Here Be Fairies

At the Fairy Cave Quarry

When you drive through Stoke St Michael on the Mendips, you can sense that stone is part of its story. The grey stone houses, small, mostly, workers’ homes, the huge quarry lorries that you can encounter round any tight corner. Before you get there, on the the road from the A361, you pass several working quarries, and then the basalt quarry: Moon’s Hill Quarry, with the deepest, finest basalt around.

Moon’s Hill basalt quarry

The Fairy Cave Quarry is on the other side of the village, hidden down a  narrow leafy lane. It’s small (relatively, when you see the size of Whatley), not too overgrown, and closed to the public. So all the more exciting that it will be open to all during SAW, October 3 – 18th. I went there yesterday for a photoshoot with my still unfinished piece “Here Be Fairies”. This, like the Westdown etching, is based on a Google Earth map.

Google Earth map of the Fairy Cave Quarry

Unlike the Westdown etching, which is huge, this one is small. So small, in fact, that it looks dwarfed by the top of my ex bathroom stool which is its support. It’s rotated to face South rather than North.

Here be Fairies

Looking at it here, after seeing the map again, I think I prefer the map. Bother. I was pleased with it until a minute ago. I might have another go.That’s art.

Such a beautiful place. The photos in this post are mostly by Duncan Simey, of Wild Landscapes.