East Shore Cairn

This area of Holy Island, beyond Lindisfarne Castle, lies the North Shore, which in turn is mad up of thousands of reasonable flat stones that ware ideal for building cairns. A cairn is a man-made structure of stones. The word Cairn comes from Scotland rooted in the Gaelic cârn or in the plural câirn. Cairns can be found all over the world and in many places. on the beach, beside rivers, hill tops, mountain passes, on moorlands. They can be found in places like the Orkneys, where they were very part of the landscape to mark the burial sites of noblemen and women. As part of a sepulchral monument, like Meashowe. Cairns are not a modern day wonder, but as a simple pile of stones continue from neolithic times to now inspire humanity of all ages to marvel, but also to build their own.

I first came across cairn when I was attending an Outward Bound Course for a month in September 1973 at Eskdale. They were often used as a means of finding our way on ridge path up in the mountains. Some of the stone would be painted in order for the to stand out, and in some countries the painting of the stones would be for religious reasons. However, cairns have in ancient time been used to mark borders of territory, or for astronomical purposes.

The evening I took this picture I watched a young photographer, just below the castle, who I later found out, had been taking photographs for only seven years. His Mother watched patiently while he stood on stones to get that perfect shot of the sea gentle lapping a stoney seashore, which in turn meant he got wet feet for his art. His enthusiasm reminded me of myself at his age, as I engaged with the environment around me, to become the next “David Bailey”. After almost thirty minutes, of watching and hearing about his growing need for a better camera and computer software, I left them to it and went off to walk up to the North Shore, where the previous evening in the failing light could just make out a long line of piled stones.

It was worth the walk to see these structures and how they were made. Watching others use their fledgling skills as they built their piles only to see them topple over and the rebuilding to start again. Finally, the structure stood up to the northernly wind and stayed up right to be photographed and immortalised.

Once I had the beach to myself, and the setting sun behind me, I got to my knees and knelt before this unusual cairn. Someone with imagination had built this. It stood about a meter high and having these “legs” as a base made it stand out for me. It stood proud along with all the other cairns on the north shore. Looking. Waiting. Watching for the end of day, knowing that the dawn would be here soon enough.

The background was rather dull and uninteresting by the time I managed to take the image and after talking again to this young photographer on my way back, I was taken aback when it was suggested I could change the background. I do hope that this is not what is being taught in schools these days that photographs can be changed to suit the mood.

However, since the advent of the every growing raw power of computers and super software. then changing the mood of photographs have become easier. it is said that a lot of our models these days are “air-brushed” before the final image is printed in order to make them look more perfect. This seeking for perfection in images has become common place, again with the coming of HD (High-definition) televisions, camera, handheld video-recorders, laptops, and handheld devices all having HD screens. We have become expectant consumers, because that is all there is. I am not bemoaning the technology, but simple saying that we have to be careful about how we acknowledge how photographers are taking photographs and displaying them. True light and real images makes of breaks our trust in picture. We have accepted that magazines might “air-brush” image to give a better impact for the reader. However, this evening I was, tempted to change the background for this cairn, and replace it with another sky-line, but in reality, this is the blip for the day, and this is how it was taken with light failing and a rubbish background that may seem uninteresting, but at least it is natural: the cairn is the key and nothing else.