Where to go..

Sometimes when I leave home to go and take photographs I don't actually have a destination in mind.

Although I suppose the high crags part of Hadrian's Wall doesn't cover that many miles, the way the land form is means the conditions can differ dramatically mile by mile.

As I head through Greenhead and up Glenwhelt Bank I always have a sense of anticipation. Of course I have favourite spots but it seems to me the list of favourites changes almost as much as the weather. At the moment it seems to be the area around Cawfields that draws me, and so it was when I last set out for a sunset.

This time I parked at Caw Gap and headed west along the Wall to the high point above Thorny Doors. NY724669

What I particularly like about this spot is the fact you have a good view east or west, because while the sun set to the west often, in the best pantomime traditionfind the best cloud colour is 'behind you'.

When I did this stretch of walk with the archaeologist I spoke of imagining the soldiers who built the Wall and on these lovely nights my imagination runs wild.

I'd thought the Wall had a finished height of 2 metres, but no it was actually 12 metres high, up on the ramparts it must have been like being on top of the world.

Oh, for a time machine - to view Hadrian's Wall as it was when new, golden stones catching the rays of the setting sun, soldiers on patrol, locals going about their business feeling protected.

It's amazing to touch the stones adding your 'layer' to all those other hands that have touched that same stone, down through 1800 years since it was first laid in place. As a little aside I was also told the Romans didn't have wheelbarrows, so that's a lot of stone to haul about manually.

I'm a romantic, I know but places do have an atmosphere and for me the atmosphere here at Cawfields is always a happy one.

Come see for yourself :)

Catch you later.