Solstice and That
Wednesday this week was the summer solstice here in the northern hemisphere, so I made my annual (i.e. I did it last year too) pilgrimage to our local bronze age bowl barrow Round Loaf, tucked away high atop Anglezarke moor.
I hung around up there until sunset (enjoyable, but not the best pictorially as it turned out, with unexpected intervention by the Irish Sea fog bank, well, I didn't see that coming? #sarcasm), chatted to a couple of other blokes who were also up there and then headed back to Heapey moor and White Coppice in the fading twilight.
By the time I reached Heapey moor, I realised I was no longer carrying the natty little inflatable cushion I'd been sitting on. I was annoyed that I'd lost it as I'd only bought it at the weekend and it's a neat bit of kit that folds up to something the size of a handkerchief which unfortunately means it can be placed in a pocket rather than put away properly, somewhere where it wont get dropped, but it was getting dark and I didn't really have the energy to trek back onto Anglezarke moor to look for it (see also it was getting dark), so instead I continued back to White Coppice and decided to return the day after, assuming I was feeling up to it.
The next evening I was feeling pretty good and headed back out onto the moors. It was a bit warm and I wasn't really in the mood to be up there for the 2nd night in a row, so instead of stopping every 10 paces to take a picture as I usually do, I just yomped along as quickly as my calcified heart would allow, following Black Brook up onto Heapey moor and then crossing the stream onto Anglezarke moor once I'd reached the path I'd used the previous night. I followed that path up the moor towards Round Loaf and there, about 150 yards from Lancashire's favourite mound of earth was the neatly folded seat, sitting there pristine amongst the peat.
Finding it changed my mood and, as it was a nice night and I'd already come so far, I proceeded up to Round Loaf and then, surprising myself, instead of taking the shortest route back, decided to follow a different path East, which leads towards Great Hill where I then looped back over the hill instead of taking the easier route around its base.
Both turned out to be highly enjoyable walks on lovely evenings and it's nice to feel like I'm properly getting back up onto the moors again.
I've included pictures from both walks here, they're more or less in chronological order as the 2nd night images logically fit after the 1st night ones because most of those were taken on the return from Round Loaf and most of the first night images were taken on the way out to Round Loaf. Having said that, the final image is from the first night as it visually bookends the lot of them.
All images taken hand held with either the Nikon Z7 + 24-70 f/2.8S, quite likely with a CPL, and also with the Fujifilm X-H2 + XF50-150 f/2.8 with it's oh so reliable autofocus (there was much cursing as it plainly missed focus on way too many occasions, a shame, because when it works, it can produce lovely images). All processed from single raw files in Capture One Pro 23. The last image was also run through Topaz AI as it was a bit noisy and smudgy due to high-ish ISO hijinks.
1. White Coppice
This was taken looking back from the top of the quarry at White Coppice, before I disappeared over the top and onto the moors.
2. Black Brook Gorge
Looking back along the gorge with the X-H2. The mormon temple can be seen in the distance (I often refer to this, because it's one of the few recognisable landmarks around here). The colours were somewhat muddy on this shot, so I ended up playing around with the Fuji film sim settings in C1 to find a look that I liked. I ended up using "Classic Negative", which gives it a sort of faded film look that seemed to complement this image.
3. On The Path To Grain Pole Hill
Taken a little further along the path that leads up to Grain Pole Hill.
4. The Black Coppice Boundary Wall
This is the boundary wall around Black Coppice. It runs up from Stronstrey Bank before turning a corner at the base of Grain Pole Hill and then descending down into the Black Brook gorge. A similar wall runs around White Coppice and can be see on the opposite side of the gorge where it passes the Hawthorn tree at Coppice Stile house.
5. You Can See Blackpool Tower From Here
You can indeed see Blackpool tower from here, but the soft light on the rolling fields in the foreground was way more appealing to my eyes.
6. Sheepish Behaviour at Hurst Hill Summit
7. Backlit Grass
8. Great Hill and Round Loaf
Here I'm stood at the top of the path leading down from Hurst Hill towards Round Loaf (on the right), with Great Hill looming a bit on the horizon.
9. Round Loaf and Hurst Hill
At this point we jump to the 2nd evening's images. This was taken after setting off from Round Loaf in a completely different direction to the way I went the night before. On the previous evening, I had intended making a bit of a dog leg out more or less in this direction to get to a spot looking down on Round Loaf with Hurst Hill as the sun was setting, but I didn't really have the time to scout it out. The sun isn't setting in this shot, but I like the general ambience anyway.
10. Heapey Moor
This is looking across to Heapey Moor from Anglezarke Moor. The treeline in the foreground runs alongside Black Brook and is a nice place to explore in itself. The return path I took on the previous evening crosses Black Brook around the middle of this row of trees. The trees in the distance on the right are at the Drinkwater's farm ruin, which the small lump on the horizon to the left of the main tree line is Coppice Stile.
11. The Forgotten Farms of Heapey Moor
This shot contains four of the five farm ruins located on Heapey Moor. From left to right, these are; Coppice Stile house, Grime's, Drinkwater's and Great Hill farm. Heapey Moor farm is hidden by the Drinkwater's plantation close to the middle of the image. This was taken on the boundary between Anglezarke moor and Heapey moor in the shallow gorge of a tributary that eventually leads into Black Brook. With the soft light and deliberately shallow depth of field (shot at f/2.8, so nothing it particularly crisp) this has a bit of a dreamlike quality to my eyes.
12. The Summit of Great Hill
It's been a while since I was last up here. It's good to be back.
13. On The Path To Drinkwater's
I've taken quite a few shots from this path over the years, but I think this might be my favourite. A very slight nudge of the white balance green/magenta slider has been applied to the sky.
14. Last Light at Drinkwater's Plantation
As I reached the Drinkwater's plantation, the sun was hitting the horizon, but this impressive tree was still basking in the last few of its rays. You can see the plantation from a distance on some of the previous images (specifically #10 and #11). The main moorland path runs right by it, but unusually the plantation is bounded by a low wire fence. It wouldn't take much effort to get over it, but I've never felt the compulsion as the trees there have an air of menace about them. I often (whimsically) wonder if the fence is there to keep us out or them in.
15. From Coppice Stile to The Moon
This was taken on the night of the Solstice as I made my way across Heapey Moor towards Coppice Stile house, denoted by the tree on the horizon. Apparently the bright star to the left of the crescent moon is Venus. This was taken around 22:20 (the EXIF is out by an hour, presumably as we're currently rocking BST rather than GMT for reasons) and it was pretty dark.
