Out & About …

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

Category: Rosedale

  • Northdale’s Mysterious Stone Pig-Sty?

    Northdale’s Mysterious Stone Pig-Sty?

    During my wandering around the aesthetic barns of Northdale yesterday, this little curiosity caught my eye. A curving quadrantal chamber within a natural rock formation, adorned with two large recesses flanking the “southern” entrance and another substantial chamber gracing its northern flank. Clearly, the hands of man have toiled here, evident in the distinct dressing…

  • Red House

    Red House

    According Tom Scott Burns, Red House formerly served as a tavern for wayfarers traversing the moors, likely vying with The Lettered Board Inn, or Hamer House, where those in the business of panniers, colliers, and smugglers sought reprieve during their journey. Red House, like Hamer House, fell into ruins over the ages. While the stones…

  • Blakey Ridge and The Lion Inn: From Crutched Friars to Modern Hikers

    Blakey Ridge and The Lion Inn: From Crutched Friars to Modern Hikers

    A view across Rosedale towards Blakey Ridge. In the front, Florence Terrace, one of many rows of terraced cottages built to house the ironstone miners and their families. Rosedale’s population surged in the two decades between 1851 and 1871. Barely discernible on the distant skyline stands the Lion Inn. There are few inns more remote,…

  • Young Ralph Cross

    Young Ralph Cross

    A breather after riding up from Westerdale. Not the highest part of the Moors ā€” that falls to Round Hill on Urra Moor ā€” but it certainly has that feel about it. Young Ralph Cross has stood for centuries guiding and reassuring the weary traveller. Nowadays, most folk don’t stop on the busy Castleton to…

  • Rosedale & Lastingham Light Railway

    Rosedale & Lastingham Light Railway

    In 1896, the Light Railways Act 1896 was enacted which allowed new ‘light railways’ to be expediently built, principally in rural areas. A light railway was “one constructed with lighter rails and structures, running at a slower speed, with poorer accommodation for passengers and less facility for freight”, and working “with less stringent standards of…

  • Rosedale Glass Works

    Rosedale Glass Works

    I’ve been meaning to explore the lower part of Rosedale for some time. especially the site of an Elizabethan glass works. A lovely Spring day with blue skies but the site of the works were a little underwhelming. The ruins of a building associated with a 19th-century sandstone quarry was much more interesting. On the…

  • Low Baring: The end of the line

    Low Baring: The end of the line

    The former terminus of the east branch of the Rosedale Ironstone Railway. The branch line was built to serve the mines on the east side of the dale. It was opened in August 1865 by the North Eastern Railway although it is likely construction may have begun by the mine owners. The 4Ā¾ mile route…

  • Rosedale East Mines

    Rosedale East Mines

    The great sweep of the old railway track as it descends to the calcining kilns of the Rosedale East Mines. The gradient at this point is about 1 in 60. The line continues to terminate at the goods depot and coal yard at Low Baring. On the extreme left of the featured image are the…

  • Rosedale West Kilns

    Rosedale West Kilns

    Ironstone has been mined in Rosedale since medieval times, but it was only small scale operations. It was in the mid-19th-century with the discovery of a very high quality seam near Hollins Farm that extraction became more serious. The mine opened in 1853 with ore being carried down the valley by a pannier train of…

  • In search of a navvy camp in Rosedale

    In search of a navvy camp in Rosedale

    Headed high today. To Blakey Ridge. Through the freezing fog to blue skies and a boreal wonderland. We were in search of the remains of aĀ temporary encampmentĀ for the navvies that built the mineral railway around Rosedale. The location was at Black Intake just west ofĀ Green Head Brow. The first loaded train along theĀ 14-mile mineral railway…