Geology Reference
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out several spots along the ridge, we settled on one where midsummer
sunrise appeared to be marked by a pyramidal tomb in Sighthill
Cemetery, capped with two square-shaped towers whose tips just
met the natural skyline of the hills beyond. Since burial mounds
were sometimes used as foresights it seemed appropriate, and as an
indicator it was less ambiguous than the stone at Kintraw.
If we were going to work out accurate alignments in the
office, from observations taken on the hilltop, we would need to
be able to identify horizon features unambiguously. We needed a
panorama of photographs that could be mounted on the wall in
sequence so that the calculations could be related to it and no con-
fusion would arise when we went back to the site. There was an
official photographer attached to the Jobs Creation projects, but he
had a very full schedule, so again we cut corners and appealed to
Gavin Roberts, newly graduated from Glasgow School of Art, who
had been co-illustrator of my first two topics.
Having seen the site, Gavin wanted to start by photograph-
ing it from the outside, from Sighthill Cemetery, looking back
along the midsummer sunrise alignment. At close quarters the
tomb was extremely impressive, a cast-iron structure taller than
we were, with inset panels of marble. Between its two towers was
a great urn with the representation of a funeral cloth draped over
it - this, too, all in cast iron. John pointed out the technological
commitment this represented and how much it must have cost, as
if nowadays one were to have such a piece cast in stainless steel.
Driving out of the cemetery, I realized that we had been
so preoccupied with the functional purpose of our visit that we
hadn't even noted the name on the tomb. “Walker,” John declared
confidently, and Gavin at once added that he must have been an
armaments manufacturer to be able to commission a tomb like
that. He and John immediately elaborated this into a right-wing
fantasy in fake Yorkshire accents (“T' bonus? T' workers want t'
bonus? I'll give them bloody bonus..”) and we marched up on to
Broomhill with considerable hilarity.
We hadn't been up there often enough yet to be absolutely
sure of our spot, though it was at the top of a small gully that was
to be the main approach, with the stones silhouetted against the
sky - subject of a dramatic photograph by John Gilmour Fig.
7.27A
.
The gully had been strewn with empty beer cans since our last
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