SUMMER at Wainsgate: The High Sun Walk with Paul Knights

The High Sun Walk is a guided walk with naturalist and philosopher Paul Knights.

Moving through fields, along lanes and up onto the moor, this guided walk will explore the landscape at the turning point of the astronomical year. We will pay attention both to the vast celestial rhythms marked by this day, and to the ways it expresses itself in the local landscape around us: in the growth of grasses and wild flowers, in birds already feeding fledged young, in insects, heat, scent, shadow and the particular qualities of midsummer light.

We will reflect on the day's two linked moments in the Earth's yearly relationship with the sun. Earlier that morning, at 09.24, the summer solstice will have marked the instant when the Northern Hemisphere reaches its maximum tilt toward the sun, before beginning its gradual turn back towards winter. Then, during our walk, at 13.09, the sun will reach its highest point above Wainsgate for the entire year, reaching 60 degrees above the horizon at solar noon, with shadows at their shortest and the full intensity of midsummer light upon the landscape.  

As with our Spring walk, the emphasis will be less on information than on shared attentiveness – a chance to pause within the rush of everyday life and notice our place within larger patterns of season, time and change. Standing high above the valley at the moment of the year’s highest sun, we will take a moment simply to look outward: across the landscape, into the sky, and towards the longer rhythms within which our lives unfold.

Please come prepared for rain and off road walking!