Jan 18 2010
Tidebell
A few months ago, I found myself on Bosta Beach, when a group of locals gathered to discuss the installation of a Time and Tide Bell. This device rings in ever changing tones as the tide ebbs and flows around it. Twelve of the bells are to be installed around the coastline of the UK, and sculptor Marcus Vergette is intending to place one on the beach at Bosta.
It is an idea that sits uneasy with many people, and I rank myself among those. Although the sound of the bell is not loud, I do not feel that it would be fitting to place it in the location of Bosta, a secluded beach on the northern end of Great Bernera. Some might find it an intrusion to see an object that is patently not part of the natural scenery, or general environment that one expects to find there.
Bosta Beach
18 responses so far
I see that Mr Croft has posted on the same subject, AL. I think it seems like quite a nice idea, but I see your point about it being an intrusive object. A tidebell! What a lovely word that is.
Its yet again,the case of “i’m not against the idea,but anywhere else,but not on lewis”:
I think its a lovely idea and it will no doubt have a lovely ring to it
I’m in favour. Let latter day Abbots of Aberbrothock be blessed.
Probably preferable to an Aeolian harp in your neighbour’s garden. I think the sound fits well with the landscape…ask not for whom etc…
Just to qualify my objection: I wouldn’t mind having such a bell in Stornoway Harbour, e.g. at Goat Island, or any of the other harbours in the island. Bosta carries extra sensitivity due to the presence of a cemetery at the beach.
As I said over by, it’s quite nice just a bit boring and a bit out of place. If it’s to be permanent I’d far rather see something culturally relevant and beautiful by a local sculptor like the Basques got with Chillida and his Wind Combs. Or something temporary and a little more challenging like Antony Gormley’s Another Place. Like Arnish I can think of better places on the island for this.
Anyway, if it goes ahead doubtless someone will have it for scrap or steal the clapper on a drunken Sauturday night mission within a year. ;0
Bosta Beach is beautiful. I would love to take a walk along the shore there. I think bells would disturb it’s rugged beauty. The sound of the sea and the gulls would be all you would want to hear there. You folks are so blessed with so much undisturbed beautiful shore line.
No this is a crap idea!
Sometimes stuff like this works and sometimes it doesn’t, I have to say that I’m in two minds about it. I’m sure that for a brief while at least I would like the sound of the tidebell, however, like a wind chime, I think it would eventually invade the the subconcious, become irritating, and detract from the natural music a place like Bosta provides.
If it goes ahead, let’s hope it’s better than the one that he installed close to where I live. Big hoo ha about nothing!!
Bosta is certainly wonderfully, wildly beautiful..
It would appear that the most vocal voices against the idea come from incomers who have no idea or care even less about the human aspect of life on Bernera. Their contribution to the community of Bernera is to criticise the locals for the short fleeting time they are resident there. Bernera is not a wild, barren, unpopulated and empty place. People actually live there.
Good to see such a diversity of views, both for and against. Nobody is excluded from having an opinion on this issue. Whether they live in Lewis (or Bernera), or visit here. My impression is that the Bernera people are not enamoured with the Tidebell, which is reflected in my post. I will acknowledge that it is a unique form of art that I am not averse to.
In reply to the croft - the one thing that won’t happen to the bell is it gets stolen for scrap. Have you counted the number of scrap cars behind the Lewis houses? My mother cooked on a metal stove in the NAAFI at Rodel nearly 70 years ago and the stove is till there just next to the hotel on the old RAF site.
@ Cedric…Bernera is certainly not a barren and unpopulated place, but Bostadh *is* a wild and unspoiled place of great beauty. I am certainly not averse to having the bell on the island…but perhaps somewhere more in-keeping with its industrial appearance and less vulnerable to its aural encroachment…perhaps on one of the quays….or even by the bridge.
It seems as though planning has now been passed, so it looks likely that it shall go ahead. It saddens me that this has all come about undemocratically…as it certainly doesn’t seem to reflect the wishes of many. Perhaps a vote on the island might have been the way to go. Certainly the council have little durisdiction for the recognition or preservation of our wild places. I feel the spirit of John Muir recoil!
“Bostadh” .. related to the Nordic (Swedish) “bostad” = a home, a place to live?
Spot on, Barney. There are quite a few “shaders” (corrupted from Norse “stadr” or “bolstadr” in the island. People used to live at Bostadh, but presently, the nearest township is Croir, a mile to the east.