Recently I wrote a blog, and produced a video for YouTube, about a DJI Inspire 1 I had bought and repaired.
It’s a fantastic piece of equipment that has given me back those incredible feelings of flying, and of being a pilot again. Both are things I love, and dearly miss, so I’m thrilled to be back flying in any capacity, despite it clearly only being with a UAV for now (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).
Unfortunately since then, the Inspire has developed an entirely different problem, which I am currently working on solving. The screw mechanism that operates the landing gear has broken.
So to get back to flying as soon as possible (something that gives me a lot of peace), and to enable my daughter to learn to fly, we jointly purchased a new DJI Mini SE, which unlike the >3kg DJI Inspire 1, where I have to be very selective about the locations I fly (because it’s heavy), this one only weighs 249grams, meaning we can lawfully fly it in far more places. Almost all places.
Brilliantly, it keeps the stability of the Inspire (except maybe in wind, because it’s so light), is 2k video instead of 4k video (which is still okay for our needs), and has a whole host of filming and control options that make it an absolutely formidable little aircraft.
To test it out, we decided to film a local Holyhead landmark that’s close to the breakwater. The aircraft was fantastically steady, and it took some great footage (see below). The landmark in question was Soldier’s Point House
The house itself was built in 1848 by Charles Rigby, who was the contractor for Holyhead Breakwater at the time. The house was assigned to the government contractor of the day, with a further house built down towards the water for his resident engineer (a Mr Dobson); also designed and built by Rigby, called Porth Y Felin House, or Government House. This house also stands in ruins.
The building has seen a varied history, which actually saw it have one of the small towers in the garden wall adjusted to become a ‘Pill Box’ (machine gun position), during WWII. Ironic perhaps that it would ultimately be used for warfare, given the fake castellated embellishments on both the house, and the garden wall.
It was used as a hotel in the mid-twentieth century (apparently around the 1950s), which is how most people remember it, and benefitted from extensive gardens leading down into the port. It fell into disrepair somewhere around the turn of the 21st century as far as I can tell. It burned down in 2011, and was boarded up for years beforehand, which is how I remember it.
It’s an incredible building even in its current state, but it must have looked absolutely stunning in its heyday. Anyone visiting the area who sees the house, would have left with photos of it.
We have heard a lot of rumours from locals about the possibility of it being taken down, rebuilt, replaced and modernised if Stena Line are able to redevelop Newry Beach, however we have been unable to find out what might be happening for sure. We thought we’d document it while we could.
For now though, we will be waiting for the recent storms of both Dudley and Eunice to pass before we can get out to film again, and we’ll keep on progressing with other projects, and work until then.
Stay safe,
Emma