Walking the cliffs, part 1

Walking the cliffs Sept 8 2012


So at last we have the ‘Indian Summer’ we have all been promised. Today was one of the best days of the year. Every thing came together today, weather was great, no arrangements, didn’t have to see any one, go any where or do any thing. My eyesight is better than is has been since before surgery, I can still see the little black bubble but its quite small and sits at the bottom of my vision. And the weather is kind to my joints, they are just about as good as they are ever going to be. What to do?? I know, I’ll go for a walk along the cliffs. It must be a couple of years since my last walk along there and its definitely time to re-visit. I love walking the cliffs, it’s just not as easy as it used to be. When I sat down to sort through all my photos I realised todays’ little jaunt is going to be split into a couple of posts, far too many photos to put into one blog. 

To get there it’s a short walk from where I live, walk to the end of the road, down the track at the back of the pub, along the top of the park and over the footbridge. The foot bridge was particularly spectacular today. It’s an ordinary bridge but when the sun in high in the sky and the light is good, as they were today, the shadows make dramatic patterns across the path. At the end of the path is the signpost………..not that a sign post is needed, every one can see the path leads to the cliffs. 

The sea was blue and the tide was in which made viewing the old ‘swimming pool’ pretty easy. Its not a manufactured pool of course but a natural pool in the sea. It’s an inlet into the rock that once had a diving board and a wooden walkway out to it. It was very popular with the town folk until the lido was opened at the other end of the town in 1934.
 

Just around the corner from the old swimming pool you can see the ancient cart tracks on the rocky beach. These are a series of deep cut tracks carved into the rock by cartwheels at the base of the cliffs. These tracks were made as early as 1150 by horse drawn carts carrying stone. This is where much of the stone was quarried to build the Abbey, after that the stone continued to be used to build many of the houses in the town. 

After the ancient tracks, the path climbs a little giving good views of the sea. 
 

There are much worn footpaths down to lower parts of the cliffs, I used to go some way down but now I stick to the safer upper path. 

The tiny inlet is known as Mermaids Kirk, there used to be steep footpaths leading all the way down which were used by smugglers.
After The Mermaids Kirk you get to the Needle’s E’e. I was lucky that today was such a nice day there were quite a lot of people climbing over the Needle, this is where I started seriously wishing I had a good quality camera.  

I think that has to be top of my wish list for when I am officially retired; a decent camera so I can sit at the cliff top and watch what happened below.  After the Needle’s E’e more views of the sea below and then …. The fence!

There was a fence across the footpath with a notice saying the path was closed because it was dangerous. But, people being people, another pathway had been made by countless feet treading their way behind the fence. Half way across that little dirt path behind the fence, I saw the reason the main path was closed. 

A great chunk of pathway had fallen into the sea. That did look a bit scary, and it was less than a metre away !!
And that is just about all I can fit into one session. The next installment of my illustrated walk will follow asap.