Sunday, 20 July 2008
Saturday, 19 July 2008
Longest day, even longer night...
Got really wet walking from Rothbury to Simon side and back. Took an umberella and was really glad of it.
Met a really nice couple out walking their three terriers, one staffie and one siamese cat...
Went to the forestry commission carl park and decided not to go all the way up along the ridge but to walk along the road to Lordenshaws car park. It was really looking dodgy up on the tops and I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, especially on my own.
I came across one jogger and three cyclists on my way to the car park, wished them happy solstice , think they thought I was a bit strange.
It looked really bad weatherwise but I headed up the path.... however common sense prevailed and I turned back. There was no way I was going to find the solstice rock in those conditions and there certainly wasn't a peak of sunshine to shine through it anyway.
I slopped my way back to Rothbury on quite a pleasant route past some interesting little wooden chalets and was very glad to get back to my wee room and take off my soggy gear. I was absolutely knackered and took a hot bath in the 'interesting' bathroom.
Meanwhile things were really hotting up downstairs in the bar, the music got louder and louder and LOUDER, sceeching and catterwalling masses slammed in and out of the front door which my room was oh so conveiniently positioned above.
Around mid night I was begining to seriously regret my choice of accomodation, I locked my door and tried to read my book.
In my mind scenes from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights were being re enacted below my bed chamber, finally at two AM peace descended upon the Newcastle Hotel.....
Met a really nice couple out walking their three terriers, one staffie and one siamese cat...
Went to the forestry commission carl park and decided not to go all the way up along the ridge but to walk along the road to Lordenshaws car park. It was really looking dodgy up on the tops and I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, especially on my own.
I came across one jogger and three cyclists on my way to the car park, wished them happy solstice , think they thought I was a bit strange.
It looked really bad weatherwise but I headed up the path.... however common sense prevailed and I turned back. There was no way I was going to find the solstice rock in those conditions and there certainly wasn't a peak of sunshine to shine through it anyway.
I slopped my way back to Rothbury on quite a pleasant route past some interesting little wooden chalets and was very glad to get back to my wee room and take off my soggy gear. I was absolutely knackered and took a hot bath in the 'interesting' bathroom.
Meanwhile things were really hotting up downstairs in the bar, the music got louder and louder and LOUDER, sceeching and catterwalling masses slammed in and out of the front door which my room was oh so conveiniently positioned above.
Around mid night I was begining to seriously regret my choice of accomodation, I locked my door and tried to read my book.
In my mind scenes from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights were being re enacted below my bed chamber, finally at two AM peace descended upon the Newcastle Hotel.....
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.
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.
Soggy Solstice
It's been a while since I had the following encounters, for one reason or another I just haven't had time to put all this up on the blog before now.
Since my last blog entry I decided that I wanted to go back up to the site I"ve being thinking about most during this project, Simonside Hills nr Rothbury, for the weekend of the longest day, Summer Solstice in fact.
I booked myself into a pub B+B in Rothbury for Saturday and Sunday night and arranged to meet with Chris Jones NNP archaeologist on the Monday morning.
My main reason for going was to hunt out some suitable rocks to photograph and measure. Since being informed that carving onto the rocks up on Simonside is not permitted I have been thinking about the interpretation and representation of history or heritage alot. This also ties in with my current day job, which is information assistant at Killhope Lead Mining Centre. One of my tasks in this job is to guide people down part of the lead mine, it takes about an hour and is as you might expect, dark and wet. However one of the most surprising things I discovered when training for the job is that a large part of the tour takes place in a completely fake or replica mine. Due to health and safety and other visitor comfort considerations the centre built a big concrete box underground and connected to the real mine level. Inside the box they employed specialists to recreate features from various lead mines in fibre glass, which we walk through whilst telling people various tales of old.
This has obviously been on my mind. I point out the fakeness of the mine to all visitors, by the way, it doesn't seem to detract from their experience. It sort of bothers me and at the same time I love the idea of being inside this giant sculpture or Dr Who set.
Any how the reason for this little story is I started to think if I can't have a real rock maybe I'll have a fake one. I am currently in contact with one if the guys who worked on the Killhope mine, hence rock hunting, he needs plenty of photos in order to do a good job, and he is good. Check out his work is the three rocks above this posting Robin Burch rocks one, two and three.
Since my last blog entry I decided that I wanted to go back up to the site I"ve being thinking about most during this project, Simonside Hills nr Rothbury, for the weekend of the longest day, Summer Solstice in fact.
I booked myself into a pub B+B in Rothbury for Saturday and Sunday night and arranged to meet with Chris Jones NNP archaeologist on the Monday morning.
My main reason for going was to hunt out some suitable rocks to photograph and measure. Since being informed that carving onto the rocks up on Simonside is not permitted I have been thinking about the interpretation and representation of history or heritage alot. This also ties in with my current day job, which is information assistant at Killhope Lead Mining Centre. One of my tasks in this job is to guide people down part of the lead mine, it takes about an hour and is as you might expect, dark and wet. However one of the most surprising things I discovered when training for the job is that a large part of the tour takes place in a completely fake or replica mine. Due to health and safety and other visitor comfort considerations the centre built a big concrete box underground and connected to the real mine level. Inside the box they employed specialists to recreate features from various lead mines in fibre glass, which we walk through whilst telling people various tales of old.
This has obviously been on my mind. I point out the fakeness of the mine to all visitors, by the way, it doesn't seem to detract from their experience. It sort of bothers me and at the same time I love the idea of being inside this giant sculpture or Dr Who set.
Any how the reason for this little story is I started to think if I can't have a real rock maybe I'll have a fake one. I am currently in contact with one if the guys who worked on the Killhope mine, hence rock hunting, he needs plenty of photos in order to do a good job, and he is good. Check out his work is the three rocks above this posting Robin Burch rocks one, two and three.
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