Category: Cleveland Hills
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Cleveland Hills
A peaceful rural scene. How different it would look today if the giant oil companies had found “black gold” in the 1930s. A forest of oil derricks and nodding donkeys? In 1938, the Gulf Exploration Company began drilling for oil in the Cleveland Hills. 30 men were employed, seeking the oil that the jet miners…
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Pancake Day
On my way to Northallerton to get jabbed, so popped over into Cod Beck on the way. This is a view of Scarth Nick and Sheep Wash from Priest’s Spa Quarry on Hither Moor. And it’s Pancake Day too, a day when many traditions have been lost to history. Shrove Tuesday, the day before the…
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I learnt a new word today …
Galeanthropy – the belief that you have become into a cat. A delusion. Not that you can turn into a cat at will, like a witch’s familiar, like Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter. That would be therianthropy. Therianthropy, another new word, is the belief in the ability to change into any animal. This shamanic belief…
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Do you want the good news or the bad news?
I’ll start with the good. Yesterday the Government announced that “Legislation will be brought forward to prevent the burning of heather and other vegetation on protected blanket bog habitats“. This is great news. A recognition at long last that the burning of heather moorlands is detrimental to their peat structure and their natural habitats. Burning…
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Howden Gill on Ayton Bank with the Cleveland Hills in the distance
Not many bees and insects around at the moment. In the midst of winter, they are either dormant or are still eggs, buried deep in the leaf litter. Honey bees will be cozy in their hives surviving on a sufficient supply of honey left for them by the beekeeper. But nationwide, bees and other pollinators…
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Cleveland Hills
Another splodgy run up Capt. Cook’s monument and on to Roseberry, with distance views of the sun capped Cleveland Hills. Five minutes later I was in a blinding blizzard. On Easby Moor and in Newton Wood there was much evidence of off-road motorcycles and quad bikes. Circuits of the monument seem to have been particularly…
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A new vista across Greenhow bottom to the Cleveland Hills
Recent felling on Ingleby Bank has opened up a new vista across Greenhow bottom to the Cleveland Hills. In the near distance are Bank Foot Farm and the old railwayman’s house formerly known as Poultry House Cottage. Poultry House Cottage has a dark history. I wrote about it here on my old site dated 18…
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Cleveland Hills
Another temperature inversion in the Vale of Cleveland. Far better than yesterday. Magic. This is from Park Nab above Kildale looking towards Clay Bank. A day when I have become infected by the emotion and relief surging across the USA. But deep down there is a fear that it’s the start of a protracted battle…
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Scarth Nick
To me, this is one of most evocative features on the Cleveland Hills. It was the first landmark on my first visit to the North York Moors, on a crossing on the Lyke Wake Walk in June 1969. After descending the hill and crossing the cattle grid there was a sign saying “Ravenscar 39 Miles”;…
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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…