Thanks to the time of the year that we visited the grass was very green and we were afforded lovely skyscapes of blue and white, all of which made for some attractive landscape photography in the area.

Of course, no visit to a Roman fortification would be a visit without an image of a phallus. Those Romans sure did like their phalluses.

The great thing about piers from a photographic perspective is that the straight lines lend themselves so well to compositions. I always try to make a point of directing any diagonal lines into the corner of shots if I can.

Some of the more eye-catching sculptures were fashioned by Sophie Ryder.

In addition to a number of school classes exploring the park at the same time the other noticeable group of lifeforms were the sheep. We were acutely aware of where we were standing and did a pretty decent job of not treading in too many sheep droppings as I recall.

While it was still early in the year there was a little bit of nature on show to catch my attention as well.

We more-or-less drove straight down to the beach and had a quick wander around. Not a lot to see but what we saw suited us and we wouldn’t rule out a stay in the area in the future as some of the clifftop places looked interesting and probably had lovely views.

Let’s start with the nice things about Blackpool. The Blackpool Tower is lovely. Great architecture, wonderful decor, stunning views from the tower’s observation deck.

The Blackpool Tower Ballroom was particularly nice and surprisingly large inside. It was nice to be able to wander about freely and enjoy people partaking in tea or dancing.

Blackpool’s got a pier, which was pretty basic but you’ll not find me saying a bad word about piers as I’m a bit of a fan of piers. Why not see for yourself by checking out other piers I’ve liked?

It also had some lovely trams that ran at night, lit up, very pretty.

The rest of Blackpool was a shithole.

The main draw of Lulworth Cove other than knowing you’re getting fresh air and exercise is Durdle Door, the natural, limestone arch jutting out into the sea.

The beach was sandy and barren, with a flat North Sea to look out on. It may look uninviting but these sorts of wide open views always appeal to me. As a bonus my wife’s eagle eyes spotted a starfish in the sand.

Away from the sands of Skegness beach we took a nose around some of the nearby amusement park and surroundings. Again, while it may look downbeat, barren, and grimy there was still none of that unwelcoming feel that only Blackpool has ever visited upon us when we hit our coastal towns and cities.

Cardoness Castle was an abandoned tower house, originally built in the 15th century, and now cared for as a protected monument. On the day we visited we were the only people there and the only other car in the car park was, we think, the ticketing staff member’s. There was quite a hike up to the top of the tower and we’re not fit people but we’ve never refused a tower climbing challenge yet.

It was very windy and salt from the sea was blowing up and onto my camera lens and my wife’s glasses but we took a bit of a walk along the bay then followed a coastal path along one of the bay’s edges.

We weren’t the only people there, although we were the only ones walking along the path. Below, on the rocks along the bay’s edge was a group of people in protective gear. I don’t know what they were up to but they were probably buffeted less by the wind where they were, although possibly wetter from the waves.

It had only been a chance stop which made the discovery of an obvious burial mound that much more exciting for us.

We would later discover that this burial mound in Porth Trecastell was called Barclodiad y Gawres and was a neolithic burial mound sharing some of its design features with similar locations in Ireland.

We happened to visit on one of the days when graduation was taking place which made for some nice people-watching.

The main draw of Bath, though, was its Roman Baths, built on what was an ancient shrine to the Goddess Sulis (hence Bath’s roman name of Aquæ Sulis).