Happy new year everyone - I hope you all have a great 2022.  I was visiting friends in Aberdeen for New Year, and celebrated quite hard on both the 31st and the 1st.  As such, I was feeling rather delicate on the 2nd.  On the way back home, we decided to stop in and take a quick walk around Stonehaven Harbour.  Stonehaven is on the East Coast of Scotland, and looks out over the North Sea.  Its quite a pretty wee town, and the harbour is famous for pictures of large waves breaking over the harbour wall.  However, it was quite calm when we stopped - although, windy, wet and cold. 

Stonehaven was probably largely a fishing village/town at one point, although there are not so many fishing boats left now.  The North Sea was over fished during the 20th century, with limits are now in place to help preserve fish stocks, and accordingly the number of fishing boats in Scotland has declined considerably since the early 1980s. 

You can still see a few creel boats, but the harbour is largely empty now.  I guess it would have been absolutely full back at the peak of the herring fishing days in the early 1900s. 

The walk around the harbour certainly helped us to get some fresh air.   We went right out to the tip, and managed to get a pic of the headland, which is to the south side which makes for quite a nice view.

There were quite a few others out walking round the harbour and along the sea front.  I'm guessing I was not the only one suffering and needing some fresh air !

Stonehaven has a really interesting New Year tradition - the fireball procession.  On hogmany (31st of Dec), just before midnight, locals swing fireballs on chains, and march down the main street to the harbour, and throw them into the harbour.  Its a tradition going back many years, and was originally done to bring fishermen luck for the coming year.  Its quite famous now and is usually televised each year in Scotland, although it has been cancelled these last two years due to Covid, noting that it normally attracts quite a large crowd.  Hopefully they will be able to hold it again next year.  

Well, it was well worth the stop.  It would have been nice to see some waves breaking over the harbour wall, but it was not too be - maybe next time !