The last Martian
17th August 2018
17th August
The last Martian
Approaching the crest of the hill, the mists thickened and even though my view was limited I sensed I was standing in a complex and fractured landscape. All around the grey rocks, layered and cracked, echoed the ripples and eddies of a dried up and ancient river. This was an alien place, a landscape with a strong sense of otherworldliness.
This feeling was further intensified by the shape shifting effects of a swirling mist. As I approached each rock, crossed each undulation or hill they formed into ill defined and unnerving outlines. A black shadow transformed into an ominous and unpassable mountain massive, a lone tree morphed into an advancing wild creature, the swirling shape in the shifting cloud, sharpened into a spirit roaming the crenellated landscape looking for lost souls. I was alone in a landscape that looked different, bewildering, and especially so in misty conditions.
However, despite the alien nature, it was actually a place well known to me. This was the limestone plateau of Twistleton Scar, a rocky shelf that sits high above the little village of Ingleton and forms part of the limestone ramparts of the Yorkshire Dales highest Fell (Whenside).
The rocky plateau is peppered with strange erratics that make it seem you have become a piece in a giant chess game. Some of the Gritstone erratics are balancing on friable pieces of limestone pavement, others large, poised and standing sentry like, keeping guard and observe all travellers. The whole scar is extraordinary with large terraces of serrated limestone, held in a amphitheatre that is surrounded by ancient gritstone hills. These hills rise steeply from the limestone terrace and appear, due to their abruptness, like motionless dinosaurs.
Adding to this effect, Twistleton is clearly a wild and unique place. It is this combination of the immediate, natural savagery, along with a tangible sense ancientness that makes the area feel like you have arrived on another planet, or at least slipped through time.
Here the combination of geology and unfamiliarity help to create an instant mythology in the mind. This is a land where the fearsome shape shifting boggart, hidden in every marsh, bog or sump hole combines with the alien looking landscape. This area could easily be a backdrop to any Hollywood SciFi blockbuster and you cannot help to look over your shoulder.
Adding to the slightly disquieting nature of the lanadscape was its quietness. In the time I was exploring this place (nearly 3 hours) I never saw a soul. The effect of this was to further pull me away from my reality, making the ‘there and now’ and ‘the when and where’ became combined. I was walking through time and visiting an ancient, but now dead planet. I was like the last Martian.
The last Martian
Approaching the crest of the hill, the mists thickened and even though my view was limited I sensed I was standing in a complex and fractured landscape. All around the grey rocks, layered and cracked, echoed the ripples and eddies of a dried up and ancient river. This was an alien place, a landscape with a strong sense of otherworldliness.
This feeling was further intensified by the shape shifting effects of a swirling mist. As I approached each rock, crossed each undulation or hill they formed into ill defined and unnerving outlines. A black shadow transformed into an ominous and unpassable mountain massive, a lone tree morphed into an advancing wild creature, the swirling shape in the shifting cloud, sharpened into a spirit roaming the crenellated landscape looking for lost souls. I was alone in a landscape that looked different, bewildering, and especially so in misty conditions.
However, despite the alien nature, it was actually a place well known to me. This was the limestone plateau of Twistleton Scar, a rocky shelf that sits high above the little village of Ingleton and forms part of the limestone ramparts of the Yorkshire Dales highest Fell (Whenside).
The rocky plateau is peppered with strange erratics that make it seem you have become a piece in a giant chess game. Some of the Gritstone erratics are balancing on friable pieces of limestone pavement, others large, poised and standing sentry like, keeping guard and observe all travellers. The whole scar is extraordinary with large terraces of serrated limestone, held in a amphitheatre that is surrounded by ancient gritstone hills. These hills rise steeply from the limestone terrace and appear, due to their abruptness, like motionless dinosaurs.
Adding to this effect, Twistleton is clearly a wild and unique place. It is this combination of the immediate, natural savagery, along with a tangible sense ancientness that makes the area feel like you have arrived on another planet, or at least slipped through time.
Here the combination of geology and unfamiliarity help to create an instant mythology in the mind. This is a land where the fearsome shape shifting boggart, hidden in every marsh, bog or sump hole combines with the alien looking landscape. This area could easily be a backdrop to any Hollywood SciFi blockbuster and you cannot help to look over your shoulder.
Adding to the slightly disquieting nature of the lanadscape was its quietness. In the time I was exploring this place (nearly 3 hours) I never saw a soul. The effect of this was to further pull me away from my reality, making the ‘there and now’ and ‘the when and where’ became combined. I was walking through time and visiting an ancient, but now dead planet. I was like the last Martian.