Category: Farndale
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Breckon Bank Quarry, Farndale
Farndale, a hidden gem within the North York Moors, is famous for its wild daffodils that draw visitors in droves during spring. I decided to explore the dale’s eastern side, a maze of landslips, secret ponds, and abandoned quarries that took me quite by surprise. A few less-frequented footpaths wind up the bracken-covered slopes from…
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Long Causeway
A strange name for a farmstead, perhaps a reference to the post medieval trackway that can be discerned by a faint holloway parallel to the dry-stone wall in the photo. I once read that large earthfast boulders in a wall is an indication that the wall is of some antiquity. The farm was a beneficiary…
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Sarkless Kitty
In 2015, I posted ‘The Sad Tale of Sarkless Kitty‘, a harrowing story of a woman from Gillamoor who, allegedly having been romanced and forsaken by a farmer from Hutton-le-Hole, was supposed to have ended her own life in the shallow waters of the ford that crosses the River Dove while carrying his unborn child.…
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Saw-pit, Middle Heads
One of the books on my bookshelf is “Life and Tradition on The Moorlands of North-East Yorkshire” by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby and contains an interesting photo of a saw-pit being used at Middle Heads in Farndale. I thought today I would have a go at finding it. I am a bit hesitant about…
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The Farndale Hob
I realised the other day that I don’t know upper Farndale at all. I’ve skirted around the skyline on the Rudland Rigg or the track of the old mineral railway to Rosedale many, many times. I do remember crossing the dale once in the Cleveland Survival Race. But I can’t say I’ve ever been to…
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Farndale
Whenever I see Farndale, my imagination is drawn not to its famous swathes of daffodils in the Spring but to what the dale would look like if Hull Corporation had had its way and built its proposed reservoir. The scheme was first mooted in the 1932, when the Corporation began negotiations to purchase 2,000 acres…
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The Nab and Douthwaite Dale
Heading to Bransdale to work with the National Trust clearing up after Storm Arwen, my eyes ached from squinting into the sun during the drive along Blakey Ridge. Blue skies all around, and not a cloud in sight. In the distance , the Vale of Pickering was smothered by a blanket of white cotton wool…
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Little Blakey Howe
A Bronze Age burial mound topped by an 18th century boundary stone which is inscribed with the initials ‘TD’, thought to refer to Thomas Duncombe, 18th century owner of the Duncombe Estate. It is thought the stone may be a prehistoric standing stone, in which case it would have been standing when the Crutched Friars…
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Farndale
I haven’t really had much to do with upper Farndale. I’ve used the old mineral railway track many times, Rudland Rigg on the far side less so, but actually being in the upper dale, I can only think of a couple of occasions, crossing it directly. There are no footpaths along the dale. Of course,…
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Upper Farndale
Perhaps the most peaceful of the North York Moors dales. That is after the short daffodil season is over and even then this high up the dale is rarely visited. It could all have been so different if the Kingston upon Hull Corporation had had its way. It brought 2,000 hectares of upper Farndale in…