Life in Newburgh on Ythan

By Talpa

A memento of the cold war.

A flower from the garden floats on a pool of blue glaze on the upper surface of a ceramic "floating stone" crafted by the Danish ceramic artist Lotte Glob. In 1968, Lotte Glob established a workshop in Balnakeil Craft Village at Durness in Sutherland in the far north of Scotland (the location is shown on the map), but has now moved to Loch Eriboll 9 miles east of Durness.

Balnakeil Craft Village lies about one mile west of Durness, within sight of Balnakeil Bay. The collection of brutal concrete buildings was built at the height of the Cold War in the mid 1950's by the Ministry of Defence as an early warning station against nuclear attack. However, it was never commissioned, and in 1964, the camp was used as a base for artists and craftsmen, a role it continues to play to this day.

Lotte is the daughter of Peter Glob the Danish archaeologist most noted for his investigations of Denmark's bog bodies such as Tollund Man - the mummified remains of Iron and Bronze Age people found preserved within peat bogs.



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