Conisbrough Snow 27th December 2014

Being Conisbrough bred I can never resist the urge to head out with the camera when it snows; there’s so much to photograph, we really are spoilt for choice.

On the morning of 27th December, after a fresh sprinkling of snow the night before, I braved the freshly un-gritted roads on the short journey from Edlington to Conisbrough and was rewarded with a cracking morning’s photography as the sun got itself high enough in the sky to give the Castle a wintry golden glow.

Due to the snow the staff at the Castle couldn’t open the premises up until the snow had been cleared from the rooftop area so while we waited for this to happen we used the time wisely and walked up to St Peters Church which was glowing equally as golden in the morning light. By the time we got back to the castle the premises were open and we were the first people up on the top of the castle that day; the views were excellent.

The most amazing thing happened as we exited the castle; we were greeted by a Robin sat on the brickwork by the main entrance, which posed for a few photos before hopping onto the wall and disappearing over the other side. Once out of the castle’s gates I could see the Robin just in front of the fence at the top of the moat and decided to see if it would remain as tame outside the grounds as it had done inside; I was treated to one of the most surreal 15 minutes of my life as the Robin allowed me to approach and basically spent the next 15 minutes hopping and fluttering about around me as if posing for the camera. On some occasions I had to zoom the camera out it was that close and on one occasion it just hopped silently through my legs as I tried to follow it in my lens. I was so amazed at just how close I’d been to the Robin and how it had seemingly allowed me to enter its world and share its space that I didn’t want to leave; it was the closest I’ve ever been to a bird in the wild and quite possibly the only time I’ll be allowed so close to such an iconic bird that should have been making itself scarce the moment I got anywhere near it……

Conisbrough Castle