A remote shingle spit that was once a Cold War weapons testing site is to host a series of readings by an author who was inspired by its landscape, together with performances from a singer-songwriter influenced by his work.
Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast was used as a military test site during both world wars and into the nuclear age, before the Ministry of Defence sold it to the National Trust in 1993.
It has been left to nature and is home to an abundance of wildlife, including nesting and wading birds, hares, Chinese water deer and precious vegetated shingle.
All of this is subject to the shifts brought by climate and coastal change.
Singer-songwriter Hayden Thorpe, best known as the frontman of indie pop band Wild Beasts, was inspired by Macfarlane鈥檚 book and was moved to make an album, also called Ness, that is due to be released on September 27.
Macfarlane and Thorpe will both perform at Orford Ness in a series of gigs called Ness Speaks: Words And Music on Saturday September 28 and Sunday September 29.
The event will feature an intimate, acoustic performance by Thorpe, joined by the cross-genre musical ensemble Propellor.
The author said: 鈥淥rford Ness has long been a place of transformation and mutation, so it makes perfect and exciting sense to me to see my own words about the site taken up and transfigured into music by Hayden Thorpe.
鈥淲orking with Jack McNeill and Kerry Andrew, he has created something deeply strange and wildly original: a nuclear epic, a desert-music dream vision.
I can鈥檛 wait to hear it performed in full, in situ.鈥
Thorpe said: 鈥淰isiting Orford Ness with Robert Macfarlane is like being guided through his Graceland.
鈥淭he same life-force on Ness that possessed him to write his visionary book carried forward into me like an electrical current.
鈥淣ess Speaks鈥痳epresents the sum total of our collective fever dream.
鈥淚t is not often that you can actually live inside a song, but for these special shows it couldn鈥檛 be more true.鈥
Ness Speaks: Words And Music builds on previous artistic collaborations at Orford Ness.
In 2021, the National Trust teamed up with Artangel to produce Afterness, an exhibition which featured work by a collection of international artists.
Orford Ness property operations manager Glen Pearce, said: 鈥淭he unique landscape and fascinating, often secretive history of Orford Ness has inspired countless artists and writers across many different genres, and we鈥檙e delighted to bring so many of them together in the same space this September.
鈥淲e hope Orford Ness fascinates our visitors whenever they visit, but we鈥檙e sure this will be something unique and offer something different, even for those who may have visited before.鈥
Visitors will be able to book a ticket and a ferry crossing for one of four timed performances across the weekend, and enjoy exploring a reduced visitor route to get a feel for the place which has inspired so many artists and writers over the decades.
Tickets cost 拢35 and will include the ferry crossing, performance and a self-guided walk.
Orford Ness is open to the public on set days between March 29 and October 27, with access permitted only by the National Trust ferry, Octavia.
For more information, visit the website at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orfordness
