Out & About …

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

Category: Cleveland Way

  • Zen and the Art of Being Out & About

    Zen and the Art of Being Out & About

    Another gloriously miserable day on the North York Moors, the sort of day where fog clings like a wet blanket over everything, damping one’s bones. I heard later the Great North Air Ambulance had been grounded due to poor visibility. It is, as ever, a perfect day for a bit of being out and about.…

  • 90 Metres of Progress: The Curious Case of a New Bridleway

    90 Metres of Progress: The Curious Case of a New Bridleway

    It is a curious thing, is it not, that the powers-that-be, in their infinite wisdom, believed they could neatly parcel up the English countryside like so many slices of cake, each path and bridleway served with a side of bureaucracy. Under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949, a grand endeavour…

  • Burton Howe — A Bronze Age round barrow

    Burton Howe — A Bronze Age round barrow

    Just adjacent to the Cleveland Way, as it slogs its way along the landrover track on Greenhow Bank, lies Burton Howe, topped with its medieval parish boundary marker stone. Perched at an elevation of 433 metres (1,419 feet), it affords a splendid view of the Cleveland Plain, stretching westward along the line of the Cleveland…

  • Highcliffe Nab — observer of history

    Highcliffe Nab — observer of history

    Guisborough is an ancient place, with a long and varied history. It was important enough during the time of the Conquest to be listed in the Domesday Book, a detailed record of The Conqueror’s ill-gotten gains, although it was of relatively low value, contributing just a few shillings per year to the royal coffers. Over…

  • The Wainstones

    The Wainstones

    Playing on the Cleveland Hills today. This is a familiar landmark to all who know these hills. My dabble in artificial intelligence a few weeks ago, was not very convincing, but I thought I would give it another go. Maybe Shakespear with his iambic pentameter was too intelligent, so I thought KISS, ‘keep it simple…

  • Clear felling on Little Ayton Moor has opened up super views across Great Ayton Moor all the way to Highcliff Nab

    Clear felling on Little Ayton Moor has opened up super views across Great Ayton Moor all the way to Highcliff Nab

    A light overnight snowfall hides the debris from the forestry work. I guess the remainder of the forestry will go in due course. Great Ayton Moor has a wealth of archaeological features which I’ve posted about many times before. A chambered cairn, a cairnfield , an Iron Age enclosure, and numerous tumuli. Elgee thought that…

  • Saltwick Bay and Black Nab

    Saltwick Bay and Black Nab

    When King Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries, Whitby Abbey did not escape. Its fixtures and furnishings were all sold off with the funds going into the King’s coffers. The lead on the roof was stripped and used on the nearby St. Mary’s Church which until then had a thatched roof. The bells…

  • Skinningrove

    Skinningrove

    When ‘J.G.’ passed through Skinningrove bay in 1866 on his way from Saltburn to Whitby, the village must have looked very different. The stone built houses were set back from the shore, to give some shelter from the North Sea; the rows of terraced cottages had still to be built. To visualise it best, it’s…

  • Now this is a white Christmas

    Now this is a white Christmas

    For the last 46 years, I have run on Christmas morning. Today was no exception. No new snow overnight but yesterday’s had acquired a frozen crust. This is looking down the Cleveland Way on Ingleby Moor. Quiz question: who described his Christmas day thus? “Lay pretty long in bed, and then rose, leaving my wife…

  • The col between Cringle Moor and Cold Moor

    The col between Cringle Moor and Cold Moor

    A morning of swirling cloud and bursts of sunshine. The mist cleared long enough to snatch this photo as I descended Cold Moor to the nameless col with Cringle Moor. Here, there is the base of the ancient Donna Cross and further down towards the low lands a stream develops called Halliday Slack but otherwise…