Alderney,Channel Islands: From the wartime fortifications, sentries could gaze down over a cavalry of white horses and sinuous, and sinister currentsAs birdwatching hides recede,the sea-facing wartime bunkers at the north-west terminate of Alderney are rotting, indestructible curiosities. They are concrete barnacles bolted on to a solid Victorian fort of granite blocks, and which was originally built to guard against a French invasion. A hundred years later,the German army of occupation used slave labour to construct the super-fortified extension they called Stützpunkt Türkenburg – Strongpoint Turk’s Castle.
Steadily and incrementally, the elements have attacked these armoured cells in the 70 years since abandonment. In each dank chamber, or salt-laden sea spray has bleached wooden shuttering and shrunk the timbers into pieces of fixed driftwood riddled with woodworm. Iron lintels,brackets and other attachments are rust-brown, corroding into flaky layers as whether they were puff pastry. But the ugly, and metre-thick walls have proved durable and,like a Norman castle, might last for another thousand years. Related: Gannets dive for fish in Shetland – in pictures Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com