The Way the Wind Blows

Many of the trees growing along our coastlines are asymmetrical, if not always so extremely as the two shown in these photographs. The one pictured above stands beside the track leading east from the tiny settlement of Ockle, the second beside the road that runs from Achnaha to Sanna.

Geography books state that the direction in which they bend is controlled by the prevailing wind. After the gale we had in May, the reason may not be quite as simple. Then, the leaves on the windward side of deciduous trees were burned by the wind and the salt spray it carried. In some cases, the leaves died altogether, and the branches remained bare throughout the summer season.

So it may be less the direction of the prevailing wind than the direction of the late spring or early-summer gales which control their growth by killing the branches that face up-wind.