Herb Riddle's photos

Our penultimate full day of this busy two weeks in Scotland brings us to the Point of Stoer. Our car park is just a few hundred metres behind me and a steep climb brings me to this spot. As can be seen, the lighthouse out-buildings can now be rented as a holiday home. Tomorrow I shall post a more dramatic view. ‘Stoer Head Lighthouse was built on Stoer Head by brothers David and Thomas Stevenson in 1870. Although the lighthouse is relatively short (only 14 metres high) its elevation above sea level is 54 metres. A Principal Lightkeeper and an Assistant and their families lived at Stoer Head until the light became automated in 1978. They were quite self-sufficient and nearby you can see the remains of the former byre, stable, cow shed, pig house and cart shed all built for life at the lighthouse station. The Lightkeepers’ children were educated at Stoer Public School, however there were no senior schools in the county of Sutherland so the children had to continue their education away from the lighthouse at boarding school. Lightkeeping was a remote, lonely and hard existence. One task overruled everything: the light must burn at maximum intensity throughout the hours of darkness. During long winter nights, the need to constantly check everything and trim the lamp wicks every four hours was extremely demanding. The lighting system is an array of sealed-beam electric lamps, as used by locomotives for headlights. When daylight falls and rises between set levels a small light sensor automatically switches the banks of lights on and off. The light is monitored from the Northern Lighthouse Board’s offices in Edinburgh and is visited on a regular basis by a Retained Lighthouse Keeper. Once a year the Northern Lighthouse Board Technicians visit the light to carry out maintenance.’ (Northern Lighthouse Board). Have a good day.

One of our local Saddleworth villages here with its brand new Saddleworth secondary school in the last throws of construction. The other day I posted some high shots from a spot called Harrop Edge. We are looking towards that here and my dry-stone -wall photos taken from the point indicted in the PiP ( This school is just to the left of that picture.) Of course the horses are the stars here and we see some with head protection covers, I presume against fly infection. Enjoy full screen.

A winter scene from my local Alexandra Park here. Another from the archives (2008) but still standing the test of time – I think. Not a time to sit here today but in summer it is a very nice place for a read or rest. Best viewed full size. Have a great day.

Taken in the St Mary's Churchyard at Church Houses, North Yorkshire. A splendid church in a beautiful location but with a touch of Alfred Hitchcock here, by me. (Sorry!) Enjoy full screen.

We are on the tiny Chapel-Porth beach in Cornwall. There are a few sea caves along the bottom of the cliffs only accessible at low tide by foot. This is commonly known as Smugglers Cave but I find no real evidence to support that, however I have read that a large cave was used here at the beginning of World War 1 to hide two heavy horses, to prevent them being requisitioned by the army. - Albert was the prized lead horse of a team that hauled machinery to and from Cornish mines, while Captain was a farm horse. Enjoy full screen.

Despite very strong winds we still make the effort to take exercises at least twice a week. Here we are back again at Piethorne reservoir not too far from home, walking along the dam wall with the water to our left. The girl with her wind blown hair-do and the dog on a lead gives us an extra bit of attention and perhaps a smile amongst this plethora of fences. See PiP for the full reservoir scene. Enjoy full screen and have a great weekend.

A panoramic stitch of four photos showing the two reservoirs here (Upper and Lower Castleshaw). One of our favourite walks follows the valley from left to right and over the far end dam wall before retracing our path back. It is always somewhat muddy and damp but quite beautiful too. “Castleshaw Roman fort was a castellum in the Roman province of Britannia. Although there is no evidence to substantiate the claim, it has been suggested that Castleshaw Roman fort is the site of Rigodunum, a Brigantian settlement.” Best full screen and zoomed. Not sure how Ipernity has calculated this at 15.8mm as the 4 shots were 38mm each.

A view from last year when we took a walk in quite a different little area just a few miles from here. It’s at a place near Carrbrook Reservoir, just following the little stream up valley and the we came to this. Enjoy full size.

Another view as we head south between Handa Island and LochInver. We see our road below us but the stars are once again the mountains of Canisp (covered by cloud on the left) and Suilven on the right. Contrast this view with almost the same shot taken earlier in the day travelling north. What a difference a bit of sun makes. See that same photo description for more info. PiP Enjoy full size.

Taken outside the little church of Parroquia De Santa Ana in the small village of Altea Le Vella on the Costa Blanca in Spain. This gentleman told me he had come to sit on here every day for the past forty years. We sat bsides him as we ate our picnic. Snapped in 2018 when the world seemed a more restful place. Best viewed full size. Have a great day.

A view to the Cornish village of St Agnes from St Agnes Beacon. We are looking north-east here over Trevaunance Cove. Centre stage is the old tin mine of Wheal Kitty, now a living museum. (see pip bottom left) This hill we could see from our holiday cottage windows and was barely a 50 minute walk from the front door. Of course we have pretty typical weather for October but it was to improve later in the day. Enjoy full screen

A view from above Drumbeg in Sutherland showing us the wild nature of the coast around here. Full screen viewing advised.

A colourful view of the famous mile here at Blackpool taken some years back. The tower has long since been restored to its former glory. It is in its ballroom that we have enjoyed a few tea dances. To the right of this fence you can see glimpses of the tramway pylons and a tiny part of the illuminations that are switched on every September. Enjoy full screen and have a great weekend.

We are in Sutherland, a historic county in the Highlands of Scotland. We have travelled some miles south of Handa Island but the scenery remains wild and wonderful. The NC 500: The Scottish 'North Coast 500' is one of the world’s most beautiful road trips. A route of just over 500 miles (516) of stunning coastal scenery, white sandy beaches, rugged mountains, remote fishing villages and hidden gems. Enjoy full screen

How to build a wall to last a thousand years! Neither cement nor mortar needed, just weight, friction and knowhow. A few of you have seen various images of mine which included these very northern British traditional dry-stone walls. You may ask yourself – “why build a wall like this over a field in the middle of nowhere to keep a few cattle or sheep in the right field?” The answer might be in the British dogmatic pride - “If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing it well!” however a few practicalities are also at play here. First of all, wood in these areas was in short supply or in landowners hands that would not allow the use of much, whilst stone was available under much of these hills. The walls also had a very practical purpose for the animals, especially the sheep which were the main livestock here. Our winters were often very harsh, especially here in these high hills and the sheep could and did, take shelter behind the sturdy windproof walls. These walls were live-savers to them and so a farmers friend. Another real point is that, when a farmer constructed these walls, he was planning ahead for generations of his family not to have to build them again. This taken on a walk near the Saddleworth villages of Delph and Diggle, about three miles from my home. Local quarried, grit-stone cut blocks here, maybe hundreds of years old. Most of these will have been shaped by hand with hand-tools. The expert who is building this wall will search through all the stones to find the best and closest fit to the next adjacent stones on the wall. The whole construction starts quite wide and slowly tapers upwards –he is using these metal guides but often it is all done by eye with no clever aids like these. Smaller pieces and rubble often fill the gaps between the two separate stone sides and then thinner (but still heavy) stones are laid edgewise along the top. The final weight of those, press downward and keeps the whole construction ‘rock’ steady! The main reason for these walls eventually failing is man’s intervention of climbing over them and pulling stones off or land movement itself. Once the top stones have been moved or removed the whole section of wall gets unstable. A nice example of these walls in the Pip and preceding photo. Have a good day.

A fine example of the dry-stone walls here in Saddleworth, so prevalent in this area only a short distance from my home. See next photo for description of building them. Best full screen. HWW, enjoy the day.

We are on the way back south after our visit to Handa Island and a detour takes us along a very scenic road near the hamlets of Drumbeg and Nedd with views north towards Loch Dhrombaig and Eddrachillis Bay. This is wild country and it takes a lot of will power, work and luck to survive for any length of time here. An old dwelling, long since abandoned testifies to this and makes us wonder. Enjoy full screen

Grange-over-sands is the setting for this seat. It lies almost invisible to the far east of the town just about on the promenade. To the far distance we are looking towards Barrow-in-Furness. An inviting area of Morcambe Bay sands contradict the fact that this area of sand is very dangerous with hidden quicksand’s and a superfast tide race. Best viewed full size.