A Recumbent Lady (or "Get off my boob!!")

Northumberlandia (the Lady of the North) is the world’s largest landform sculpture and is situated a few miles north of Newcastle. She (it?) is a figure of a recumbent naked lady, lying on her back. She was built several years ago as part of the restoration of the adjacent Shotton surface coal mine; she was officially opened by Princess Ann almost 5 years ago. She's made of 1.5 million tonnes of earth and rock so she's a pretty substantial lady (that's Northumberlandia, not Princess Ann, I hasten to clarify!!).

We've been meaning to visit her for ages, but when we asked my Dad where he'd like us to take him for a Fathers' Day outing he suggested Northumberlandia and we readily agreed. As my Dad can't walk all that far we didn't venture too far onto her, but it was fascinating to see her. We'll probably go back before long to climb right up onto her.

The best view is obtained from the air; we're lucky enough to have seen her from that angle once when flying into Newcastle airport on a day when the planes were approaching from the east.

In the photo you can see the profile of the head with the nose pointing skywards. To the right of that are her shapely breasts - the folks standing on these parts of her anatomy give a sense of scale.

(View large here.)