Cromarty

'Tis you appear our full enjoyment, which was our despair, scattering his mists, cheering his cynic frowns.

For radiant brightness now dark Rabelais crowns, leaving your brave heroic cares, which must make better mankind and embalm your dust, so undeceiving us that now we see all wit in Gascon and in Cromarty.

Besides that Rabelais is conveyed to us, and that our Scotland is not barbarous.

J.

Where?

Cromarty, Scotland-

[laughs] Yes

... which is on the stunning Black Isles in the Highlands.

Population, 672 wonderful Scots-

I love that

... including a bananimal named Sally Louise Frazier, Cromarty, Scotland, and all-

And did you get-

Tis you appear our full enjoyment, which was our despair, scattering his mists, cheering his cynic frowns.

For radiant brightness now dark Rabelais crowns, leaving your brave heroic cares, which must make better mankind and embalm your dust, so undeceiving us that now we see all wit in Gascon and in Cromarty.

Besides that Rabelais is conveyed to us, and that our Scotland is not barbarous.

J.

In this episode of Love Scotland, we're going to travel back to that lost world and meet someone who is piecing it together, one footprint, tooth and fragment of bone at a time.

You may recall in a past series we featured Hugh Miller, whose birthplace and museum in Cromarty are looked after by the National Trust for Scotland.

Miller was a pioneering geologist who captivated Victorian imaginations and popularised the study of fossils.

Today, we're joined by a modern-day Miller.

And we sent him out onto the foreshore because he runs his own fossil hunting clubs for the public.

And we can listen in to one of his most recent walks.

You actually find me recording this here on Cromarty Beach because this is prime fossil hunting territory.

It was here back in the 1830s that pioneering geologist Hugh Miller discovered ancient fossil fish that were alive about 385 million years ago.