Thread by @holland_tom

Pumped for today’s sand castle...

I am planning fortifications on a scale that would impress Theodosius II...

Currently sourcing a wheelbarrow...

For those of you wondering how our sand-castle has been getting on...

Gasp in awe as @sadieholland67 raises battlements destined to endure until the crack of time

Current state of play: the central ziggurat has been completed. @harryswan1 points out its full towering wonder

We have now completed what every sand-castle absolutely needs: an enigmatic Neolithic monument

Should there be any youngsters out there wondering how to build steepling battlements - note the strategic use of the bedrock

Ok - have now completed a Maginot Line-style wall, running from the central ziggurat to the cliff. Note the gun emplacement with slits. There is no possible way the sea will be able to get past this.

Observe how the fortifications follow the line of the crags, Hadrian’s Wall style @perlineamvalli

Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall Of China, our sandcastle...

More mysterious monuments have appeared in the godswood...

Peasants toiling in the fields...

Helm’s Deep: seat of kings

Look on our works, ye mighty, & despair! In our many long years of making #sandcastles at #Trevone, this is surely our masterpiece.

Now we just wait for the sea...

The huge advance we’ve made this year - & where the film of The Lord Of The Rings was, of course, sadly lacking - is to provide an agricultural hinterland for our fortifications

Now pushing realism to a perhaps slightly unnecessary extreme by irrigating our open-field system

Winter is coming.

But it’s ok - it’s the peasants who’ll go first

Oh no - the orcs have arrived at our outer battlements

Oh no! We have a breach! The enemy are flooding across our agricultural hinterland!

Nervous for the godswood now, with its enigmatic monuments...

And that it’s it - the enigmatic monuments have fallen to the enemy

The central defences have now fully fallen but Helm’s Deep continues to hold out, & the ziggurat remains defiant

Really proud of how well Hadrian’s Wall is defying the waves

The ziggurat now completely surrounded by the sea

Really proud of the ziggurat. The battle is lost, the enemy is all around it, & yet still its battlements bristle defiantly

Can’t bear to see it go...

Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade
Of that which once was great is passed away

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level seas stretch far away

And so it ends. That’s all, folks!

Many thanks to @TrevathanFarm for the loan of the spades. (And it’s a wonderful place to stay...) #Cornwall