Yes, it’s another Sheepfold!

Just when you thought I had exhausted the whole sheepfold idea, here is another one.

It was one that I had particularly wanted to see but, as it meant venturing into the Southern Lake District, we left it until we could be sure that at least some of the crowds of visitors might have gone home.

Slate Fold, Tilberthwaite near Coniston

This sheepfold is opposite a huge slate quarry, now disused. It is a large fold with slate work on each wall. This picture shows just one wall, as I wanted to highlight the way the stone has been layered. The layers in each circle are positioned at a different angle, to give the idea of a turning clock. There are more pictures of the walls and the whole fold here.

Andy Goldsworthy had used slate in his work before this and, in particular, the huge piles of debris from this particular quarry. He obviously likes this stone as a material with which to work:

The geological layering of slate gives it a powerful sense of linear flow. No stone has taught me as much as slate. It is a material with many different qualities – smooth along the grain, yet razor-like across it, easy to split, responsive to water and light. there is no stone more alive than slate as a material to work with.

As I sat in the sun and played about with some pieces from the huge pile, I began to see, or feel, what he meant.