Caedmon's Cross

This beautiful Celtic cross with deeply-incised graphical detail on all faces of the shaft, stands in graveyard of St Mary's Church, on the East Cliff of Whitby, Yorkshire, UK. It commemorates Caedmon, the great bard of the Dark Ages, remembered for the beauty of the spoken word as an artform. A trail up the cliffs to the site of the old abbey on the east side of the River Esk is known as "Caedmon's Trod," a 'trod' being a local term for a path (e.g., the 'Sailor's Trod' ran across the moors between port towns on the coast). This simple portrait-format shot was taken in November, 2007, on a cold and breezy afternoon, looking north-west along the Yorkshire coast, and the view awakens thoughts of this place before modern development, when such stone carving was the epitome of its artform. Sharpened, colour-enhanced and contrast-adjusted. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.