A Visit to Glen Olova : Its Geology and Ferns. 27 



long, the nave and side aisles 65 feet broad, and about 67 feet 

 high. Portions only of the nave and choir, the east and west 

 ends, and of the south transept, now remain, but they exhibit 

 some beautiful mouldings and details. The abbey gateway, 

 upwards of sixty feet long, which was only unroofed at the 

 commencement of the present century, is of rather a later date, 

 and shows a dawning of the decorated or second pointed style. 

 The chapter house, the most perfectly preserved portion of 

 the buildiug, is of two storeys, with a short spire at the south- 

 west angle, and is now used as a museum for any relics 

 found among the ruins. 



About twelve miles S. by E. out to sea from Arbroath is the 

 Bell Rock Lighthouse, built under the superintendence of Mr. 

 Robert Stephenson, on a range of rocks that rise four feet above 

 low water at spring tides ; the outer casing is of Aberdeen 

 granite, and its height 115 feet. It was commenced in 1807, 

 and finished in 1811. 



It derives its name from the circumstance of one of the 

 abbots of Arbroath having had a bell fixed on it to warn 

 mariners. This was wantonly cut down by a Dutch pirate, who 

 was afterwards, it is said, wrecked upon it, in just retribution 

 for his misdeed. 



We walked along the cliffs to Auchmithie, a small fishing 

 village about five miles to the north. The cliffs, here com- 

 posed of old red sandstone, are extremely picturesque, being 

 much indented and broken up by the action of the sea and 

 weather, leaving here and there insulated rocks, and containing 

 numerous caverns which penetrate in many places through pro- 

 jecting portions of the cliffs. Many of the caves are occupied 

 by the sea at all times, others at high tide only, and some are 

 altogether out of the reach of the water. One is called the 

 Mason's Cave, from the appearance of the rocks at its entrance, 

 which look at a short distance as though they had been built 

 up artifically; another the Green Cave, from the luxuriant 

 manner in which the Hart's Tongue fern, Scolopendrium vulgare, 

 grows in it. We also found in this cavern a few stunted plants 

 of the Sea-spleenwort, Asplenium marinum. 



On Friday we confined ourselves to the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Forfar, in order to see the ruins of Restennet 

 Priory, situated about a mile to the east of the town. We 

 passed on our way the source of the Lunan, a stream that 

 originates at the head of Restennet marshes. It flows into 

 the sea in Lunan Bay, a few miles south of Montrose, forming 

 in its course Roscobie and Balgaries Lochs. Till the latter end 

 of last century it also formed a loch where the Restennet 

 marshes are now, and which was drained for the valuable marl 

 it contained. The ruins of the priory of Restennet, or Rostinoth 



