Soggy Solstice continued

OK, I digressed into the world of fake rock for a moment there....

Back to Simonside at Solstice time.

I kept a journal of the three days I was in and around Rothbury so I will use extracts of that to create this posting.

"twenty first June tweleve thirty ish

The Longest Day:
Up to Simonside again got here about ten thirty decided to go straight to Hills and take a look around Garleigh Moor which is to the side of where the cup and ring marks are but has a trig point and a cairn on Garleigh Hill.

Garleigh Craggs are most imposing and I come back to the thoughts I keep having about Picnic at Hanging Rock. Whilst driving here I took some photos of Simoneside froma distance and thought about "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" where the guy gets obsessed with the shape of the hill. Because I want to capture my first sighting of it , the characteristic shape, I become quite a dangerous driver.......

I stopped near the turning to Fontburn reservoir this time and took a couple of shots with the SLR and tripod. Feels quite cumbersome carrying all this gear around with me, hope its worth it..

Car park is filling up with walkers and cyclists, but on one has chosen to explore the area I'm in, yet.

Took photos of trig point and cairn up on Garleigh Hill. Think there really is something to the fact that these two markers co exist in the landscape.

Walked along the top of hill towards Rothbury then down the fence line towards the hillfort, was stumbling about quite alot and very fortunately stumbled upon a patch of sundews, see photo.

Walked back up around the hillfort ....then the heavens opened.......

Whilst walking back to the carpark I came across a group of "hippies", joined them at the cup and ring marked rock and took their photo for them. Turned out they were from Newcastle and some of htem worked for Tyne and Wear museums. One girl, Naomi had previously worked at Killhope.... small world... "fake hippies" .... "fake rocks".....

Checked into my B + B, The Newcastle Hotel, then checked out Rothbury for a late lunch, still raining, but my husband sent me a message about a rock with a whole through it which is meant to line up with the solstice sun set. Will try to find out from rangers about this.