The Needles

Today, it being so fantastically hot and blue, I decided to take my camera out for the day.  Went to the Island again, but this time to Yarmouth and then caught a bus to Freshwater Bay (see mono in Extras) and the Needles.  Very big wow factor and of course my blip for the day.
 
The whole site, I thought, was not just spectacular but incredibly interesting.  Lots of concrete and military detritus, as well as the coastguard station (see second Extra).  Between 1956 and 1971 the Needles headland was used as a rocket testing site for the ‘Black Knight’ and ‘Black Arrow’ rockets.  They  were eventually test launched at Woomera.  Lucky Aussies, bet you guys were thrilled.
 
The lighthouse was built in 1859 and is still in use (though unmanned now).  Two years after it was built a military fortification (The Old Battery) was built on the headland and in 1895 the New Battery was built higher up because it was feared the Old Battery couldn’t take the weight of the larger newer guns and would fall into the sea.  There are four coastguard cottages up here (now owned by the NT) as well as the manned coastguard station.
 
Altogether a pretty amazing day.  Apologies to all you world’s workers, but I do hope your day was good too  xx