The Blue Stone EarthCache
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Third in a series of three caches based around the Fife coastal path at Balcomie Links Golf Course.
As a glacier moves along it transports debris, rocks and stones which it picks up by plucking at the base and sides of the terrain it is flowing through. When the glacial ice melts, different types of rocks are laid down that have been carried along by the glacier. All glacial deposits are angular and mixed up - unlike river deposits that are often smooth and sorted into different sizes. Erratics are the extreme of this - these are large rocks or boulders, often found on their own, rather than in piles, that are unusual shapes or unusually large, and of a rock type uncommon to where they have been dumped.
The Blue Stone is the large boulder sitting on its own in the sand here. It would have been transported here by a glacier during one of the ice ages and left behind when the ice disappeared. It's now smooth surface is a result of erosion by the sea rather than by ice.
This is the other erratic which is paired in legend with the one at Crail Church (and which you can see if you do the "Crail Constitutional" multicache). It is said that the devil threw a big stone at the church folk of Crail from the Isle of May. The stone split in mid air - one half landing at the church gates and the other half landing here (although this stone is much, much larger than the one at the church!). So which version do you believe? The scientific one or the legend?!
Public access to the coast is via the gap in the wall after the Golf Shop - take the path curving down to the right after the flagpoles.
To claim this cache you have to do the following:
(1) Post a photo of yourself with GPS either in front of or on the Blue Stone (if you are camera shy then the GPS + stone will suffice)
(2) Estimate the NARROWEST diameter of the Blue Stone. The stone does get surrounded by water at high tide so over time this measurement may give an indication of any erosion.
(3) Email me the answer to the following question.
There have been a series of ice ages in Scotland during the last two million years and both Fife and Tayside have been buried several times under ice sheets up to one kilometre in thickness. There was a cold period 11,000 to 10,000 years ago when this area froze but was not covered by an ice sheet. But how many thousand years ago did the last great ice sheet start to form in Scotland?
Additional Hints
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