Category: Gribdale
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Paddock, Gribdale
I will be the first to admit that I don’t know much about horses. But I do feel sorry for this herd of horses at Gribdale. There must be close to a dozen of them in a smallish muddy field with very little grass. For sure, hay or other feed is obviously being provided but…
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Roseberry through Gribdale Gap
They say the Eskimos have 50 different words for snow but this is apparently a myth. The Swedes certainly have 25 but the top prize must go to the Scots who have had 421. From “Mell-moorin”, a fall of fine, drifting snow to “skelvie“, large flakes of softly falling snow. Now I don’t know what…
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Gribdale Gate
It is nearing that time of the year when a mysterious old man appears at Gribdale and then vanishes. But unfortunately on New Year’s Eve, when he has been seen, I am usually in the Lake District. Richard Blakeborough wrote in his book ‘Wit, Character, Folklore and Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire‘, printed…
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Sunrise on Cliff Rigg
Two major achievements. First I dragged myself out of the house whilst still dark and secondly, I managed a hypnopompic run up Cliff Rigg, the first since my attempt at an Icarus imitation. They say the darkest hour is before dawn. That’s probably not true once your eyes have become accustomed. Dick Turpin and his…
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Pinch, punch, first of the month …
… and no returns. October, the eighth month of the calendar of Romulus, the first king of Rome. And what a miserable morning. But it had brightened up by the end of the afternoon. A view south-east from Cliff Rigg towards Gribdale and Cockshaw Hill. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Gribdale Terrace
An evening stroll up Capt.Cook’s Monument hoping to catch a spectacular sunset. Instead, a diffuse grey blanket gradually smothered the sun. The white cottages of Gribdale Terrace, built for whinstone miners, on the far left overlooked by Roseberry Topping. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Ayton Banks Alum Works
A cold, overcast day. The fresh snow of the last few days has aged into a dirty wet surface. I found myself above Gribdale looking down on the heavily worked hillside of Cockshaw where the snow accentuated the contours of the Ayton Banks Alum Works that operated for a mere nine years in the latter…
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Motherly love
Motherly love Motherly love Forget about the brotherly and other-ly love Motherly love is just the thing for you You know your Mothers’ gonna love ya ’til ya don’t know what to do Frank Zappa From the Mother of Invention’s debut album. Not really my music but an apt quote for these heelin’ coos at…
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First Footing
New Year’s Day and back home in the Cleveland Hills after a pre-dawn dash from the Lakes. This from Cockshaw hill above Gribdale Terrace and Howl Road. Roseberry in the distance. A reasonable morning. Cloudy but dry. An old Yorkshire saying is that the weather until March is governed by that on the first three…
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Boxing Day Hunt
The Cleveland Hunt traditionally starts from Great Ayton High Green on Boxing Day. Now I have two issues with fox hunting. Firstly there is much evidence that, in spite of the hunting of animals with dogs having been illegal since 2004, the law is being circumvented by the pretence that hunts are conducted under the…