HWW

This area has real history. The Romans, whist occupying England had a fort just right of this scene. Here we see not a Roman fort but a diversion outlet for one of the feeder streams running from the higher Saddleworth Moors surrounding us here. I think too that the house looking building is in fact a small pump-house but I might be wrong. Our path in facts goes across the top of the dam wall just to the right of where I stand. Have a good day.

Another chance here to see the exact same rainbow as I posted with a fence just a few days back. (see PiP) This time we see it with a wall instead of the wooden gated fence and unlike the other, this shows both ends too. Another two-photo stitch with unfortunately the left side being not as sharp as the right but I hope you will forgive me for posting it in despite of that. Again a few rain drops highlighted as noise near the bow itself from the bright light behind me. Enjoy full screen. Happy Wednesday Wall

A confusing capture when first seen. In actual fact I am under a low modern canal tunnel looking across to the other side towards a straight stone vertical wall. The illusion is caused by the edge of the tunnel roof reflected from the water back onto that wall in ripples. The bottom darker row of bricks is just a few inches above the water here. Have a good day.

A view to Alderman’s Hill on the left and one of my favourite silver birch trees on the right. All hanging together in this lovely light as I shoot this from the edge of Dovestones reservoir here near my home. The traditional wall is of course the dry-stone variety, ie no cement nor mortar between the heavy square or flat sand-stones which were once quarried nearby. PiP Have a good day.

Nestled in a valley between Cemaes and Almwich we come across this on our headland walk. I thought at first it had to be an old mine building but no: this old works produced porcelain from deposits of china clay found on Dinas Gynfor and Llanlleiana Head nearby. The works consist of a main building and a remote chimney, this was to direct the noxious fumes away from the working areas. Llanlleiana means “church of the nuns” and the works were built on the site of a convent. They closed the works in 1920 after it was badly damaged by fire. In the fields behind the ruins are the remains of St Ana’s Church and on the headland above the works are the remains of the Dinas Gynfor Iron Age settlement. The curved walls to our left spills onto a shingle bay with a picnic table. No guesses then where we had our picnic. PiP Enjoy full screen. HWW, have a great day.

A little scene that grew on me (no pun intended) as we walked along what we call the Uppermill Canal some little time back. I liked the greenish colour cast of the wood harmonizing with the leaves to the stone and water. One for the wall and fence fans. Best full screen. HFF, enjoy the weekend. Herb

A fine example of the dry-stone walls here in Saddleworth, so prevalent in this area only a short distance from my home. See next photo for description of building them. Best full screen. HWW, enjoy the day.

How to build a wall to last a thousand years! Neither cement nor mortar needed, just weight, friction and knowhow. A few of you have seen various images of mine which included these very northern British traditional dry-stone walls. You may ask yourself – “why build a wall like this over a field in the middle of nowhere to keep a few cattle or sheep in the right field?” The answer might be in the British dogmatic pride - “If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing it well!” however a few practicalities are also at play here. First of all, wood in these areas was in short supply or in landowners hands that would not allow the use of much, whilst stone was available under much of these hills. The walls also had a very practical purpose for the animals, especially the sheep which were the main livestock here. Our winters were often very harsh, especially here in these high hills and the sheep could and did, take shelter behind the sturdy windproof walls. These walls were live-savers to them and so a farmers friend. Another real point is that, when a farmer constructed these walls, he was planning ahead for generations of his family not to have to build them again. This taken on a walk near the Saddleworth villages of Delph and Diggle, about three miles from my home. Local quarried, grit-stone cut blocks here, maybe hundreds of years old. Most of these will have been shaped by hand with hand-tools. The expert who is building this wall will search through all the stones to find the best and closest fit to the next adjacent stones on the wall. The whole construction starts quite wide and slowly tapers upwards –he is using these metal guides but often it is all done by eye with no clever aids like these. Smaller pieces and rubble often fill the gaps between the two separate stone sides and then thinner (but still heavy) stones are laid edgewise along the top. The final weight of those, press downward and keeps the whole construction ‘rock’ steady! The main reason for these walls eventually failing is man’s intervention of climbing over them and pulling stones off or land movement itself. Once the top stones have been moved or removed the whole section of wall gets unstable. A nice example of these walls in the Pip and preceding photo. Have a good day.

Our penultimate full day of this busy two weeks in Scotland brings us to the Point of Stoer. Our car park is just a few hundred metres behind me and a steep climb brings me to this spot. As can be seen, the lighthouse out-buildings can now be rented as a holiday home. Tomorrow I shall post a more dramatic view. ‘Stoer Head Lighthouse was built on Stoer Head by brothers David and Thomas Stevenson in 1870. Although the lighthouse is relatively short (only 14 metres high) its elevation above sea level is 54 metres. A Principal Lightkeeper and an Assistant and their families lived at Stoer Head until the light became automated in 1978. They were quite self-sufficient and nearby you can see the remains of the former byre, stable, cow shed, pig house and cart shed all built for life at the lighthouse station. The Lightkeepers’ children were educated at Stoer Public School, however there were no senior schools in the county of Sutherland so the children had to continue their education away from the lighthouse at boarding school. Lightkeeping was a remote, lonely and hard existence. One task overruled everything: the light must burn at maximum intensity throughout the hours of darkness. During long winter nights, the need to constantly check everything and trim the lamp wicks every four hours was extremely demanding. The lighting system is an array of sealed-beam electric lamps, as used by locomotives for headlights. When daylight falls and rises between set levels a small light sensor automatically switches the banks of lights on and off. The light is monitored from the Northern Lighthouse Board’s offices in Edinburgh and is visited on a regular basis by a Retained Lighthouse Keeper. Once a year the Northern Lighthouse Board Technicians visit the light to carry out maintenance.’ (Northern Lighthouse Board). Have a good day.

Another dry-stone wall for you here. Taken from a very nice spot above the village of Langcliffe near Settle. The late light gives this photo a special feel as it reflects from the lime-stone and clouds. Enjoy full screen Have a good day.

It’s not often that I show wall murals on here but I make an exception for this that depicts a subject close to my heart: railways. This is a Class 155 Super Sprinter belonging to the Northern, Trans Pennine Express company, almost in the Ukrainian flag colours. The building that it is painted on stands just in front of the main Rochdale to Manchester line in an area known as Castleton, Rochdale. These exact trains currently run up and down this line. Enjoy full size and have a good week. Our thoughts reach out to Ukraine.

A look at this old castle at Saddell on the Mull of Kintyre. This is in fact the back of the castle which on this day was better lit than the front. Nowadays it is rented out by the Landmark Trust but this has a really significant history. The original castle was built in the 12th century but the current castle was built in the 1508 with further major restoration and repairs c 1774. The castle served as a bastion for the MacDonald family and several MacDonald lords resided here. The PiP shows the small bridge only a hundred or so metres from this spot. Have a good day

Having walked along the sea-cliffs of this 'Children of Lir' loop (just beyond the top edge here), we come finally to a strange structure, namely the ‘Children of Lir’ sculpture. In truth we knew this was here as it denoted our turn-around point but we expected something more in the way of a ‘traditional’ sculpture. We found nothing explaining how these walls and bits represented elements of the story: The Children of Lir sculpture - one of a series from the Spirit of Place Sculpture Trail which centres on culturally-distinct, historic, unspoiled and isolated regions around the world. The sculpture has significance to this area from where thousands of people have emigrated in the past to all parts of the world – bringing with them a strong spirit of place – but never to return. The legend of The Children of Lir tells the tale of children who were turned into swans and condemned to wander the countryside for 900 years, 300 of these were spent on the north Mayo Island, Inishglora, 300 on Lough Derravaragh and 300 years in the Sea of Moyle (above County Antrim) . More info on the legend: www.irishcentral.com/roots/irish-myth-children-lir-swan-lake We were to visit the northern spot with another storyboard near Bushmills on our second week here. Inishglora Isand can just about be seen (I think) in the PiP photo. Have a good day.

Another look at this Island lighthouse sat on top of a high headland. Operating since 1849, It had two unique features, twin lights and explosive charges instead of a fog-horn. Both these features have now been superseded but the main light is still in automatic operation. See PiP for high view. More info: www.irishlights.ie/tourism/our-lighthouses/rathlin-east.aspx Have a great day. Herb

Along Hebdon Water in Hardcastle Crags there stands, quite hidden, a small structure bedecked with moss. My wife calls it the Elves house as she is sure she heard a small tuneful tinkling sound from within whilst passing, Enjoy this autumn scene in full screen. Enjoy the day.

An old walk back to Digley Reservoir near Holmfirth Yorkshire takes us alongside this wall. The attractive thing here is the berries on this Rowan tree. The other trees are just turning yellow and gold before the winds come, and before we know it they will be all bare. Have a great day. Herb

Almost looking like it could have been built just a few years go, this is the village view of its high walls and towers. It is still intact and inhabited today and is a very popular tourist destination. Just at the base of the walls near the white van is the village cricket field. Not many chances of broken windows by the cricket ball in that side of the castle. Nice full screen. - Contrast this view with the sand-side PiP view. Have a great day.

Seen on the lane to the village of Holme near Holmfirth in Yorkshire. Showing a collection of dry stone walls. Have a great day