The wounded beach
January 11, 2026, 4:35 pm , by Richard Lutz
RICHARD LUTZ surveys the wear and tear of wind and weather
This is my beach before the storm:
and this is my beach after the storm:
It’s been stripped, blown away, ripped and blasted. Seaweed and wrack run a ragged line. The skin of the shore has vanished, evaporated. The bones of the Maidens Beach remain. A winter sun, low and weak, offers a faint January afternoon sky. It’s 3 o’clock on the Scottish west coast:
Here’s that same strand on a clear day before the storm. It used to be a soft bed of sand stretching on a crescent shaped bay:
It’s so easy on the eye I’ll give you another view:
That stretch has disappeared. But it will return. It always does. Today, its remnants have been bullied by the charmingly named Storm Goretti up towards the wild grass, streaked by mineral deposits:
Above the wounded beach, the woods tilt, shoved by year upon year of prevailing winds from the southwest:
Some of the trees, mainly hardwoods, are twisted by gales that roar in from Ireland:
Some, such as this Scots pine, fight against the wind and curve greedily toward the western light:
All things move and change to accommodate the winds, the Atlantic weather and the winter.
Well, most things, anyway.
Above the blasted beach, a lone outrider of a Galloway cattle herd. They’re not nicknamed Belties for nothing.
‘Plenty of mince on that one’ opines a connoisseur of beef.
Come wind, come storm, our stolid Beltie isn’t going anywhere soon. It won’t be blown away nor stripped of its heft, shorn of its bulk nor its beltiness.
It’s rooted in its field of wind, above the winter sea. No one, no thing, no Storm Goretti, with its 99mph wind, is going to push this hunk of beast anywhere very soon. It might as well have been chipped out of the stone bed that now rises from the beach below. It might as well be wed to the earth.
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Martin McCrindle
Great story and pics. I see Maybole named as best seaside town in Scotland. I’m guessing coastal erosion gathering pace…😂
Tony Fitzpatrick
I think it must be the gorgeous High Street and vast array of independent retailers that swung it….
Cerys Maris
After a big storm, my pal on Skye drives his trailer onto the beach, loads up with seaweed and puts it on his vegetable beds. He swears by it.
Cas Graham
Great photos
PGP
The beach doesn’t look as bald as I feared.
Tony Fitzpatrick
The dynamic earth….
Laurel Freeman
feel I’ve been through it myself
Jinty Hall
hope the beach comes back! They don’t always
Howard
The miracle is that the beach always returns to its original beauty
Sheena McD
Uncrowded peaceful beauty
Sheila Harrison
Drama on Maidens Beach!!😨
Louis Carresco
👍
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