Out & About …

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

Category: Coate Moor

  • The Scented Secrets of ‘Mousse de Chêne’

    The Scented Secrets of ‘Mousse de Chêne’

    What a delightful day! Bitter, raw, cold enough to freeze your marrow. The wind, a so-called “lazy wind,” doesn’t bother taking the scenic route around you; it simply chooses the direct route, right through your very being. Upon Coate Moor, amidst a gap in the trees, a view up Kildale. The young trees hereabouts, mostly…

  • Kildale’s Telecoms Mast Dilemma

    Kildale’s Telecoms Mast Dilemma

    The picture doesn’t quite portray the hurricane-like gusts, making it a struggle to stay upright. Another rain shower is looming, chasing away the previous one in no time. I’m up on the moor behind Park Nab, looking across Kildale. On the distant skyline, at its highest point, stands Captain Cook’s Monument. But something’s amiss with…

  • Ward Nab (aka Cook’s Crags)

    Ward Nab (aka Cook’s Crags)

    Ward Nab on the edge of Coate Moor is much beloved by local climbers who know it simply as Cook’s Crags. It overlooks the sleepy village of Kildale — the dale of Chil — and used to host a medieval market. Even in more recent times it had a pub, a post office, and a…

  • Another magicial day

    Another magicial day

    The temperature inversion was not quite as dramatic as yesterday. But tomorrow is looking wet so best appreciate the day. The autumnal colours are particularly good this year with the fallowing of the oaks and beeches. Even the ubiquitous larch is looking splendid. I came across this old use of the word ‘fallow’ the other…

  • Nanny Howe and the Devil’s Court

    Nanny Howe and the Devil’s Court

    A view across Kildale from Park Nab to the densely forested Coate Moor. The highest point towards the left is actually Easby Moor with its monument to Capt. Cook but this story is about a Bronze Age barrow hidden amongst the trees on Coate Moor called Nanny Howe. It’s a story about a witch and…

  • The Boulder

    The Boulder

    “I like that boulder. That is a nice boulder.” So said Donkey to Shrek. The climbing fraternity have dubbed this huge boulder below Ward Nab on Coate Moor as simply “The Boulder”. I feel sure it must at some time have had another name but it looks like that has been lost to history. A…

  • Devil’s Matchsticks

    Devil’s Matchsticks

    One of the lesser known residents of Great Ayton was William Mudd (1829–1879) who the head gardener for Thomas Richardson, a retired banker and one of the village’s most influential and generous benefactors. Mudd came under the influence of George Dixon, a fellow Quaker and superintendent of the North of England Agricultural School, the predecessor…

  • Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine

    Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine

    Today’s photo is of Ward Nab, or Cook’s Crags, the name by which the climbers know it. It’s on the southern tip of Easby Moor. A completely unrelated fact is that today in 1823 Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine, died. He has been referred to as the ‘Father of Immunology’ whose work…

  • A match and a hatch in a Yorkshire village

    A match and a hatch in a Yorkshire village

    Capt. Cook’s Monument was busy, busy this morning. The early sunshine brought out the crowds. But while everyone headed as far as the monument, a hundred metres or so south-east, Cook’s Crags above Kildale was deserted. A favourite viewpoint of mine. And now, still in the festive mood, a complete rambling diversion. A quiz question,…

  • St. Swithin’s Day

    St. Swithin’s Day

    A damp run on the moors this morning. Light rain, hardly wetting the paving slabs on Coate Moor. Would it though, be enough to satisfy St. Swithin, who according to the legend, if it rained today (15th July), it will be the start of forty days of rain. He was bishop of Winchester Cathedral and…