Last Friday (21 October) I went to look at the immature female Fin Whale that had washed up dead on the beach at Holkham on the North Norfolk coast the previous day.

It was a very moving sight, something I’m going to write about in more detail in future. For now though here are some photographs I took, which I think capture something of the sculptural beauty and grace of this magnificent 40-foot animal, a species I’ve been lucky enough to have witnessed on several occasions at sea where essentially all the whale reveals of itself is its distinct tall dorsal fin and spectacular blow, wonderfully described by Melville as a “straight and single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain”.

RIP whale.