The Flairs

I wonder how many people will have heard of “The Flairs”?

Having my grandmother’s side of the family hailing from Arbroath meant that I spent a lot of time there as a child and being without siblings meant that two of my cousins were the nearest thing I had to brothers.

Along with the Angus Show, a trip to the Flairs was an essential activity, and this usually happened on a Saturday or a Sunday when the adults were off work. To me, the Flairs was a beach. It was a special beach. It was our beach. For holiday makers in Arbroath going to the beach meant crossing the main road from the Red Lion Caravan Site. The Flairs however was a secret beach that required local knowledge and because of that it was never packed out with people.

This place was full of excitement. As you climbed down the path at the southern entrance, there was a pipe sticking out of the cliffs which someone had linked to a freshwater spring, I assume from the nearby farmland. There was also another freshwater spring nearer the top end of the bay, but this was only accessible at low tide its outlet was amongst the rocks on the shore and again it required local knowledge to find it.

The shore comprised a raised grassy area, a sandy beach, and various rocks leading out to the sea. The grassy area was where the adults built a fire, to boil water for whelks, or to cook potatoes, baked beans etc. We always had a picnic and hot food. The adults had a teapot and some pans stored in the grassy undergrowth that was left each year, waiting for our next visit. That’s how remote and safe this place seemed. On the beach we of course played football and built sand castles. The formation of the rocks meant that there was a natural inlet, that was flanked by rocks either side, when the tide came in this created a ready-made swimming pool.

A trip to the flares was never complete without going through the caves. This had to be done at low tide. You entered by the nearest cave which we called the dark cave as it was pitch black. You navigated round the cave by keeping your hand on one of the walls and it let round to the other side of the cliff. When you got round the other side you came back through the light cave, which had some daylight at both sides.

I now know that they are called the “Forbidden Caves” and the picture below shows the entrance to the dark cave.

picture copyright Ian Paterson Photography

http://www.ian-paterson.com/

used with permission

The adults used to collect “buckies” or whelks from the shore at low tide and these would be put into big pots of water to boil up and then be eaten. I could never eat them as I hated the look of them but my granny used to have them on bread! Round our streets we used to get the man coming round selling them and shouting “whelks ten pence a bag”. Well we collected hundreds of bags for free.

Although known as the Flairs, it has a proper name, and is called Carlinghuegh Bay. It is located to the north of Arbroath and is part of a continuous stretch of sea cliffs and rocky shores. The cliffs are widely studied as they show a spectacular series of erosion features including sea stacks, blowholes, caves, wave cut platforms and arches. Carlingheugh Bay has a raised beach and relic sea cliff thought to date from approximately 6,000 years ago.