The “funnel” and its arch

Photo #1 shows the northern shore from the “gouge” at the far left to the tip of Cape St Lawrence at the far right. On this page, the feature subject is the inverted triangular shaped great slab of rock just left of centre that I call the “funnel”. The lighting is a bit off in this photo, as its rocks are really quite reddish hued, as subsequent photos will show.

Photo #2 is a telephoto view of the “funnel” from well off Rhu Pillinn that brings it and the adjacent area into sharper focus. Again, it looks as if a significant chunk of terrain at the left of the “funnel” has been clawed away, leaving a small beach at the foot of the cliffs. Alas, the lighting still is off here, making the “funnel” and the neighbouring rocks to its right significantly less red than they are in fact.

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Photo #3 was taken from off Cape St Lawrence and gives a sideways view from the west of the “funnel” that shows the arch, hard to discern in the two previous photos, which lies at the narrowest part of the “funnel”. The colours seen in the rocks forming the upper part of the arch are common to the “funnel” above it as well, though the latter is somewhat darker, but still reddish.

Photo #4 is another view of the arch, this time seen from the east. The colours in the adjacent rocks, mixed with black and dark grey, give a good idea of those seen in the “funnel”. The white material injected into the rocks is especially noticeable here, though my guess would be that some of the white markings on the arch are guano from sitting birds, which is clearly not the case for the injected materials (gravity takes guano drippings down, not sideways).

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Photo #5, taken just west of the arch, shows it has a shape that resembles an old-fashioned telephone, at least to my eyes. By what process it came to have this shape I have no idea, but clearly the part that has been removed is of softer rock than the remaining portions. The “earpiece” is resting on a grey/black slab of rock which extends upwards, but is cheek-by-jowl with the reddish rock seen in the top and sides of the arch above and on the sides. The rocks further to the east at the far left of the photo on the edge of the “gouge” look as if there were a hunk of rock that had been taken out along with the gouge: the tilt of the rocks at water level is pretty close to that of the slope seen above. What happened to the missing material? So many mysteries!

Photo #6, taken just east of the arch, gives a better idea of just how red the “funnel” really is, though the actual colour is closer to the darker hue seen in photo #5. A noticeable amount of eroded rock can be seen on the slopes above the arch, which perhaps is responsible for the darker colours in the first two photos.