Tim Parkin - Landscape Photographer

The Whin Sill is a lava flow that covered most of the north of Enland and forms the natural boundary that emporer Hadrian used to build his famous wall. The sill exists England in two main visible locations, firstly at Dunstanburgh Castle, with the basalt columns being visible at the castles northerly boundary. The other exit is at Cullernose, a site of special scientific interest and geological playground (a collision of carboniferous limestones, dykes and basalt columns with layers of coal as a bonus).

The basalt columns are particularly interesting as the colour changes throughout the column. The outside of the columns tend to orange where the iron oxide has been exsolved from the olivine in the basalt. The deeper basalt layers tend to green as the olivine forms chlorite compounds. The core of the basalt remains a dark bluey grey.

It was the combination of the extraordinary colours and the chair/note like shape that attracted me to this. Hopefully I plan to return in the future to expand on the ideas this has raised.