remembrance sunday

...this morning - and what a beautiful morning it was - we drove down to Portland Bill, with our guests, to enjoy a walk that encompassed a large section of the Portland Coast Path, which, in turn, forms part of the South West Coast Path.

Portland Bill's newest and still operational lighthouse was constructed in 1869 and is located near to the very southernmost tip of the Isle of Portland. There is, however, another Trinity House structure that sits right above the rocks and sea at the tip itself. This stone obelisk bears the initials TH (Trinity House, not Thomas Hardy) and its construction date, 1844. The obelisk was built to warn seafarers of the dangerous rock shelf that extends further out to sea beneath the waves. There are two other, former, lighthouses on Portland Bill. One is now a bird observatory and the other is a private dwelling.

Of course there is something else that the Isle of Portland is particularly famous for - stone. Portland Stone is a beautiful, highly fossiliferous, oolitic limestone that has been quarried for centuries and has been used to build or face some of the best known buildings in the world. From 1675 until 1717, Sir Christopher Wren was responsible for Portland's quarries, so he was well aware of the stone's structural and architectural qualities before choosing it to build St. Paul's Cathedral. Edward Blore completed John Nash's design of Buckingham Palace and chose Portland stone for the facade facing The Mall that we are all so familiar with today. But it is not just London or other UK cities that are graced by this precious product of our planet's geological benevolence - there is the United Nations headquarters in New York City to name just one of the many international examples. But, on this Sunday, 11th November, there has to be one monument that stands out above all others - the Whitehall Cenotaph.

My contre jour image was taken just after midday from one of the quarry benches looking past one of the many preserved old gantry cranes, that were used to load stone onto boats moored below, to the lighthouse and obelisk beyond...