Category: Roseberry Topping
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English bluebells
With low-pressure domination, and mist and drizzle all day, I thought I might as well take advantage of the spectacular display in the bluebell meadows of Newton Wood. I believe these are mostly English bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, although there may well be some Spanish bluebells in there or some hybridisation of the two. English bluebells…
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Bluebells, Newton Wood
It’s that time of the year, the bluebells of Newton Wood. They seem a bit early, it was 10 May last year when I posted my photo. A dull morning with a touch of drizzle but clouds beginning to clear after lunch. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Cliff Rigg and Roseberry
A view from Ayton Bank. On the right, Roseberry Topping, “Cleveland’s Matterhorn”, a glacial outlier, the remains of a spur of the moors eroded away by the last ice advance from the north-west as the ice, hundreds of metres thick, met the bulk of the high moors. Cliff Rigg, on the left, has a slightly…
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Common Lizard
The whole day spent on the slopes of Roseberry, piling in fencing posts. Hard work. The old ones had rotted through. Being in one place means that nature often comes to you. The flyby of a sand martin, a distance cuckoo, the first of the year and peacock butterflies, also a first. And a common…
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The National Trust Omega Sign
There’s always been an omega sign, the classic National trust design, at the end of Aireyholme Lane on Roseberry Common but the angle on which it had been erected did not give a clear view with the Topping as a backdrop. So when, a couple of weeks ago, I was tasked, as a National Trust…
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A horse’s route up Roseberry
I was perusing the North York Moors Rights of Way map the other day when I noticed that there is a Public Bridleway that zigzags its way from the top of Roseberry Lane almost to the summit. In the photo, the bridleway comes up the flagged path to the bend and then continues to the…
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Blackthorn thicket, Newton Wood
A bit of a wet morning, with wisps of cloud skirting the hills. In a few weeks time, this blackthorn thicket will have settled back into an unassuming backdrop to the wonderful display of bluebells in Newton Wood. A few early sprigs are already showing. But for now, the spiny blackthorn takes the stage with…
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Larch Roses
A common name for the female flowers of the European larch tree. The male flowers are clusters of yellow anthers which form on the underside of shoots. Pollination is by the wind after which the roses ripen into the familiar brown cones containing the seeds which dispersed by the wind. The larch is now firmly…
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The Summerhouse
“Beware the Ides of March” so said the soothsayer to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play. A day in the Roman calendar corresponding to the 15 March when all debts must be settled. And of course the day Caesar was assassinated. But for me, a day for a leisurely stroll up Roseberry Topping. Often erroneously referred…
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Aireyholme Farm
Best known as where James Cook lived as a boy and where his father was employed as the farm foreman, although it is likely that the Cook family’s actual cottage was sited a little distance out of shot to the left at the foot of Cliff Rigg. The modern farm buildings in the photo date…