My walk this week visits an ancient graveyard in Scotland. Initially I went to see my grandparents and aunt and uncle’s graves, pay my respects and enjoy the rural location.
The graveyard they occupy is not so ancient but the original church and graveyard are less than a minute walk up the country road and it is the most fascinating place!
The minister there, back in the day, was clearly a notable person if the inscription attached above the church entrance is to understood:Continue reading
This walk for the “Our Gower” project extends beyond Bishopston Valley to the beach at Pwll Du, but I thought I would present some of the details of the valley which, with the dry weather of the second project day in the valley, allowed us to explore and photograph more easily.
We also recorded some of the sounds of the thickly wooded valley and made notes about the atmosphere of the place – how it made us feel, what its colours and textures were like and something of the history and geography of the environment. For instance, Guzzle HoleContinue reading
The second of the schools I walked with on the Our Gower project had no more luck with the weather than when we walked out on the marshes (see last weeks posts) – if anything, it was worse!
Bishopston Valley on South Gower is home to some wonderful ancient woodland . . . and when it is wet, it is also home to a great deal of mud. Despite the wet conditions (or perhaps because of them) everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. As well as Wellington boots, everyone had been givenContinue reading
My walk this week follows one of the routes we will be taking on a schools project this Autumn. A recce had to be made and a risk assessment done and in Bishopston Valley on the South Gower coast there are plenty of risks, particularly when it has been wet.
But nothing ventured, nothing gained and the young 13 and 14 year olds we will be taking along this exciting footpath will hopefully enjoy the challenge. Continue reading
Found on my walk this week in 2012, this arrangement of trees on top a Dorset hill seemed ancient and magical. I enjoy the formal espalier arrangements of trees that we often create with fruit trees and I like the formal pattern of tree avenues in France, but this is something different again and seems like very typically English.Continue reading
My walk this week’s actually taken a couple of years ago but as I am going to be in the same area again over the next week or two, it seemed a good time to post about our visit to the chambered tomb of Cairnholy in Scotland. I don’t have any field recording from this walk so I am afraid there will be no soundscape this week.
The weather on this walk could have been better but was not so bad to stop us going and the walk up the small road towards the ancient site was very attractive in itself.
If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.
I have had a couple of walks in Carmarthenshire recently in spite of wet weather. During these excursions I found this dinosaur-like mossy monster. I don’t know if this woodland should be described as ancient, but it certainly seemed like it to me, and with this “creature” lurking there it seemed even more as though I had gone back in time.
Complementary images to my walks this week can be found directly on Instagram or via the sidebar images on the StillWalks blog. Images displayed here and on Instagram are a mixture of iPhone and Canon DSLR photography.
The structure and purpose is basically the same even if the name and end product is different. The first photo shows an oven inside the walls of Carreg Cennen Castle. The second shows two of a set of three linked lime kilns situated outside the main walls of the castle.
