Oi! Can Anyone Hear A Zeppelin? Virtual Cache
Oi! Can Anyone Hear A Zeppelin?
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(virtual)
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A nice easy cache, a flat walk but you may need to navigate around odd marshy bits.
Revisions 3/11/2013 as there appears to be a new car park, please let me know if there are any problems with the new instructions. Enjoy!
The observant among you may notice an odd structure from the road on the way into Kilnsea and wonder what it is.
There is a new nature reserve car park at N 53 37.690 E 000 07.487 which is probably the quickest route to the cache (but perhaps not the nicest). Follow the permissive path East (towards the smell of the sea not the smell of the river). This is probably < 1 mile round trip. See notes below re: dogs etc.
The second way to get to it (again by sticking to foot paths and not trespassing on farm fields) is to park at the Bluebell tea rooms car park 1/2 a mile past the crown and anchor pub towards spurn point at
N53.37.202 E0.08.408
From here it is a 1 to 1.5 mile easy walk to the location and back (the site is visible about a third of the way into the walk to the cache).
You need to use the kissing gate at : N 53 37.556 E 000 08.250 as your first waypoint.
The track may have puddles on it but they are easy to get around. Please don't trespass on the farmers field ESPECIALLY if crops are planted. You can get pretty close without going into the same field as the structure, please get your photos from behind the fence.
NOTE : Spurn point is a nature reserve and dogs are STRICTLY not allowed, this cache however does not cross this restricted part of the reserve and so dogs are allowed - however given the nature of the site, it may be considerate to the wildlife to keep them on a lead when on the marsh area.
The site dates back to the early 1900's before radar existed. The structure at the cache location is an early attempt at detecting approaching enemy aircraft before they were visible. The large dish worked rather like a satelite dish does in modern times - it focused the sound from the aircraft engines onto the dish and a metal post in the middle of the dish would transmit the sound through headphones to an operator's ears.
These 'sound mirrors' only gave very brief warnings of approaching aircraft. Who knows what the operator actually did if he/she heard anything!
Once you have found the site, email me a photo of yourself and your GPS at the site to claim the cache (I have removed the request to tell me who did the graffiti as a recent visit has shown that at last it has faded away)
A good site with more info (and lots of nice pics) on this and other sound mirrors is : Andrew Granthams page, also there is a good history on this time team page.
Don't leave it too many years to visit this site as it will be in the sea before too long ;-)
If you are wondering why Kilnsea is so small, its because the town square is now 300meters out to sea due to the fastest coastal erosion in Europe.
If you want a busy day, there are a couple of nice meridian caches not too far away (you may have passed one on the way to Kilnsea already), but the one at the end of the point looks like it has gone for time being.
Additional Hints
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