Out & About …

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

Category: Urra

  • Elfi The Dwarf — The Story Told at Ye Sign of the Fox & Hounds, Urra

    Elfi The Dwarf — The Story Told at Ye Sign of the Fox & Hounds, Urra

    The notion of transcribing these ancient folk tales of Richard Blakeborough, thought to be a splendid idea at first, an idea born during the Covid lockdown, now gnaws at my conscience with growing unease. Recent reports detailing the modification of Roald Dahl’s cherished works, altering words deemed offensive and rewriting character descriptions in an attempt…

  • Cheshire Stone

    Cheshire Stone

    On the lip of Urra Moor, overlooking the village of Urra. I wonder what came first: the moor or the village? It is said the name might derive from the Norse ‘haugr‘ meaning a hill. Or it could from the Old English word for dirty — ‘horheht‘/’horhig‘/’horuweg‘ — apparently Try speaking the words without pronouncing…

  • Bracing Bilsdale

    Bracing Bilsdale

    I find there’s something bracing about being out after a fresh fall of snow. Particularly an unexpected fall of snow. This is Bilsdale, looking south from Hasty Bank. The settlement left of centre is the hamlet of Urra. Elgee wrote that “it is a trite axiom geology that the width of a valley and not…