Portal – Murdo Eason – From Hill to Sea

worlds within worlds

from the ocean

land forms

islands

an archipelago

of weather

and time

telescope, or

microscope?

thin world portal,

sea or sky?

an autarky

of green

only open

to sun

and rain

the high lands

shape

invisible cities

littoral drift

lagoon

an oxbow lake

The Charlestown limeworks were one of the earliest industrial complexes in Scotland at the advent of the industrial revolution. Conceived in 1752, within ten years, they had become the largest lime producing facility in Europe.

The Charlestown limestone was quarried locally. Coral laid down 300 million years ago formed calcium carbonate (limestone) which was heated in the kilns with coal to 900°C. During this process the weight of stone reduced by 40%. More of a devils’ share than an angels’ share.

Working conditions have been described as a “hellish scene” with the hot air thick with sulphur and ammonia from the limeburning. The list of worker’s functions leach from the page into the ‘old words’:

Kilnheadman

Drawer

Trimmer

Slaker

Emptier

Sawyer

Mason

Wright

Labourer

Overseer

Today the kilns exist as another, largely, forgotten memory of an industrial past. The encroaching green fingers are tightening their grip.

on the old railway track

traces of sleeping

sleepers

above the surface

vertical calm

conceals

unseen networks

of rhizomatic agitation

On Charlestown Brae

the old horse trough

a flowering

of water and air

the need to create, islands for contemplation.

≈

Heat formed

in black ocean

a coastline emerges.

Inlets, an isthmus

white tundra,

transmuted gold.

≈

From a short walk in Charlestown, Fife.

Now playing: Steve Roden – Four Possible Landscapes.

Reference:

Norman Fotheringham, Charlestown, Built on Lime (Charlestown: Charlestown Lime Heritage Trust, 1997).

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: