Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Month: July 2025

  • Leven Vale and its Wayward River

    Leven Vale and its Wayward River

    The 1856 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map labels this ruin as a sheepfold. I remain unconvinced. It looks too small, for a start. But what would I know. This view looks down into Leven Vale, where the River Leven begins its oddly ambitious journey. It starts here in the upper reaches flowing east, then pulls off…

  • Because It’s There: Tourists on Roseberry

    Because It’s There: Tourists on Roseberry

    Another day, another climb up Roseberry. I often wonder when someone first made the effort simply for the sake of it—“because it’s there,” as Mallory said of a rather taller peak. When did the first tourists arrive? And what exactly counts as a tourist? With its sharp outline and looming bulk, Roseberry Topping has always…

  • Freebrough Hill — Where Arthur Waits

    Freebrough Hill — Where Arthur Waits

    This hill has loomed over the Guisborough to Whitby road for generations, a constant, brooding shape on the horizon. Its symmetry is so precise, its position so solitary, that people have long refused to believe it is natural. Clearly the work of men. Or gods. Or giants. One giant in particular: Wade, whose name is…

  • “HORRID MURDER AT ESKDALE NEAR WHITBY”

    “HORRID MURDER AT ESKDALE NEAR WHITBY”

    So screamed the headline of the Yorkshire Gazette on 18 September 1841. The grim report told of the brutal killing of 61-year-old Mrs Robinson, murdered alone in her home at Eskdaleside, near Sleights. Her husband, William Robinson, a yeoman farmer of decent standing, had gone to Egton Fair that day. His servants were out in…

  • Orange Spots — The Slow Death of Ash Dieback

    Orange Spots — The Slow Death of Ash Dieback

    Ash dieback is sweeping through Cliff Ridge Wood, and the National Trust Rangers have been out marking doomed ash trees with orange spots. These are the infected—struck by a disease caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. It came from Asia, hitched a ride on the global plant trade, and now spreads on the wind. Once…

  • In Search of Pannierman Pots, Here is Long Stone Instead

    In Search of Pannierman Pots, Here is Long Stone Instead

    I have long been interested in ancient transport routes across the moors, so I was pleased to come across some recent research on routeways in the North York Moors. These are vast landscape features, part of a tangled network linking places across great distances. Yet they are also intimate spaces, shaped by footfall, hooves, wheels,…

  • Bombweed, a Hall Built of Basalt and German POWs

    Bombweed, a Hall Built of Basalt and German POWs

    The vivid pinks of Rosebay Willowherb blaze across summer landscapes, yet most pass them by. Known as Fireweed, it is often the first plant to reclaim burnt ground. That was not always the case. The Georgians treated it as a rarity, grown in gardens rather than spotted in the wild. Even in 1853, the Reverend…

  • Goathland: A Nice Little Earner

    Goathland: A Nice Little Earner

    A misty start and a downpour overdue from June left little chance for photography this morning. So here is another one from yesterday: the tourist-magnet village of Goathland. Avoiding the coachloads is nearly impossible. The village spreads around a broad common where sheep graze as if unaware they are in a postcard. A posh sign,…

  • Crossing the Murk Esk and the Dream for a Canal

    Crossing the Murk Esk and the Dream for a Canal

    I have passed through Grosmont many times before, yet somehow missed this ford across the River Murk Esk. It sits quietly at the foot of Lease Rigg, one of a pair of crossings of the river that seem to defy both logic and geology. The cliff rising on the eastern side makes it clear why…