Orford and the Ness
3rd July , Orford, Suffolk
Orfordness is a long shingle spit that extends from Aldeburgh south for a number of miles. The river Alde gets to Aldeburgh and then flows down the inside of the shingle spit before going out to sea further South. At Orford it’s possible to get a small boat out to what they refer to as the Ness. This is managed by the National Trust.
I’ve never been before and it’s a fascinating place. The shingle part of the Ness is reminiscent of Dungeness in Kent. Very little grows here the odd shrub. It is supposedly the home of many wild Hares which I had gone to photograph. Is also the home of a top secret research station, which started in World War I and finally closed late in the last century. It was used for a variety of testing, most notably by the Atomic Weapons Establishment used it for testing nuclear triggers for Britain’s nuclear bombs.
I was on the 10 o’clock ferry which consisted of a small boat seating about 10 people. As warned on the website, the stairs were steep to get down to the boat and I found it quite tricky getting into the boat and Jarred my hip in doing so. Five minutes and the boat was mored on the jetty on the Ness. It was a short walk of about 150 m to the National Trust Welcome site. Here there was a brief description of the Ness and the routes which were open to walking. I had hired a off-road scrambler, which was like a one person buggy on the advice of a colleague Robby Holgate, who was here the previous week. This proved a blessing as it was a round trip of 5 miles walking which I wouldn’t have been up to doing. The only problem with the scrambler was limited capacity and in hindsight, I would have left my camera bag in the car. It was a fascinating place to visit with some very unusual architecture many of the buildings that are left were related to research stations, observation towers, radar installations and obviously the original lab one and lab two from the atomic weapons. period. The later period labs known as the Pagodas which are featured whenever Orford Ness appears on TV will not accessible by the general public, but can be accessed via a private tour. Perhaps this could be a future visit. For photography I took my X100vi and use this to capture the architecture and landscape of the Ness, I also took my other Fuji camera with the 500mm telephoto lens, specifically to photograph the Hares. As usual in situations like this, I saw two Hares one was eating from a wiry looking bush, the other sleeping behind a lump of concrete with just ears visible, picture below. On returning to Orford by the ferry, I decided to visit the 12th century Orford castle. Managed by English Heritage. Only the Keep remains, and it is covered in a orangey colored cement. I climbed the stairs to get into the first level of the castle, but did not go further due to the spiral staircases in the turret, not having a handrail. On leaving Orford, I returned to my lodging via Snape Maltings. I stopped here and took a couple of pictures from the bridge looking at the wharf side of the Maltings, again pictures below. There was also a very odd gentleman blocking the other pathway on the other side of the road fishing from the top of the bridge with the traffic, thundering past.