Month: April 2025
-
Idiotsâ Luck on Black Monday
A day at the seaside, at Port Mulgrave with the National Trust. After the blip of yesterday, lovely sunshine again. It is whisperedâby those who still have the energy to be shockedâthat Trump and his merry band of grifters quietly offloaded large chunks of their share portfolios just before he decided to slap tariffs on…
-
Furze: Fodder, Folklore, and the Smell of Coconut
A sudden change in the weather, as if the sky has grown bored. No more sun-drenched optimism; just a grey sheet of disinterest overhead. Still, Roseberry manages to look charming, despite being surpassed by the only plant capable of making scrubland smell like a tropical cocktail â gorse. Its yellow blooms, reeking of coconut and…
-
Whitby Abbey: Holy Vows, Pagan Wars, and the Problem of Easter
I usually try to avoid posting touristy photographs, but in this case, my resolve faltered. This one was taken looking back as we wandered towards Ruswarp, along the River Esk, with the ruins of Whitby Abbey brooding in the distance. A clichĂ©, admittedly, but quite picturesque in a ruinous sort of way. As for the…
-
Ruswarpâs Chainbridge
Ruswarp once had a suspension bridge. James Wilson built it in 1825, his money coming from slavery. Perhaps the river knew, it hated the bridge, and washed it away. Twice.
-
Wheeldale Lodge: From Shooting to Youth Hostel to Private Residence
My memories of Wheeldale Lodge are, regrettably, a jumble. One of the earliest involves the unremarkable joy of dunking sore feet in Wheeldale Beck after a needlessly long march across the Lyke Wake Walk. This was in 1969, and my 17-year-old self had been trudging for twelve and a half hours. The route comes down…
-
St. Anneâs Church, Catterick
I found myself in Catterick with ten minutes to spare. Grand plans of a leisurely stroll quickly shrank to a brisk glance around. The village tries very hard to be charming, with its oversized green and a stream obligingly flowing by. One would not expect such rural pretence given its awkward positionâwedged between a military…
-
Bransdaleâs Dry-Stone Walls: Standing Strong, Sometimes
Dry-stone walls are everywhere on the North York Moors and in other rocky parts of Britain, mostly because they are built to last and farmers found plenty of stones lying around. The concept is hardly original; versions of these walls have existed since Neolithic times, and from Europe to Africa. The idea is simple: pile…
-
The Ancient Hollow-Way to Nowhere in Particular
The Public Bridleway from the hamlet of Urra winds its way up to another Right of Way that follows Billyâs Dyke, that Bronze Age boundary fortification of earth and stone. This grand construction supposedly gets its name from Billy Norman, better known elsewhere as William the Conqueror, who apparently managed to get lost in a…
-
Sunset Over Kikdale and a Sporting Legacy
I suppose Iâm not necessarily a diurnal sort of person. But at this time of year, I have yet to shake off the winter habit of retreating indoors as soon as the temperature drops and dusk approaches. So, finding myself on Park Nab, looking over Kildale at sunset yesterday, was something of an anomaly. The…
-
Cleveland: A County No One Wanted
All Foolsâ Day 1974âthe perfect occasion for bureaucratic tomfoolery. On this particular day, the North Riding of Yorkshire relinquished half of Roseberry Topping to the nascent âCounty of Cleveland.â A curious choice of name, given that âClevelandâ means âhilly landâ in Old English, whereas this new county was largely flat. Nonetheless, the boundary was drawn,…