RAF Targets
- by Jordan Fadden
- •
- 24 Apr, 2019
- •
Drawings From The Saltmarsh And Skears

There's an area roughly one-kilometer out from Jenny Brown's Point in South Silverdale which I recently discovered. It is situated on the edge of the bay and well isolated from any other notable landmarks. Depending on the light and atmosphere, you cannot fail to notice a group of large posts from the shore where people regularly set out on a popular coastal walk. You can see them quite clearly in one of the images from my first blog post titled 'RNLI Callout' standing darkly in the distance like a line of statues keeping watch over the sea. You may also notice them when passing between Carnforth and Silverdale by train, when the vast open space of sky and sea unfolds on one side. Any observers might conclude that "Whatever they are, it's probably too far and inaccessible, or else they're there for that reason alone."

When I first arrived at these mysterious posts, curious to understand more about them, I discovered that they were laid out in the form of a 'V' shape with one at the front, followed by a second single post, then rows of two, three, four and five, forming a triangle. Later I learned from Richard (a local man) that they were once used for target-practice by RAF fighter pilots during WWII. At low water and before incoming tides, it's a fifteen-minute walk before the stream fills. But it can be treacherous. Jenny brown's Point is notorious for its quicksand. So I had taken a much longer route via the mile-long sea wall passing close to the skear - a raised area of rocks protruding out from the sea close to one of the main channels - to get to the salt marsh. On this approach it's often more splashy and you can enjoy the salt water and mud beneath your feet. Otherwise if you wear boots then you can't tell when there may be sinking sand.

It's also possible to visit the skear, but only long before the tide is due in. This area was once part of the ancient Cross-Bay route from Hest Bank to Grange-over-Sands. You'll notice large chunks of land eroded from the saltmarsh. In its epic velocity and reach the sea washes over this land, but only during the big spring tides which rise above nine or ten metres. It's an expansive area consisting of many small pools and ravines which are deep enough to fall into and often too wide to cross. The scale of this grassland can be appreciated from various points on Warton Crag and Heald Brow. At ground level, however, it can be impossible to plot a way through this maze. Some of the large posts still retain their rusty hinges and many are covered by lichen and deep cracks formed in the wood over many moons.



You must take care not to venture too far as there are lots of nesting birds which can be easily disturbed. There was even a nest built on the top of one of the huge posts, with long sticks dangling out. The 'Eric Morecambe' hide is visible over at the nature reserve. That's an area of freshwater mosses and marsh with dense reed grass across the railway embankment, and it's a place for the wading birds and other wildlife - some rare and endangered - and for breathtaking starling murmurations.
Skear Near Jenny Brown's Point
The word skear generally means 'scar', and there's not many of them on the bay. The small one off the coast at Jenny Brown's Point is separate from the mile-long sea wall originally built for a land reclamation scheme, though it appears very similar in parts since the plan was unsuccessful due to a lack of funding and it was breached by the sea. However, all of these scars of rock now provide the birds with a safe place to roost at High Water. On my initial discovery of the small skear I was able to walk around it and explore the surface. But when I visited again a week later I noticed that the deep channel which separates from the river Kent three-miles North had flooded one side. This is how powerful the Morecambe Bay tides are, with millions of tonnes of sand and mud being shifted continually. Neither this skear nor the next, which is up to an hours walk away and has boulders the size of cars, can provide sanctuary at High Water as the fast rising tide will quickly cover them. It's not unusual to see previously buried skears, boats and cars re-emerge.

During my most recent visits to this small skear I had to carefully wade to reach the rocks, and on other occasions it was inaccessible due to the channel widening and making it into an island. Sand gets scoured around the bigger rocks, making it deeper. On the skear itself there are signs of past human activity, and the rocks are more crustaceous and grey from a dense covering of limpets. Wooden stakes and iron posts with netting now twisted and covered in algae and seaweed lay bent from waves and rocks colliding with them. Clearly it was once frequented by fishermen hoping to catch whatever the sea brings in. The sight of a human arm or leg bone suddenly makes this the eeriest place I've ever stepped foot. Many lives have been lost out here, and there are recent reports of human remains washing up. Murmurating oystercatchers lighten the mood. I can never quite comprehend the scale of what occurs twice daily. I'm walking where dogfish and rays will soon be swimming, arriving with the sea from as far away as eight to twelve miles.
Priest Skear
The sheer vastitude of the bay itself reduces even the largest skears to meagre mounds. Here you can find an abundance of interesting objects which lay in its desolate setting. Among which are two vehicles presumed to be the remains from some of the last cockling activity to have taken place out here, when a group of cockle pickers drove out to Priest Skear on that fateful night over fifteen-years ago, never to return. Tragically, nearly all of them were quickly overcome by a fast rising tide. The place has been altered by this event, and the cockle beds left alone for an indefinite period - the cockles left for the oystercatcher to collect and prise open with its long bill or smash against a rock to get inside. One vehicle lies submerged on one side, and another on the opposite side with its steering wheel intact and its engine parts exposed.


These rusty shells now serve as a warning sign of the inherent dangers of venturing out to such perilous places like this, which was once the beginning of a dangerous crossing undertaken by many hundreds of souls each year, and it's been fished for centuries. There is a group of huge boulders scattered along the sea-facing edge, gradually becoming predominantly green with algae. There may be little sign of the sea approaching from the West, yet water will silently creep in and all around this huge sandbank. Fifteen-minutes of walking will seem much longer when the bore is visible right behind you. Nearby Redbank is a safer place to observe from and offers an impressive panoramic view of the bay. The coastal farm at Redbank has stood here for many centuries and now includes a cafe and caravan site for visitors.







RAF Targets
- by Jordan Fadden
- •
- 24 Apr, 2019
- •
Drawings From The Saltmarsh And Skears

There's an area roughly one-kilometer out from Jenny Brown's Point in South Silverdale which I recently discovered. It is situated on the edge of the bay and well isolated from any other notable landmarks. Depending on the light and atmosphere, you cannot fail to notice a group of large posts from the shore where people regularly set out on a popular coastal walk. You can see them quite clearly in one of the images from my first blog post titled 'RNLI Callout' standing darkly in the distance like a line of statues keeping watch over the sea. You may also notice them when passing between Carnforth and Silverdale by train, when the vast open space of sky and sea unfolds on one side. Any observers might conclude that "Whatever they are, it's probably too far and inaccessible, or else they're there for that reason alone."

When I first arrived at these mysterious posts, curious to understand more about them, I discovered that they were laid out in the form of a 'V' shape with one at the front, followed by a second single post, then rows of two, three, four and five, forming a triangle. Later I learned from Richard (a local man) that they were once used for target-practice by RAF fighter pilots during WWII. At low water and before incoming tides, it's a fifteen-minute walk before the stream fills. But it can be treacherous. Jenny brown's Point is notorious for its quicksand. So I had taken a much longer route via the mile-long sea wall passing close to the skear - a raised area of rocks protruding out from the sea close to one of the main channels - to get to the salt marsh. On this approach it's often more splashy and you can enjoy the salt water and mud beneath your feet. Otherwise if you wear boots then you can't tell when there may be sinking sand.

It's also possible to visit the skear, but only long before the tide is due in. This area was once part of the ancient Cross-Bay route from Hest Bank to Grange-over-Sands. You'll notice large chunks of land eroded from the saltmarsh. In its epic velocity and reach the sea washes over this land, but only during the big spring tides which rise above nine or ten metres. It's an expansive area consisting of many small pools and ravines which are deep enough to fall into and often too wide to cross. The scale of this grassland can be appreciated from various points on Warton Crag and Heald Brow. At ground level, however, it can be impossible to plot a way through this maze. Some of the large posts still retain their rusty hinges and many are covered by lichen and deep cracks formed in the wood over many moons.



You must take care not to venture too far as there are lots of nesting birds which can be easily disturbed. There was even a nest built on the top of one of the huge posts, with long sticks dangling out. The 'Eric Morecambe' hide is visible over at the nature reserve. That's an area of freshwater mosses and marsh with dense reed grass across the railway embankment, and it's a place for the wading birds and other wildlife - some rare and endangered - and for breathtaking starling murmurations.
Skear Near Jenny Brown's Point
The word skear generally means 'scar', and there's not many of them on the bay. The small one off the coast at Jenny Brown's Point is separate from the mile-long sea wall originally built for a land reclamation scheme, though it appears very similar in parts since the plan was unsuccessful due to a lack of funding and it was breached by the sea. However, all of these scars of rock now provide the birds with a safe place to roost at High Water. On my initial discovery of the small skear I was able to walk around it and explore the surface. But when I visited again a week later I noticed that the deep channel which separates from the river Kent three-miles North had flooded one side. This is how powerful the Morecambe Bay tides are, with millions of tonnes of sand and mud being shifted continually. Neither this skear nor the next, which is up to an hours walk away and has boulders the size of cars, can provide sanctuary at High Water as the fast rising tide will quickly cover them. It's not unusual to see previously buried skears, boats and cars re-emerge.

During my most recent visits to this small skear I had to carefully wade to reach the rocks, and on other occasions it was inaccessible due to the channel widening and making it into an island. Sand gets scoured around the bigger rocks, making it deeper. On the skear itself there are signs of past human activity, and the rocks are more crustaceous and grey from a dense covering of limpets. Wooden stakes and iron posts with netting now twisted and covered in algae and seaweed lay bent from waves and rocks colliding with them. Clearly it was once frequented by fishermen hoping to catch whatever the sea brings in. The sight of a human arm or leg bone suddenly makes this the eeriest place I've ever stepped foot. Many lives have been lost out here, and there are recent reports of human remains washing up. Murmurating oystercatchers lighten the mood. I can never quite comprehend the scale of what occurs twice daily. I'm walking where dogfish and rays will soon be swimming, arriving with the sea from as far away as eight to twelve miles.
Priest Skear
The sheer vastitude of the bay itself reduces even the largest skears to meagre mounds. Here you can find an abundance of interesting objects which lay in its desolate setting. Among which are two vehicles presumed to be the remains from some of the last cockling activity to have taken place out here, when a group of cockle pickers drove out to Priest Skear on that fateful night over fifteen-years ago, never to return. Tragically, nearly all of them were quickly overcome by a fast rising tide. The place has been altered by this event, and the cockle beds left alone for an indefinite period - the cockles left for the oystercatcher to collect and prise open with its long bill or smash against a rock to get inside. One vehicle lies submerged on one side, and another on the opposite side with its steering wheel intact and its engine parts exposed.


These rusty shells now serve as a warning sign of the inherent dangers of venturing out to such perilous places like this, which was once the beginning of a dangerous crossing undertaken by many hundreds of souls each year, and it's been fished for centuries. There is a group of huge boulders scattered along the sea-facing edge, gradually becoming predominantly green with algae. There may be little sign of the sea approaching from the West, yet water will silently creep in and all around this huge sandbank. Fifteen-minutes of walking will seem much longer when the bore is visible right behind you. Nearby Redbank is a safer place to observe from and offers an impressive panoramic view of the bay. The coastal farm at Redbank has stood here for many centuries and now includes a cafe and caravan site for visitors.








This blog post contains a selection of photographs which I made in the middle of February 2025 on a visit to Madeira – a Portuguese island in the Atlantic just north of the Canaries. It's known for having a warm and pleasant climate all year round, even in Winter, and also for having some of the best hiking trails in the world. It's also known by many people as the vertical island
due to its incredibly steep mountains which rise from the ocean. Madeira is a green and lush island with some very impressive coastal cliffs.
This is a selection of photographs from a visit to the African country of Morocco in late December 2024 and January 2025. Notes on images will be found at the end of this page. Places visited include the cities of Agadir, Marrakech, Ouarzazate and Essaouira, as well as a trip through the High Atlas Mountains to Ait Benhaddou, Fint Oasis and the Atlantic coastal region in Southern Morocco.

As we move from Winter into Spring time, one place I ventured into for the first time last week was the dramatic moorland region around the North Yorkshire villages of Clapham and Austwick. As you make your ascent on the steep tracks, incredible panoramic views open up across the Forest of Bowland to the south. And as you ascend farther into the Dales you encounter all kinds of interesting boulders, crags, and screes. The distinctive dry stone walls and many field barns confirm that you are well inside the National Park, with streams gushing from the hills and limestone pavement dominating the views of the famous Yorkshire three-peaks once you arrive on high ground.

The smartphone offers an alternative way of drawing and seeing. Even when you're not one for spending very much time looking at little screens, and swiping and tapping and scrolling, the smartphone can still be a useful device if you happen to be without your usual materials. And of course a tablet would be the next step if you was really inclined to using a digital means of sketching, especially if your focus is going to be on landscapes. As small as the touchscreen is, it responds to subtle movements made by the finger or thumb. No app was used here, just the basic photo editor which allows you to make marks over the top. The phone I used was a Samsung Galaxy S8 Edge. Very small compared to most.
Thank you for the memories to those whom I met on my journey to the famous lagoon, - in particular Florentina and Theodora who invited me to Padua to show me the sights of this nearby town at night. Tina was a most knowledgeable guide, whilst Dora kept us amused with her hilarious accent. Also, best wishes to Kalina and Milena. I very much look forward to revisiting Venezia in the future. Even though the days are only short, and the weather still quite cold and unpredictable, the light in January is still dazzling as you can see.
It felt more like the depths of Winter, rather than the start, during my five-day's of hiking across high land at the end of November. The North Pennines is a vast area, featuring the highest paved roads in the country. And the weather can be more changeable than anywhere else; atop Great Dun Fell there's a radar and weather station specifically for studying the clouds, because here you get the highest amount of precipitation.
The following selection of images represents some of my recent travel photography on a visit to the southernmost Greek island of Crete in late September to mid-October 2023. When viewing these pictures, imagine if you can the sound of bells jingling as mountain goats pass across the mountainsides and roads, the loud noise of crickets, the smell of salt air from the Mediterranean and Libyan sea, and of the chatter of the Cretan folk with their warm hospitality as they prepare their wonderful cuisine rich in olive oil and complemented by their drink offerings of raki and retsina.
This is a visual diary in photographs from a few days of hiking and mountain climbing in the English Lake District last weekend. I covered quite a lot of ground from the high mountain of Helvellyn in the East across to the more Westerly mountain of Haystacks before descending in to the Buttermere Valley. It was very lively down by the shores of Lake Buttermere as an annual paragliding event was taking place, with people dropping from aeroplanes and flying off most of the surrounding high peaks before trying to land as close to the target in one of the fields. Some of the participants descended in somersaults leaving colourful trails of smoke behind them.

It is possible to cycle all the way around the Lake District National Park in a day without stopping, and yet despite the modest scale and altitude of these mountains compared to the world's greatest mountain ranges it can still feel extraordinarily remote and wild when you're hiking in the district, with mountain terrain which is just as challenging and impressive as any other. The quality of light and how dramatically the light and shadows shift across the fells here is second to none. This is because it's like a miniature version of any other rugged mountain region. And late last week I hiked across some of the highest peaks including Bow Fell, Scafell Pike, Kirk Fell and Pillar, following a route from Great Langdale to Wasdale and finally on to Borrowdale via Green Gable and Gillercomb.