Huge black bits of old wood washed up on Dunnet beach

[Loopylou5]

Does anyone know anything about the big slabs of black wood that's being washed up on the beach? It crumbles when you touch it.My husband is obsessed with it.Please help!

[Alrock]

Does it burn well?

[sids]

That's all that's left of the ill-starred underwater railway project that was meant to link the Orkneys with modern culture.

[Alrock]

I do remember though that when I was a kid, after a bad storm the fossilised remains of an ancient forest got exposed through the sand... Could be the same thing?

[Stargazer]

I suspect it's slabs of peat with the remains of tree roots embedded in it. There is peat underneath the beach about a mile east of Castletown, occasionally it is exposed and parts break off before the exposure is covered over.

[r.rackstraw]

Yes I think that Stargazer has the answer.
The peat is exposed from time to time -and the bits of trees are amazingly well preserved considering they lived thousands of years ago.
The best area is usually at the Dunnet end.