Orford Ness Nature Reserve: A Day on the Shingle Spit

We visited Orford Ness yesterday and had wonderful day on the Shingle Spit.

We first visited Orford Ness 9 years ago and it was interesting to return.

The National Trust have decided to allow the buildings to be taken over by nature as the war buildings were not the significant reason for the purchase of the land.

In the 9 years since we were there last a lot of the laboratories and pagodas are now ready to collapse and are out of bounds.

The lighthouse that once stood on the edge of the spit was also removed a couple years ago as it was close to falling into the sea.

Orford Ness is a wonderful nature reserve, where nature has been allowed to reclaim the land but you cannot escape the secret military use of the spit.

Although a glorious day, I decided to honour the spirit of the military establishment and shot the whole day in black and white using my Olympus Pen F.

This is one of my favourite photos of the day and I will share more (when Lightroom decides to sync my photos! #gggrrr).

Whilst on top of one of the watchtowers, we observed a pack of Hares running across the Spit.

I have never seen a pack of Hares before (only individual ones), so this was a rare sight.

I was still shooting in black and white which was a shame as this video could have been better, but you get the idea…