Summer Walk 2, 'The Bord Waalk', Amble - Tuesday 13th June 2023.

 

On Tuesday 13th June, the second walk on the Camera Club summer programme saw members meet in the
Island View car park on the south links at Amble. The aim of the evening was to visit and photograph ten of
the twelve exhibits on the recently completed 'Bord Waalk', a walking trail of public sculptures inspired by
the bird life found around the local coastal area.

Situated opposite our starting point on Island View, 'Murmuration' by Frances Anderson was our first stop. This
exhibit is made of Corten steel that weathers and changes colour with age and depicts a huge flock of starlings
in flight. Heading north across the links, we dropped down to Paddlers Park, an area that was once a sandstone
quarry. Now an outdoor fitness space and childrens playground, it has a new resident called 'The Big Puffin' by
Ben Greenwood and this huge stone puffin has become a local favourite.

                           

The group continued north past cliff house and onto the breakwater that joins Amble south pier. A warm sunny
evening was enjoyed by everyone as we made our way down to the fish quay and inner harbour. For the next
sculpture we climbed onto horseshoe hill that overlooks the harbour village retail outlets. Here we saw 'Cracked
Eggs' by Stuart Langley. This exhibit shows three large ‘bird eggs’ balanced on top of each other, that reflects
the fragility of bird life. The next two sculptures were in close proximity, 'Uplift' by Jonny Mitchie perched on the
roof of a nearby premises, is a beautiful representation of a tern whilst opposite next to the town square sun
dial is 'Bird Heads' by Andrew Burton, that included a large seagulls head with an imposing open beak.

  

Crossing into the new Turner Street car park our next installation was 'Recycled Terns' by Diane Watson. This
large billboard poster is based on the migratory patterns of Arctic Terns combined with images of the rubbish
and plastic pollution found in our seas, to illustrate that the life of a sea bird is affected by the health of our
oceans. Leaving the car park we headed west past the marina and onto the braid to photograph 'Bird Song' by
Aether and Hemera. This installation represents a 3D rhythmic pattern that mimics the harmonic sound of the
roseate tern call.

                           

Moving on we walked through the yacht club boat yard with fine views of the coquet estuary to our final three
sculptures. 'Flock Sphere' by Rob Mulholland is possibly the most aesthetically pleasing sculpture on the trail,
created by using cut stainless steel bird shapes that are interlocked and welded to form a three-dimensional
sphere, there were many photographic possibilities found by members. Nearby, the penultimate exhibit was
'Tern Wings' by Jon Voss. A simple but very effective mirrored finish marine grade stainless steel Roseate
Tern wings. As the evening drew to a close members gathered at 'The Dokies Egg', the final exhibit on the
'Bord Waalk' Sculpture trail. A Dokie is a local name for a guillemot and artist Alec Finlay skillfully combined
a guillemots egg and a fishing coble to create a place to sit, shelter, and look at the bird life on the beautiful
Coquet estuary.

  

     

Big thank you to those members who supported the walk and for making it a successful and enjoyable evening
of photography.

Davy Bolam.