Whin Sill<\/a> thrust a giant wedge as they taper into the sea. It\u2019s dramatic at all times, but today is especially thrilling, the sound all enveloping, the wind cutting, the air damp with spume.<\/p>\nWe take the coastal path south between high banks of bent scrub, sheltered for a moment by stumpy sycamores and leaning hawthorns, their wind-woven branches vivid with lime-green lichens. There are scattered flowers on the gorse, sprawling dead grasses and bracken, and the barbed wire arcs of brambles. Frazzled seedheads top the stalks of last year\u2019s knapweed mixed with fragmented skeletons of hogweed.<\/p>\n
A fulmar in flight. Photograph: Daphne Wuenn\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Then it\u2019s out into the fullness of the weather for the best view of the geology of the bay. Below us are the whaleback folds of the lower foreshore, their limestones and sandstones curving gently like collapsed arches. And rising beyond are the massive hexagonal columns of the Whin Sill projecting out into the sea. Some 295 million years ago, tectonic movement allowed molten magma to intrude vertically between older landmass. The result is the spectacular landscape of the north: castles riding the hard rock, Hadrian\u2019s Wall cresting its cliffs, the plummeting falls of High Force.<\/p>\n
At Cullernose Point, the columns and fractured planes \u2013 so characteristic of dolerite \u2013 have made ledges perfect for nesting seabirds. A few pairs of white dots stand out against the grey-brown of the crags, fulmars that will soon be joined by kittiwakes returning after their winter at sea. Then the air will resound to their strident yet sweet calls, an uplifting soundscape to the Northumberland coast and even to the centre of Newcastle.<\/p>\n
For now, it\u2019s the fulmars that circle above my head and hang in the air, steadied by the force of the gale. My hands are numb with cold, but it\u2019s exhilarating up here on the cliff, and a part of me feels it is riding the wind alongside the birds.<\/p>\n
Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian\u2019s Country Diary, 2018-2024, is available now at guardianbookshop.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sea is still raging after yesterday\u2019s storm, waves the highest that I\u2019ve seen here, more ocean than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-284645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}