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Anne T visited on 29th Sep 2018 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Hogback at the ruins of St Helen's Chapel, Old Cambus: We found the first hogback easily – at the northern side of the east gable wall, but the second one we hunted for but were unable to find. The cross incised slab we searched for ages, even matching up the angles of the stone to the masonry behind on the Canmore images, but drew a blank. The site was knee deep in grass, with tumbles of stone underneath, so it could have been anywhere. A strimmer would have helped! Similarly with the fragment of hogback on the southern side of the chancel. We found many tumbled stones in the grass, but even looking closely for the tegulations, we didn’t locate it, which was disappointing. The information board which sits near the junction of the road to the quarry to the footpath to the chapel and Siccar point reads: “Proceed from here, through the kissing-gate, past the ruin of St Helen’s Chapel and along the top of the steep sea-braes to Siccar Point, arguably the most important geological site in the world. In 1788 it gave James Hutton final proof of his revolutionary claim that the Earth is eons old He based his claim on painstaking observation of rocks and soil over a period of some 30 years. / James Hutton (1726-1797) farmed locally near Reston and was a self-taught geologist. Having already published his theory, he was on a mission to establish the evidence. Before discovering the proof at Siccar Point, by boat with his friends Sir James Hall and John Playfair, Hutton knew what he was looing for and had an idea of where to find it. He sent Sir James, a local landowner from Dunglass and also a geologist, to review the area before embarking on their boat trip below the braes. Sir James may have done this by observing that the stone used to construct field boundaries in the vicinity was (and still is) a combination of rock from above and below the uncomfority (red sandstone and greywacke). / Hutton’s theory released science and philosophy from limitations of the biblical age of the earth (6,000 years old). Though bitterly disputed at the time, it is now accepted as a fundamental of science. James Hutton also expounded with authority of theories as diverse as the nature of light and methods of education, and was a significant agricultural innovator and improver.” Just before reaching the ruins of St Helen’s, someone has carved an old tree trunk into an L-shape with a toilet seat on top! Note: the gate to the field was locked, and we had to climb over the rather tall gate.

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