An early Start Point
I’ve been to Start Point before. I came here with my son one morning, very early, and took photographs in the fog.
This time it’s later in the day. As we arrive a Sparrowhawk flies over our shoulders and lands on the rocks above the sea.
![Sparrowhawk at Start Point - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Start-Point-The-Hall-of-Einar--725x484.jpg)
There are distant Common Buzzards gliding in ever-higher circles high over the headland. Nearby, a Common Kestrel flies past fast:
![Kestrel at Start Point - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Start-Point-The-Hall-of-Einar-3-725x408.jpg)
They’re such beautiful birds. Their scientific name is Falco tinnunculus. Falco means sickle.
![Kestrel at Start Point - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Start-Point-The-Hall-of-Einar-4-725x408.jpg)
I can see it hovering over the grassy slopes. I’m not sure there are many mice and voles here. In Orkney they are called Moosiehaaks.
![Kestrel at Start Point - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Start-Point-The-Hall-of-Einar-2-1-725x408.jpg)
It plunges onto the ground and then rises again with a cricket in its talons.
![Kestrel at Start Point - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Start-Point-The-Hall-of-Einar-6-725x408.jpg)
Then, just like the Lesser Kestrels we’ve seen in Italy, it eats it on the wing.
From the car park we can see the village of Hallsands half-way down the cliffs. It was abandoned when I first visited it. Hallsands was a thriving community in the 1890s, with numerous houses and a chapel. The Admiralty made the decision to expand the naval dockyard at Keyham and gave a contract to dredge shingle from the coast. The beach level fell by between seven and twelve feet and, in one storm in 1917, most of the village was washed away.
![Hallsands - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Start-Point-The-Hall-of-Einar-7-725x483.jpg)
The Government commissioned a report which was never published, because it said the disaster was due to the dredging. The villagers lost everything they had.
As we pack up to leave, a familiar looking plane appears. It’s a Spitfire. I know there’s been one over Exeter recently with ‘Thank you NHS’ under its wings. This has the same insignia.
![Plane at Start Point - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Start-Point-The-Hall-of-Einar-5-725x483.jpg)
What an incredible machine.