bit of the work for Sarah is that, in terms of ‘positive’ reactions from those on Ecoventure trips, you get everything from people ‘crying on your shoulder’ to screams of delight.

It’s great to see that ‘obvious’ kind of reaction and enthusiasm.

And then you get the other ones – still positive – who will get off the boat and not really say very much – perhaps just say “thank you” before they head off. But then, later, you get a letter or an email saying it was the most fantastic day of their life. They’re just not as exuberant about it on the boat. You do see ‘everything’ in terms of the variety of people’s positive reactions.

The programme then swtiches focus from the east end of the Black Isle at Cromarty to its south side, nearer to Inverness and close to the village of Fortrose. It’s time to meet another cetacean enthusiast…

Charlie Phillips studies bottlenose dolphins for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, as a field officer.

Charlie explains that the peninsula which ends with Chanonry Point dominates this part of the landscape – or “coast-scape”, if you like.

The narrow stretch of water between Chanonry Point and Fort George tends to act as a a ‘funnel’.

The tidal conditions here can get fantastically strong. The dolphins know this and, as one demonstration of their intelligence, they use it almost like a supermarket conveyor belt.

Cleverly staying in the one position, the tide sweeps the food to them. In other words, the question might be: why waste energy chasing after your food if you can wait for the tide to bring your food to you? It’s the dolphins’ intelligence at work.

On that day, there were about 20 people gathered in small groups on the shingle looking out into the narrows between Chanonry Point and Fort George.

Charlie Phillips explains that what they’re all looking for is the approach of dorsal fins.

On a calm day such as this one, they’re looking for the little puff of breath as the dolphin comes to the surface – and maybe the tip of a dorsal fin. If there’s any youngsters with the adult dolphin, you might see them having a little scurry about beside their mother.

You just have to keep your eyes open and see what happens.

As Charlie says, we are getting a brief look into the dolphins’ realm and you don’t even need to get wet to do it.

Because of the dolphins’ proximity to the shoreline at Chanonry Point – where people can almost come in contact with them, perhaps as little as 10-15 feet away – it can be a pretty special experience.

Bottlenose dolphins have good eyesight, both underwater and above the surface.

Charlie Phillips explains that, from Chanonry Point, they see the “A-Z” of behaviour of the bottlenose dolphins. Everything from resting to hunting salmon at top speed.

You’re able to watch what dolphins do and what they do best.

Sometimes the behaviour can be difficult to interpret.

Sometimes you have to try not to let your imagination run away with itself (perhaps because, sometimes, their behaviour towards theire prey can seem almost cruel).

You’ve got to try and just look dispassionately at what’s happening.

While Charlie is looking through his long lens at the dolphins and taking the photographs he needs to take, he has to “switch off” slightly. But he still gets excited by his job.

The dolphins at Chanonry Point have a different ‘menu’ depending on the season.

The dolphins’ behaviour changes to accommodate this.

At the end of the salmon season, for example, mackerel and herring become more prevalent.

You can tell that from the increased numbers of gannets in the vicinity, plunge diving for the same prey.

This also changes the way that the dolphins have to hunt.

They must hunt more in a cooperative manner than the individual approach of “one dolphin, one salmon”.

You find groups of dolphins corralling shoals of herring and then leaping into the middle of the shoal to pick off what they can. It’s amazing to see. There seems to be some sort of planning involved in the process and the dolphins then have the ability and intelligence to execute on those plans in hunting shoals of fish. They are cooperating and communicating all the time.

There is now underwater footage available of this kind of manoeuvring by dolphins which is just breathtaking to see. It gives us a better understanding of how complex and wonderful they are.

The programme then switches its attentions back to Cromarty village for its next interview.

Cromarty Lighthouse houses the Aberdeen University Lighthouse Field Station research team.

Professor Paul Thompson and his colleagues assess the well-being of the marine environment.

In terms of how well the bottlenose dolphin population is doing in the Moray Firth, in many ways, “we just don’t know”.

It’s difficult even to estimate how many animals there are in the first place, let alone how that has changed over the years.

They’re doing better than the scientists thought they were a few years ago.

Beaching or stranding of marine animals is more difficult to interpret.

On the one hand, if there were ‘more’ animals out there, you would expect more beachings.

In some cases, beachings have been blamed on things like naval exercises but research also shows that these things occur naturally anyway.

In the past, whale strandings were ‘popular’ events for the local community, possibly providing meat and blubber for the winter store.

Any large whale beached is principally the property of the Crown. That’s why strandings have been reported to the coastguard for the last hundred years at least.

We don’t really understand why bottlenose dolphin population is currently holding steady and possibly even increasing. It’s hard enough to know whether the populations are growing up or down without then having to try to understand what factors might be at play in affecting the changes. It could be natural variation in food supply. It could be things that humans are doing to the environment.

The more information you have about the life history and the food requirements of these animals, the easier it is to think of methods by which we can help protect their environment.

Protecting their environment will maximise the dolphins’ chances of having a sustainable population.

But, in Professor Thompson’s opinion, as marine conservationist, we should not let the lack of full information prevent us from coming forward with ‘good ideas’ for mitigations which will help the marine animals in their environment.

A ‘precautionary’ approach is best.

Sometimes you have to avoid making changes even if there is not a clearly demonstrated adverse effect from that type of change, historically.

The Professor considers that the fact that these are animals “which are not running away from you” is important to our feelings towards them as humans.

The fact that it is so relatively easy to go out “into the wild” and see and interact with bottlenose dolphins explains a lot about why they mean so much to us.

Not only is it a great experience to be watching wildlife like that, generally, the dolphins themselves – because of their distinguishing features on their bodies – can be known to us as individuals. For some of the dolphins, the Aberdeen University study has been ‘working with’ them for over 20 years. (For some of the female dolphins, they know how many calves they have had. And they know how many calves their calves have had).

The fact that, on the one hand, you know some much about them but, on the other hand, know there is still so much more to be learned about them is really exciting.

Barbara Cheney – a Research Fellow at the Aberdeen University Lighthouse Field Station – discusses the naming and numbering of dolphins as part of their study of the local bottlenose dolphin population.

Example names are Zephyr; Talisman; Gee; and Guinness.

The researchers can recognise the individual bottlenose dolphins from the markings on their dorsal fins.

Some of the markings – described as ‘rakes’ on the dorsal fin – are teeth marks caused by other bottlenose dolphins.

Some of the dolphins’ markings can be skin lesions and scientists are not exactly sure what causes these. They seem to be either viral, bacterial or fungal infections. All bottlenose dolphin populations have such apparent health problems. It is akin to humans having eczema or acne. The skin conditions seem to be more prevalent than average among the Moray Firth bottlenose population but the reasons for that are not clear. The majority of the Moray Firth dolphins have some form of skin lesions.

Although young dolphins have less dorsal fin markings and are therefore harder to track, they tend to stay with their mothers for about 3 to 6 years from birth. In the early part of their lives they have a very close association with their mother.

The researchers number every single dolphin but also try to give them names to make it easier to recognise them.

They often try to give each dolphin a name which is linked to the marks on their fin.

But there are also some ‘random’, fun names thrown in as well.

Referring to “Sailfin” (dolphin number 8), a large adult male, he has probably the biggest fin that has been seen amongst the Moray Firth dolphin population.

With around 10 to 15 recorded sightings of him per year, he’s a well-known character.

Dolphin number 129, on the other hand, is not seen nearly so often. Sightings of “Girder” are relatively infrequent: maybe once or twice a year. They think he is a male dolphin but that’s only because he has never been seen with a calf. So they’re not 100% sure even of this dolphin’s sex. It can be especially difficult to recognise the male animals.

The home page of Charlie Phillips’ website has useful illustrations of dolphin dorsal fin markings. At the link, you have to scroll down to the cross-head “The Science behind the photographs….” and the photos below it.

Cetaceans are mysterious and intriguing to us given that they spend so much of their lives underwater.

Dolphins are very social animals.

They are said to have a “fission/fusion” society. They ‘mix and match’ a lot. The groups are constantly changing. The individuals are constantly hanging out with different animals.

On the other hand, you do see a few family groups spending time together. When calves get a bit older, they may leave their mums but then come back later and again spend time with them.

Bottlenose dolphins have a complicated social structure which is not yet fully understood.

This week’s Newsletter focuses on a songwriter for whom Moray was home over about 10 years from the mid-1990s.

He’s Scottish but many people think he’s Irish.

He’s more famous as the leader of his band than as a solo artist, though he became well-known as a soloist during his time in Moray.

His musical career has often been described as “unconventional” and himself as a “maverick” – but these are probably not words he would choose himself.

The Scotsman newspaper praised his autobiography as ‘A stylishly written skip through the back pages of someone who has been described as Scotland’s answer to Bob Dylan.’

Our article about Mike Scott of The Waterboys is a scroll further down.

Firstly, catching up on other Moray-related matters this week…

Pict again

Featuring Burghead once more, this article has a link to 3-D reconstructive film showing how “underneath the quiet coastal village lie the subtle remains of Scotland’s largest known Pictish fort, which is thought to have been a significant seat of power between the 6th and 10th centuries.” (The Courier)

Dreams fulfilled in Moray

A Moray business leader believes the increasing number of people moving to the region to set up businesses illustrates the growing profile of the area. (Press and Journal).

On the beaten track

From the food and drink to the rooms and decor, Rothes’ Station Hotel is a prime example of everything that is endearing about Speyside. (Press and Journal) (We need there to be a Rothes Clothes Shop).

Speyfestive rebrand

Speyfest will celebrate (we hope, at last) its 25th anniversary in 2022. It has a rebrand to show off on its website in time for Christmas 2021 and a promotional concert in Fochabers on 11 December 2021 (more details on the website).

The Greatest Love Song Ever Recorded in Moray?

Mike Scott is The Waterboys.

He’s had a lengthy connection to Findhorn and the Findhorn Community in Moray.

The Waterboys’ song that ‘everyone’ knows is The Whole of the Moon from their 1985 album This is the Sea.

Though The Waterboys is a band, the line-up has changed continuously since its formation in 1983.

Steve Wickham, on fiddle and vocals, is the closest there is to a ‘constant’ companion for Mike Scott on his musical journey but even he was absent for about 10 years, during the 1990s (though the Waterboys themselves were on a hiatus from about 1993 to 2000).

This is the Sea is the third Waterboys’ album.

It’s the last of what came to be known as their Big Music phase, with arrangements featuring grand musical statements which were often challenging to reproduce live.

Steve Wickham features on the track ‘The Pan Within’. He is from Sligo, in the west of Ireland and was already known as a rock violinist from his contributions to songs such as U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Ireland – and its traditional, more-organic-than-Big music – was to be a strong influence on The Waterboys.

This can be seen over their next two albums, Fisherman’s Blues (1988) and Room to Roam (1990).

Ireland was to be Mike Scott’s home over the period 1986 to 1992 or so.

He moved to the US by the time of the band’s next album (Dream Harder; 1993) but his interest in spiritualism led him back to the British Isles – to the Findhorn Foundation – having read about it in a book by one of the Community’s founders, Eileen Caddy.

The story of Mike Scott finding his spiritual home in Findhorn is narrated on his 1995 solo album, Bring ‘Em All In.

In the song Long Way to the Light, referring to Findhorn, he sings, “I can’t believe I got here, or how long it took”.

Q Magazine, in its album review, described the title song of the album as “instantly compelling”. Over fast, finger-strummed acoustic guitar, as a song, it’s an intimate experience, with the four words of the title frequently repeated, like a mantra.

Bring ‘Em All In (album) was recorded at the Findhorn Foundation, with Mike Scott playing all the instruments himself.

Findhorn was to be Mike Scott’s home for about 10 years.

By 2000, though his two solo albums (1995 and 1997) had achieved critical acclaim, they had not been commercially successful. As a result, Mike Scott revived The Waterboys’ name with the album A Rock in the Weary Land. By 2003, Steve Wickham was back in the fold and the album Universal Hall was named after the centrepiece of the Findhorn Foundation, with its wonderful pentagonal auditorium.

Given the relative commercial failure of Bring ‘Em All In, it is perhaps surprising that its name was to be revived.

Indeed, it could be argued that the song of that name he recorded in Findhorn is the greatest Waterboys’ song you’ve (probably) never heard.

Reinterest came via an unlikely source.

Daniel Levitin is an American-Canadian cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist.

He is also a writer, musician, and record producer.

A recurring theme of his 2006 popular-science book, This is Your Brain on Music, is that even people who have no explicit training in musical theory and performance have “musical” brains – which make them “expert” listeners.

His 2008 book, The World in Six Songs, takes an aspect of his earlier broader work, identifying six fundamental song functions or types (friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge, and love). He then attempts to show how each in its own way has facilitated the social bonding necessary for human culture and society to evolve.

The final chapter in the Six Songs book, entitled “Love or ‘Bring ‘em all in’”, concludes with an analysis of Mike Scott’s Bring ‘Em All In.

Levitin describes it as “one of the greatest love songs ever written.”

The author argues that the core of the human desire for romantic love is the ability to form a strong partnership with another person. And perhaps the second-most common song in pop music, after the romantic love song, is the breakup song, or the song of love lost.

Levitin also points out that love comes in many forms – includingthat between parents and children, between friends, and of God. In his view, in its larger sense – the comprehensive, selfless commitment to another person, group, or idea – Love is the most important cornerstone of a civilised society.

Of the song, Bring ‘Em All In, Levitin writes that:

“It is the yearning of one human to feel at one with the world, to embrace all that is contained within it. It is a love song to all of us, to the good and the bad, to the great and the small. It is the song of one man alone with his thoughts, by himself, trying to reach out to become connected.”

Mike Scott has reinterpreted several of his own songs over the years, not always to critical acclaim.

The epic (on that album) opener to This is the Sea, Don’t Bang the Drum, reframed for the early 21st century as a stripped-down piano and vocal arrangement was once described by The Scotsman newspaper as a “murderous travesty”.

We can call Bring ‘Em All In a Waterboys’ song because the band recorded it for their 2005 live album, Karma to Burn. Adding piano (Richard Naiff) and fiddle (Wickham) to the original ‘acoustic guitar and breaths’ arrangement is not too much of departure from Mike Scott’s conception of the song.

Listen to the original version of the song on YouTube here.

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