With Christmas and full lockdown looming, I had one final short outing in 2020. My final holiday of the year was taken and I set off early, staying in what was then all tier three as per the guidance, to watch the sun come up over Cawfields Quarry.
I'd never been here before, most of my trips to Hadrian's Wall had been to the area around Crag Lough, but this looked a promising place for photography and so it turned out to be as I ended up most pleased with my shots from the morning.
Blue Hour
Cawfields Quarry
Empire of the Sun
Roman Morning
With the best of the dawning light over I returned to the car, dumped most of my camera equipment in the boot, and set off along the wall with Hughie who was most relived that the standing about behind a camera and tripod was over.
Part two of the morning involved wandering up to the high point on the wall, Winshield Crags, before making my way back to the car by lunchtime as I had things to do in the afternoon.
Milecastle 42
...and again from higher up
Forgotten
Blinded by the light
The overhead cloud which had helped with this morning's photography was now lowering as we climbed higher and before long we were wandering in poor visibility up to the trig point.
The Old Ways
Contemplation
We found a suitable rock on the summit and sat and had some breakfast. I wasn't really expecting much to happen but gradually there were slight hints of the cloud lifting so we hung about and waited for a while to be rewarded by the sun breaking up the fog to give us the second treat of the day following the sunrise.
Light starting to break on Winshield Crags summit
Mist Lifting from the Wall
Looking South
Sun breaking through on the trig point
To the West
Emerging
Hazy glow over the Wall
We slowly wandered back along the wall enjoying the views in the beautiful winter light to cap off a splendid short outing, and a most welcome break from the drudgery of work and dismal news.
Golden Wall
Edge of Empire
Mist just about cleared
Winter Skies
Zoomed view to the West
Looking over Caw Gap
Back at Cawfields
