Category: Gribdale
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A view along the Cleveland Dyke
A view looking down on Gribdale Terrace, a row of white cottages built to accommodate the quarrymen employed at the adjacent whinstone mine and quarry. The line of the Whinstone or Cleveland Dyke can clearly be seen in the photograph, stretching from Cliff Rigg in the distance to behind the cottages where it follows the…
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The Rise and Fall of Alum Production in Great Ayton
As I descend from Capt. Cook’s Monument, approaching Gribdale Terrace, the former whinstone quarrymen’s cottages gleam white, with Cliff Rigg rising behind them. Before me, in the centre of the photo is a range of sandstone buildings mapped as Bank House Farm on the 1853 OS Six-inch map, but an auction advertisement in the Yorkshire…
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Everytime I go up to Capt. Cook’s Monument I find another area of clear felling
This is on Little Ayton Moor, above Hunter’s Scar — note to self: have a look at this feature — revealing a view of the whole of the short valley between Roseberry Topping, Black Bank and Great Ayton Moor. A view that has not been seen for perhaps half a century. To me, a view…
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An early start
It was dry when I left home but by Gribdale Gate, the wind had picked up and it was beginning to spit, and any thoughts of photography had been forgotten. Still, it was pleasant to see Gribdale empty of cars; apart from two early dog walkers. It’s has always been a popular car park as…
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Devensian musings
I have mentioned many times of the great Devensian ice sheet which flowed over the Pennines at the Stainmore Gap, spilling out into what would become the Vale of Cleveland. And it is also common knowledge that the glacier did not flow over North York Moors, which became an island in a sea of ice,…
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Wild fire on Cockshaw Hill
Just a reminder that there is a very high fire risk on the moors at the moment. This morning, I came across the remains of a fire on Cockshaw Hill. I think it happened about three weeks ago and was caused by a disposable BBQ. The lush-looking bracken below disguises the risk, but I think…
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Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus
Well, Spring has sprung, it’s pancake day, and of course it’s St. David’s day, so ‘Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus‘ to all you Welsh speakers. As one proverb says ‘March (has) many weathers‘ so it’s not surprising that there are many proverbs foretelling the weather. If we have a wet month, we might say: A wet…
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The Cleveland Dyke
I ‘discovered’ this viewpoint the other day. It nicely illustrates the route of that intrusion of igneous rock known as Cleveland Dyke. The Cleveland Dyke was formed about 59 million years ago when an immense hot spot of pressurised molten magma developed under the Earth’s crust near the island of Mull off the west coast…
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Gribdale
I’ve never really figured out where Gribdale begins and where it ends. There is no dale as such. The col between Capt. Cook’s Monument and Great Ayton Moor is known as Gribdale Gate. Beyond that, we’re into Lonsdale, so Gribdale must lie this side. But there is no valley. A stream does spring out from…
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Bullfinch sky
A dash up to Gribdale to catch the sunset. At first a disappointment but then the distant clouds caught fire. This was twenty minutes or so after the actual sunset, well into twilight; the display lasted barely five minutes before fading. According to the writer Robert Macfarlane, the Finnish call this orange afterglow of twilight…