We have never made a promotional film and this is not one. It is four minutes of the headland in the first week of March, shot by one person with one camera, at the hours when nobody is about.
March is the honest month here. The rooms are half full, the water is too cold for anyone sensible, and the light comes in low off the sea from about half past six. Anything filmed in August would show you a version of the place that exists for nine weeks a year.
What You Are Actually Watching
The long shot at ninety seconds is the seaward elevation from the water, taken from the house launch with the engine off. The wall you can see being worked on is the one the masons rebuild in sections every four years, which is the subject of a different note entirely.
There is no music because the headland in March is not quiet and we would rather you heard it. If you are watching on a telephone with the sound off, most of the point is missing.
Marc Devaux
General ManagerTwenty-two years on the headland, started as a night porter, and knows every pipe in the building by the sound it makes.
Comment By Anders Holm
We were there the week before you closed in 2024 and the whole place already felt like it was bracing for something. Now I understand what. Worth every euro of the shoulder rate.
ReplyComment By Priya Raghunathan
Seconded. We asked at the desk what happens in January and got a twenty-minute answer from somebody who clearly loves the building.
ReplyComment By Daniel Okonkwo
The detail about re-pointing the sea wall by hand is the kind of thing nobody would ever put in a brochure. Thank you for writing it down.
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