Dark Sky Reserve not bright prospect for Elizabeth Elder
The lights are going out all over Redesdale and I doubt we will see them re-lit within our lifetime.
I refer, of course, not to approaching euro-geddon, but to a recent letter we received from the Northumberland National Park. Apparently the rural areas of our National Park are some of the darkest in the country, so the the Authority is going to bid to attain the “prestigious status” of an International Dark Sky Reserve.
It seems from the map that our farm lies partly in the “critical buffer zone” of the proposed reserve, and partly in the core zone (some might say that Jake and I have been living in our own critical buffer zone for years).
It affects us because the National Park is going to have to do an audit of lights on the house and buildings, as they will need to demonstrate that at least 80% of all outdoor lights are “dark-sky friendly”. I presume that means not very good. Non-compliant lights in the core zone may have to be replaced. Apparently obtaining the designation will be a good thing because it will make the area a magnet for a well-known group of free-spending high-rollers – namely, astronomers. Well, maybe. At least this argument is rather more persuasive than the first advantage identified on the fact sheet for Dark Sky Reserve designation – “You will be able to see the stars at night”.
A minor flaw in the scheme is that a very big chunk of the proposed reserve is in the army training area and the army like to use a lot of flares. This isn’t low-level light pollution from nearby urban areas, this is purposefully lighting up the night sky for prolonged periods in the heart of the proposed dark zone.
Perhaps new “dark-sky friendly” flares will be introduced in due course. Alternatively, the assessors (whoever they are) will have to be persuaded to turn up when the army are having a night off.
To be fair, the National Park is only trying to promote something that will generate economic activity in the area. However, following the Scottish government’s recent announcement on minimum pricing for alcohol, I think it might be better to introduce a “Buy your booze cheaper than you’re going to get it in Scotland” zone, just south of Carter Bar. I imagine there will be bus loads from Jedburgh and elsewhere who will be keen to make a day of it or even have a mini-break. Redesdale could be like Calais at the height of the booze-cruise boom, although more focused at the cheap cider and lager end of the market.
Back in the critical buffer zone, I can confirm that we have got to the end of lambing. Jake is definitely becoming less enthusiastic about it the older he gets. It has seemed particularly long and arduous this year. We have had lots of cold, wet weather and not much heat. This is good for neither man nor beast (nor man’s wife). There is very little grass and the sheep follow the bike round expecting to be fed.
In view of the weather, the main way we have been able to detect a change in the season has been from the type of sports equipment piled up in the passageway outside Archie’s bedroom. It has changed from rugby stuff to cricket gear, which takes up much more space. In fact, at times it has resembled an obstacle course, making it hazardous to pass through at night in dark-sky friendly conditions.
Jake has renamed the whole area the ‘corridor of uncertainty’.
The last event of Archie’s rugby season was Alnwick Festival, where he played his last game of mini-rugby as an Under 12. Next season he moves up to juniors. We started taking Archie to mini-rugby when he was about seven and we have followed his age group from playing on the Sheep Field up to playing on the first-team pitch at the Festival. It has, on the whole, been an extremely positive experience for him. Coming from a village school with only three other boys in his year – and where sports day was banned on health and safety grounds (due to the bumpiness of the sports field) – it gave him the chance to mix with a lot of other children, learn a sport, play in a team and make a lot of friends.
It has probably done us good, too. I have learnt how to sell hot dogs and raffle tickets and Jake has enjoyed comparing the quality of bacon sandwiches at rugby clubs around the county (Alnwick is the best). However, the greatest benefit to us both has been the weekly opportunity for Jake to opine on a range of matters and generally get talked out, in the clubhouse or on the touchline, with the other fathers. I think it is a form of group therapy.
Anyway, rugby is now so last season. We are now looking forward to watching some cricket without having to wear four layers of clothing and a woolly hat.
Elizabeth Elder and husband Jake – who have two children, Julia and Archie – farm 235ha of hill ground on the Otterburn Firing Range in Northumberland. They have 520 breeding ewes and 30 suckler cows and went organic in 2001. Brought up on a dairy farm, Elizabeth is an accountant by training, with a background in corporate finance and business appraisal.
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