Photo by Teresa Flavin

Last weekend we climbed up onto Cumbrian crags at sunset to wait for a necklace of torches along Hadrian’s Wall to be lit from the east to west. I have always liked the scene in The Lord of the Rings where huge beacon fires are lit at the tops of snowy mountains, and I imagined this might be similar. Of course, watching from the ground couldn’t be as dramatic as flying over the giant New Zealand mountains where LOTR was filmed, but this illumination was magical.

There was something primal about sitting with other spectators, watching the sky and the spine of hills in the east. Luckily, there was no piped-in soundtrack, or laid-on entertainment other than the stunning landscape and gatherings of people all watching together. When the first pinprick of light appeared, the atmosphere was thrilling. It can’t replicate the feeling of being there, but the pictures and video here might give you an inkling of what it was like.