It was wet, so very wet, with rain pouring down in
sheets and mist blowing through the valley when we
arrived in Rosedale, in the North York Moors National
Park, about a 30-minute drive from York, to visit
“Hanging Stones,” Andy Goldsworthy’s newest
installation six years in the making. But we had come
prepared with our Gore-Tex raincoats and rain pants
and hiking boots, having been warned years before
our arrival by friends and others who make London their home: there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad preparation.
But nothing prepared us for what we would experience across the five hour, circular six-mile trek up and across and down the valley as we visited one installation after another (a total of ten, one of which has yet to be completed). Goldsworthy, a world-famous artist who grew up nearby in Leeds and lived later in Pickering, had taken old stone buildings used by miners in the day (some 3,000 workers and their families lived in the area) and turned them not just into a tribute of people and place, but managed through the sheer physicality of his art to bring the two together in a way that touched your soul.
Opposite:
Inner Room Job's Well
Above:
Moss Covered Rock Wall Leading Up to Hanging Stone House
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