Category: Urra Moor
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Botton Head
An obscure sandstone outcrop on Carr Ridge of Urra Moor, and overlooking to narrow north-facing valley of Ingleby Botton. The word Botton comes from an Old Scandinavian word ‘Botn’ for a hollow or head of a valley of just this shape, rounded and flat-bottomed. The early surveyors of the Ordnance Survey must have misinterpreted the local…
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‘A Wild Year’
Did you watch ‘A Wild Year‘ on BBC2 on Friday evening, featuring the North York Moors? It’ll be available on iPlayer for a while. I was left feeling disappointed. The filming was superb of course, slow motion and time lapsed, the usual BBC quality, but when it came to the inevitable section on grouse management,…
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Bell heather
The North York Moors contains the largest continuous tract of upland heather moorland in England and are renown for their display in the late summer of heather. Swathes of the lilac Ling or Calluna vulgaris cover the moors for a brief period in August. There is another heather, which is a much richer purple colour…
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Face Stone
Community networks are rapidly being created following the coronavirus outbreak. Communities are coming together with various projects to try and support the elderly and vulnerable in our society. But it is also apparent that certain individuals are seeking to exploit the situation for their own gain. Perhaps this is a frailty of human society. At…
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The Hand Stone on Urra Moor
Urra Moor has the highest point on the North York Moors. Fly east, keeping the same height and you won’t touch land again until the Ural Mountains. When an east wind blows this can be a bleak spot. The name ‘Urra’ probably comes from the old English ‘horh’ meaning phlegm or filth, perhaps an indication…
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Lagopus lagopus
Ah, the “glorious twelfth”. Nothing much happening on Urra Moor, the cloud was down this morning so I assume any shooting planned would have been cancelled in any case. So this little fella survives another day. I spotted him along Carr Ridge on the edge of the escarpment clucking away. But high on Urra Moor…
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Greenhow Botton
That deep embayment at their western extremity, Greenhow Botton, around which the moors attain their greatest elevation of nearly 1500 feet, is perhaps the most remarkable feature of the hills. The Botton lies almost a mile to the south of the line of the main range of uplands and has remarkably steep and precipitous sides…
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The Cheshire Stone
But in Yorkshire. Looking towards Haggs Gate or Clay Bank top, the col between Hasty Bank and Carr Ridge. Also called the Cheddar Stone apparently. Another type of cheese. A hazy morning with a struggling sun. Only yesterday I learnt a new word and found myself guilty of it today, lalochezia. Suddenly I found myself…
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Cocky-bells and ickles
Some ickle icicles or ice-bugs, ice-licks, ice-daggles. And snipes, and cockle-bells, aquabobs, and clinkerbells. Northerners might prefer tankles, shuckles, or just ickles. Then there’s daggers, and cancervells, Cocky-bells, and dagglers too. And not forgetting glaze and rime. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Carr Ridge and Hasty Bank
A menhir or standing stone on Urra Moor right next to the Cleveland Way. I suspect this stone has been erected in modern times simply because I can find no mention of it which I am sure there would be if it was indeed historically significant. As it is it gives a good foreground to…