Yellow lichen and broken red rock on the wall of Porthcawl Pier
This time last year I took lots of pictures of Porthcawl on the Glamorgan coast, one of my favourite places, but somehow I never got around to “processing” the photographs and blogging about them. Now I have put together many Porthcawl pictures into a gallery or two, but I decided to pick out in particular the images of lichen and rock on the pier.
It’s a stone pier, more of a breakwater, really, and is much used by anglers. I have taken pictures of it in both summer and winter.
Porthcawl Pier in December 2013
The end of the pier
The other, seaward side of the pier
Every time there are storms on the west coast of the UK photographers gather at Porthcawl to take pictures of the sea lashing this photogenic stone wall and you see the results in the newspapers next day. Almost without fail.
I wish this was my picture! Click on it to go to the source on the Mirror news website
This is the wall from the sheltered side…
The plaque says: The Duffryn Llynvi & Porthcawl Railway Company 1825-1860 – This dock and the horsedrawn tramroad from Duffryn Llynvi, Maesteg, built by the company, provided the first outlet to the sea for the early iron and coal industries. The rails below are the last section of the tramroad track still in position. Perhaps I should have taken a picture of them?
This is the white lighthouse at the end of the pier – it was built in 1860 and is now used as a navigational aid. It was the last coal and gas-powered lighthouse in the UK before being changed to gas in 1974 and electricity in 1997
But I was really there for the lichen!
Yellow lichen on the pier wall
I think this is the best picture I have ever taken of yellow lichen – but I’m not sure if it’s a Caloplaca such as C thallincola, or perhaps less likely a Xanthoria?
This is a wider view of the red rock and lichen in the picture at the top of the post
The rock is also veined with quartz…
…I do like a nice chunk of quartz
Near the pier is the lifeboat station (RNLI)
A plaque from 1860, but probably this has been moved from an older building
The Seabank Hotel at the far end of Porthcawl seafront
The middle of the promenade, with the road called the Esplanade behind it
And always there are the rocks and the sea…
Find more of my general views of Porthcawl here.
The Squirrelbasket 
lovely update thanks for sharing have a blessed day
You have a good day, too – it’s a bit cooler today!
Wales is beautiful! 🙂
Indeed it is!
Thank you for dropping by 🙂
The lichen colors on the boulders are beautiful. I have seen the yellow lichen growing on large boulders at the 5000 feet elevations in our mountains. It is not as lush and healthy as shown in your photo. I wonder what the purple colored growth is next to the yellow lichen….the two colors together are lovely. Thanks for sharing.
I’m not sure about that? I just thought it was the worn surface of the rock, although maybe it is a dark stone-like lichen…
I love lichen – and I guess you do, too.
All the best 🙂
I do like its variety of colors, texture and how it will grow on trees, old stumps, post, rocks and etc.
Me, too – although I have great trouble pinning down a species when I do find one.
All the best 🙂
I love Porthcawl, my daughters were ‘babes’ in the annual panto in the Grand Theatre for several years and there were a few occasions when the lower back entrance had to be sand-bagged against the invasion of rampant seawater! You found some wonderful lichens there – I wouldn’t even attempt to identify them, but what’s in a name when they are so beautiful to look at?
Thanks. I see the latest thinking about lichen is that it can be a partnership between three organisms, not two as previously thought: http://www.popsci.com/new-research-finds-lichens-are-not-just-two-organism-marriage.
I must catch up with all your posts, too 🙂