The Sinister Secrets of Orford Ness.

Writing my last post about Derek Jarman ’s garden at Dungeness led me to think about the uncommon shingle spits on our shore transmission line . In Orford Ness in Suffolk we have the just conserve shingle ridges in Europe containing 15 % of the world ’s vegetated shingle . These habitats are are as frail and as important as coral reefs .

Although it is actually a 10 - mile long peninsula , Orford Ness is known topically as ‘ the Island ’ and to visit it you have to take a sauceboat . Sarah atHomeslipblog asked me late if I had been and I had n’t , although it has been owned by the National Trust since 2003 , I had avoided it ; the spot spooked me . Before the N.T. took it over , it had a recollective chronicle as a secret facility own by the War Department .

On this lonely sea-coast , fable and myths are very much embedded in the scenery . There was the dreaded Hell - hound , Black Schuck who drift the Marsh . It was say that a sighting of him forebode decease . And then there was the Merman of Orford . Ever since my tiddler were small-scale , the sleepyheaded hamlet of Orford has been a favorite place to chit-chat . There is a little restaurant with its own smoke theater where you may eat smoked salmon , and delicious sea intellectual nourishment . The youngster , when they were young , never timeworn of scampering round the keep of the 12th century castle which is such a distinctive landmark . It is in reality 27 m in high spirits , despite my son ’s endeavor here , to make it depend as if it fits into the span of his script .

Orford Castle

Orford Castle

The fable which my child never stock of hearing is of a hirsute Merman which was catch in fishermens ’ nets sometime in the twelfth century . He was taken to the church building where he show no sign of piety and then he was taken to the rook where he would not verbalize English , although he was hung up by his animal foot and torture by means of boost . Yes , metrical unit . This was a unsatisfying sort of Merman , who ostensibly did not have a Pisces derriere . Eventually , he escaped and return to his abode in the sea .

The stories and hearsay about the mysterious experimentation on ‘ The Island ’ append another grade to the legend that are so much a part of the landscape here . There was talk of death beam , burn up eubstance turning up on the shoring , ufos and experiments with atomic artillery . The island take in from the quay look minatory .

Orford Castle

But root on on by Sarah ’s comment we decide to make a visit on Friday which was a glorious sunny Clarence Day . It seems leftover that the island is now in the bridge player of the National Trust , which you normally associate with noble homes , the dusty stay on of aristocratic art collections and of form , a nice cup of tea leaf with scones .

There is nothing cosy about this berth . You have to keep strictly to the pronounced paths . Everywhere there are signs that you wo n’t retrieve at any other N.T. holding .

After the war the site was mothball until the thirties when new secret experiments started with radio detection and ranging . The Black Beacon was build in 1928 to house a rotate loop seafaring beam . presumptively it was build to front like a disused aerogenerator for camouflage .

Orford Castle

Orford Castle

Black Beacon

The approaching to the ‘ island ’ is beautiful on a sunny August day .

In the 1950s and sixties , at the height of the Cold War paranoia , this was the most secret site in the state . The Atomic Weapons Research Establishment took it over to conduct their experiment in a series of six laboratories here . The site was guarded by a marvelous fence which was patrolled by man with guns and Canis familiaris . Today , the fence is rifle and you record into what was the most private part through rusted gates .

The land site HQ is now an information building but one did n’t feel like lingering over the displays .

The NT has adjudicate not to acquit the land site of all the grim reminders of what happened here . They will let everything gradually decay over sentence . There is so much rust stuff here , that I thought of Derek Jarman beachcombing for rusty found object for his garden . I do n’t recollect he would have want to pick up any of these low remains .

The shake is pitted with dud craters . The scariest period of Orford Ness was when the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment started examine in a series of laboratories which are fabulously ominous . Britain ’s first atomic bomb , Blue Danube was tested here . The lab it was test in had a quarry into which it was lour and then subjected to stress such as vibration , extreme of temperature and other shocks .

The most sinister of these labs are the ones known as pagodas . They are landmarks which can be seen from miles around . The experiment done here are still veiled in secrecy , although we are told that no fissionable material was used . The strange roof shape was for pragmatic use , although how uncanny to have a ceiling chassis commonly associated with sanctified building for such an obscene use . The last top secret use for this site was in the late 1960s when an Anglo - American project was localise up here call in ‘ Cobra Mist ’ . This was a multi - million pound sign over the sensible horizon radiolocation outline . It consist of magniloquent antenna and a lover - like , reticulate net of cable television . It closed in the early 70s because of white racket and ‘ other problems ’ .

I really wanted to expend more clip on the ecological importance of this place , which despite all the repulsion is a beautiful place of salt marsh , clay flatcar and lagoon as well as the treasured shake .Animals here admit prominent brownish hare and Taiwanese Water Deer . These deer with their savage looking for ivory and cute teddy - bear ears get off from Woburn Abbey years ago along with the destructive muntjac . They are now all over the fen of East Anglia .

attractively deal for sheep have been brought in to graze the rescued fen . There are many uncommon birds on the marshes and little Terns nest here .

Black Beacon

Black Beacon

This is the view over Stony Ditch where you walk over a Nathan Bailey bridgework into the shake area . bird here admit marsh Harriers and even Merlin . I saw plenty of Wheatears and little lark .

On the shingle , vegetated ridges mark the website of previous gamey tides .

Vegetated ridges

A day spent on Orford Ness is a wonderful way to watch over the ecology of this part of the slide in a lonely desolate post . But it is uncomfortable and distressful . I ’ll let Shelley have the last word . ‘Look at my works ye powerful and despair!Nothing beside clay . Round the DecayOf that Colossal Wreck , boundless and bareThe lone and degree George Sand stretch far aside . ’

Ozymandias . Percy Byssche Shelley .

37 Responses toThe Sinister Secrets of Orford Ness.

I detest to recall that there are rabbit , sheep and Taiwanese Water deer running around among unexploded ordnance . It sounds rather like our Area 51 , except that Orford Ness has a longer history and a Merman instead of aliens .

Very interesting post and place . What a story it has – spectre , a Ethel Merman , and mystical examination . Your berth caused me to look online for images of Orford . I can understand why you relish shoot the breeze as it search like a charming village . So sad that our species is a warring one and the effect of that on the natural world .