Out & About …

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

Category: Rivelingdale

  • Fishy WW2 code-names

    Fishy WW2 code-names

    A view down from above the WW2 Starfish Decoy Command Bunker on Hutton Moor down Codhill Slack, or Rivelingdale to use its medieval name. Starfish seems a strange name to have used for decoys created to simulate burning British cities. I guess a secret code-name should be completely unrelated to the operation or else it…

  • Standing Stone, Rivelingdale

    Standing Stone, Rivelingdale

    At Percy Rigg Cross, a spur of the moment to pop down to have a look at the spring in Rivelingdale or Codhill Beck. There is one internet source which suggests the spring is a holy well with the name of ‘St. Mary’s Well‘. Apparently, it’s a name referred to by the archaeologist Roland Close…

  • Potters Ridge

    Potters Ridge

    I have not taken a photo from this spot before. Honest. I moved a hundred metres south from Black Nab to be sure. I have often wondered how Potters Ridge got its name. That low 25 metre high prominence behind Highcliff Nab. I think I’ve found out. In 1806, Robert Chaloner, the Lord of the…

  • Dear Rishi Sunak,

    Dear Rishi Sunak,

    I am writing this open letter, as one of your constituents, to express my concern at some of the aspects of the introduction of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021 which I believe has been deliberatively drafted as an excessively lengthy document (307 pages) and which is being rushed through the Commons on…

  • From Crows to Cobras

    From Crows to Cobras

    I thought I would pop along to see  if this ladder trap I last visited a couple of years ago had been in use. It doesn’t look like it. The dead crow that was there previously has long since long and the access gate was left open. Although these traps are not selective, birds of…

  • Rivelingdale from Potters Ridge

    Rivelingdale from Potters Ridge

    The image belies the buffeting I was getting by the bitter wind. I was on Potters Ridge, a small 24m high prominence of Guisborough Moor. Highcliff Nab is at the north-western end, and views of Sleddale and Rivelingdale on the southern, the ridge bisected by the forestry boundary fence. I am currently reading ‘Sapiens’ by…

  • On Codhill Heights

    On Codhill Heights

    Sans le chien so a chance to go off-piste. So this is looking back after crossing Rivelingdale from Percy Cross Rigg and climbing Codhill Heights. The map indicates an old field system hereabouts, but there is not much to see. This small standing stone may or may not be significant, but as Donkey said in…

  • Ladder trap, Great Ayton Moor

    Ladder trap, Great Ayton Moor

    Last week there was a furore over Natural England’s decision to revoke its long-standing General Licences to kill birds to prevent serious damage to livestock and crops. This followed a legal review of its licensing system which was found to be unlawful. Chris Packham, one of the three co-directors of the environmental organisation, Wild Justice,…

  • St. Mary’s Well

    St. Mary’s Well

    I have called this St. Mary’s Well. It is a name referred to by the archaeologist Roland Close in his report on his excavation of the Iron Age huts on Percy Rigg. Unfortunately, I have not been able to read his report published before the days of the internet. A copy has been requested but…