Out & About …

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

Category: Danby Dale

  • Revd. J C Atkinson’s ‘Forty Years in a Moorland Parish’

    Revd. J C Atkinson’s ‘Forty Years in a Moorland Parish’

    I have often referred to the Reverend John Christopher Atkinson’s book, ‘Forty Years in a Moorland Parish,’ published in 1891. It offers a detailed account of life in and around the village of Danby, and is a much thumbed addition to my bookshelf. This morning I ventured into Danby Dale, Atkinson’s former parish. Atkinson was…

  • Danby Botton

    Danby Botton

    Danby Dale’s middle section is termed ‘Danby Botton’, where Botton comes  from an Old Scandinavian word ‘Botn’ for a hollow. The farm nearest is Stormy Hall which is the centre of a tradition dating from the time that Danby Castle was in the possession of the Latimers. Apparently, the hall takes its name from the fact…

  • Mark’s-e’en watch

    Mark’s-e’en watch

    A warm, beautiful morning but very hazy, not conducive at all for distant landscape photographs. All the colours end up being washed out. It must be all this Sarahan sand. Tomorrow, April 25, is the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist which makes today St Mark’s Eve when it was the custom to sit…

  • Hanging Stone, Danby Dale

    Hanging Stone, Danby Dale

    When the Reverend J.C.Atkinson became the vicar of the parish of Danby in 1847 there was no village of Danby and as far as he could ascertain there had never been one. There was a Danby Dale, a Danby Rigg and a Danby Castle. There were several hamlets: Dale End, Little Fryup and Ainthorpe, and…

  • Danby Dale and Castleton

    Danby Dale and Castleton

    As the sun passes over the equator and the hours of daylight and darkness are the same, we are reminded that winter is fast approaching. So an equinoctial cycle ride, to Great Fryup for breakfast at the Yorkshire Cycle Hub, what better way of spending a Sunday morning. Unfortunately, at Rosedale Head, I got quite…