By three o’clock on a bright winter afternoon Spittal beach is in deep shadow while across the river Berwick Pier is still bathed in sunlight.

 

The pier starts as a sea wall running behind Berwick beach before turning a sharp corner…
and heading straight out to sea.
Everyone refers to the tower on the end of the pier as the lighthouse…
but the only light is a small navigation marker – ‘the lighthouse’ is mostly a daymark
The fisherman in the shade of the lighthouse is well wrapped up against the cold – Spittal beach is on the shadowy shore beyond his right shoulder
There’s a little warmth in the sun but it’s definitely woolly hat weather.

 

It’s only three hundred yards as the seagull flies from Spittal beach across the estuary to the pier but it’s two miles on foot by the old bridge. This afternoon I cycled over to catch the sun.