Cathedral of the Tides
A volume made to be lived with.
Some places keep a slower time than ours. This is a book made in that slower time – monochrome photographs and reflective prose from St Abb’s Head, gathered into one considered volume. Something to hold, return to, and open when you have a quiet hour to give it.
A single, considered volume
Cathedral of the Tides draws together a long immersion in one wild place on the south-eastern coast of Scotland — its volcanic cliffs, its restless sea, and the shifting light that moves across both. Photography and writing sit side by side across its pages, each deepening the other. The image leads; the words follow, offered not to explain but to open the heart
It is the second book in an ongoing Photographs and Reflections series – a sustained practice rather than a single release. A body of work built slowly, across the seasons, and shaped with the same patience it asks of you. Each photograph is not just a moment captured, but an invitation to pause and reflect on the beauty and complexity of our world.
This book offers a journey through the rugged landscape of Scotland, but it also delves into deeper themes of connection, change, and impermanence. The photographs capture fleeting moments in time, reminding us that nothing stays the same forever. And yet, there is a sense of continuity throughout the pages – a thread that ties together even the most disparate images.
As you turn the pages, you may find yourself lost in the wildness of Scotland’s landscape or contemplating your own place within it. This is a book that invites you to slow down and immerse yourself in its pages
What the book holds
The book moves through the headland the way a walk might – from first light to dusk, from open sea to quiet inland loch. Along the way it meditates on the things this landscape teaches: impermanence and resilience, the wisdom of yielding, and the deep kinship between the human spirit and the natural world.
- Monochrome photography that strips away colour so form, texture, shadow, and light can speak.
- Reflective essays written in the field and refined over time, carrying the emotional weather of the place.
- A journey across the seasons, structured as a series of movements rather than a simple sequence of pictures.
This is a book to be read slowly, and looked at slowly. It rewards the second visit, and the third.
Inside the pages
The heart of the book is the way image and word are held together on the page. Photographs are given room to breathe. Passages of prose arrive with the same care, set to slow the reading rather than fill it. Nothing competes; everything is paced.
Interior spreads reveal how the two halves complete one another – a photograph of the sea meeting stone, set beside a reflection on how we, too, are shaped by the currents of our lives. Neither is a caption for the other. Together they make something quieter and more lasting than either could alone.
A taste of the writing
The prose asks the same of you the photographs do: to slow down, and to stay a while.
To stand on the headland of St Abb’s, as the mist rolls in, is to feel the scaffolding of our temporal certainty begin to creak. The world dissolves into suggestion. The path ahead is not a future to be conquered, but a possibility to be entered, one step at a time.
Elsewhere the writing lingers on the sea worn against volcanic rock, on the ruins of a seventh-century monastery still keeping watch, on the small, fleeting beauty of a rock pool before the returning tide dissolves its edges. These are reflections on presence, loss, and belonging – offered gently, for anyone who wishes to go further.
The editions
Cathedral of the Tides will be published in November 2026, in two strictly limited editions.
- Artist edition – 6 copies. Printed and bound by hand, this is the most intimate expression of the work, produced in the smallest possible number for those who want the book in its finest form.
- Hardback edition – 200 copies. An A4 landscape hardback holding the full collection of images and reflective essays, presented in a considered, collectible form.
Details of availability and how to acquire a copy will follow closer to publication.
Stay close to the release
If the book speaks to you, there is no need to decide now.
- Register your interest to be among the first to hear when the editions become available.
- Enquire about the book whenever you feel ready, and begin a quiet conversation.
- Join the mailing list for occasional reflections and news of new work.
There is nothing to hurry towards. Look slowly, read slowly, and come to the book in your own time.