Out & About …

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

Category: Cliff Rigg

  • Sunset from Cliff Rigg

    Sunset from Cliff Rigg

    A very wet run this morning over the Cleveland Hills. And after lunch, the sun came out. Blue skies. So I dragged the dog up to Cliff Rigg for the sunset. And she repaid me by thorough belching — I made that phrase up, inspired by the 18th-century expression of a ‘thorough-cough‘ which is coughing…

  • The talus of sandstone boulders at the foot of Roseberry Topping resulting from the landslip that occured in 1912

    The talus of sandstone boulders at the foot of Roseberry Topping resulting from the landslip that occured in 1912

    A scene of rocky confusion. ‘Talus’ is a strange word. It’s a word I actually find uncomfortable to use, long past its sell-by date. In this context it means the slope of rock debris but an alternative meaning is an anklebone. Each derives from different Latin words. Until 1830 talus was more often referred to…

  • The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022

    The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022

    So a new PM is inflicted upon us. One part of this government’s growth agenda was the ditching of environmental protections. So far there has been no indication of any reversal of this agenda with the coronation of the new PM. On the day when fracking was being debated in Parliament ‘The Retained EU Law…

  • Johnny Longstaff

    Johnny Longstaff

    This photo of Cliff Rigg quarry looks along the whinstone ridge of the Cleveland Dyke towards Stockton-on-Tees where it crosses the Tees at Preston. I’ve posted about the Dyke many times before, so today I will write about a Stocktonian — Johnny Longstaff, who on this day in 1938 was shot and seriously wounded while…

  • Ground hugging mist slowly dissipating as the day warms

    Ground hugging mist slowly dissipating as the day warms

    Roseberry was busy this morning. Along with the usual Sunday climbers, there was an abseil down the rock face going on and runners in the ‘Hanging Stone Leap‘ race. It was the 31st running of the event, although the inaugural race was run in 1988. So there’s been a bit of a gap. Today’s race…

  • Another sunny morning, but a tad windy on the Topping

    Another sunny morning, but a tad windy on the Topping

    “Trace in the sky the painter’s brush — Then winds around you soon will rush” The last few days have dawned with blue skies and a smattering of cirrus clouds. High wispy cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals and usually portend an approaching depression from the west and the associated deterioration of the weather.…

  • Cliff Rigg Quarry

    Cliff Rigg Quarry

    A shortish walk up to Cliff Rigg, to the great hole left from the extraction of whinstone in the 19th-century. The whinstone is from a dyke, about 25m wide, of igneous rock that was injected through the local sedimentary strata about 59 million years ago, originating from a volcano centred on the Island of Mull…

  • The foxes are making coffee

    The foxes are making coffee

    Looking back as I topped Cliff Rigg this morning, I was reminded of my first crossing of the Lyke Wake Walk on 14 June 1969. We had left the trig. point on Scarth Wood Moor at 12:30 a.m., so was crossing the ‘four sisters’ of the Cleveland Hills in time for a 4 a.m. breakfast…

  • Cliff Rigg and Great Ayton from Roseberry

    Cliff Rigg and Great Ayton from Roseberry

    We are informed from Great Ayton near Gisborough, in Yorkshire; that a mad Cat has lately bit two Women, a Horse, and also several other Creatures at some Miles Distance from the Place it belonged to. As it is found by Experience, this Malady (which is much more terrible in the Human Species than Death…

  • Where is the Elephant Hole?

    Where is the Elephant Hole?

    The National park have recently been at worked erectly a new kissing gate, steps and fingerpost below Aireyholme Farm. One ‘finger’ confuses me, it points to the ‘Elephant Hole’. Where exactly is the ‘Elephant Hole’? Some opinion seems to be that it is the large bowl at the top of Cliff Rigg. But if this…