“What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else.” Joseph Campbell

So I heard about a beach that had dinosaurs footprints on! Not sure what to expect and not really convinced that there would be actual dinosaur footprints I set off for my fourth morning (think it was day 4) walk at Staffin beach. I should have probably googled more about this before getting there, like were the footprints 10cm or 10 feet across? I arrived early to see people walking around with their eyes set firmly downwards, turns out I wasn’t the only one looking for footprints. Turns out the thing that impressed me the most was the colour of the sand! Beautiful black sand!

The beach at An Corran, Staffin contains remarkable footprints. They were left by a group of dinosaurs that walked across the sand here some 165 million years ago. The prints are covered by the sea at high tide, and are often covered by sand in the summer. The best time to see them is after a winter storm, when the sea has swept the sand away. Location close to ramp.

The footprints were discovered in 2002 by Catherine Booth. She was out walking her dog one day when she came across a rock with what looked like a huge claw mark. She took this rock back to her husband, Paul, at the hotel which they run together.

As soon as Paul saw the rock, he suggested that they go back to the beach and look for more. After some time searching, they suddenly found what they had been looking for, and found 15 footprints in total! The couple then called in Neil Clarke, from the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow. Neil Clarke confirmed the significance of the find and mounted a scientific search for more.

Each footprint has three massive toes and are among the largest footprints to be found in Scotland. They are even in the original strata of rock that they were formed in, which is also significant. The footprints were left by a family of dinosaurs about 165 million years ago. It is thought that they were Ornithopods, which were bipedal herbivores. These are the youngest dinosaur remains to have been found in Scotland.

Footprints of up to 50 cm have been found, which is the largest found in Scotland. It is believed that these larger prints were made by a creature similar to Megalosaurus. There is a decent cluster of the footprints on a sandstone bed. They are not far from the ramp that runs down to the beach.

Guess who didn’t see a single footprint that’s right, me! but in all honestly I could have fallen face first into one and never notice!

Being next to the see just makes my heart feel alive, even if I didn’t see any dinosaur prints.

I have had lots of questions about my coat, it was from Mountain Warehouse and is a ski jacket. It is probably the warmest coat I own now and by far my favourite, keeping my eyes peeled for it in different colours.

How often do you get to see sheep at the beech? Well I don’t actually know but this was my first time!

At this point I would just like to say I am holding onto the rail for dear life. The wind was so strong and like nothing I have ever experienced before I honestly thought I was going into the sea and if it wasn’t for the rail I would have been in the sea.