Month: April 2015
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Yellow is the color of my true love’s hair …
… so sang Donovan way back in 1965 when fields of yellow rapeseed was almost unheard of in the UK. In 2012 the UK produced 2.6m tonnes of the seeds; worldwide production has increased over 12 fold in the same period. Its seeds are used extensively in animal feed, vegetable oil and bio-diesel. I wonder…
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Lamers Hill
Looking back on the climb up to Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor. On the left is the village of Great Ayton and further away the wind turbines between Seamer and Hilton. The bush with the white flowers is Blackthorn which fruit is used in Sloe Gin. Blackthorn flowers appear before the leaves. The leaves of the Hawthorn on…
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Girsby Bridge
Out with the local running club. Usually full use is made of the moors but tonight headed for the Tees valley. The River Tees was crossed over this bridge at Girsby. The bridge is cast iron trestle construction with wrought iron girders. A simple stone is inscribed: “Bridle Bridge | Erected by Theophania Blackett 1870 |…
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Grimy Gutter Hags
Grimy Gutter Hags; what a fascinating name. On the slope of Little Shunner Fell, an outlier of its bigger brother Great Shunner Fell in the Yorkshire Dales. A hag is the northern name for an exposed, eroded face of peat, too steep for the heather to grow and which is further eroded by wind, sheltering sheep or water dripping…
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Waterfalls, Hoods Bottom Beck
Sunday: my Duke of Edinburgh group had planned to walk from Muker to Keld taking in some of the dales and moors north west of Keld. I was looking forward to it. It’s an area I don’t know. Perhaps because there are no Public Rights of Way through them, or perhaps because they are at…
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Gunnerside
A lovely village in Swaledale, locating at the foot of Gunnerside Ghyll, a site of extensive lead mining activities in the 19c century. The village developed during this period to house the mining families. Low cloud, showers with a touch of sleet. Otherwise a good day out following a Duke of Edinburgh group.
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Apedale Beck
In Swaledale for a few days. Vodaphone has not managed to get here yet so postings may be delayed a bit. This is Apedale on the wide open moors between Reeth and Leyburn.
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Alum Clamp, Ayton Bank
The small knoll in the photo is an alum clamp, a relic of an 18c chemical industry to produce alum. Alum had many uses: medicinal, in tanning to make leather supple and durable, as a mordant in dyeing cloth. It does occur naturally and is known to have been used by the Greeks but on Ayton Bank and in other parts of…
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Black Bank
Recent felling of the plantation on Black Bank on the escarpment of Newton Moor has opened up a completely new prospect of Roseberry Topping. Revealed by the felling were a few interesting looking crags, so I battled through the debris resembling the Tunguska event for a nose around. The crags are nothing to shout about. The foresters…
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Tidkinhow Slack
Late evening walk across Guisborough Moor. The view is NNE across the small stream known as Tidkinhow Slack to Boosbeck, Brotton and the North Sea beyond. Tidkinhow Farm, located on the rise across the field, is almost at the same height above sea level as from where I was standing. It must be quite exposed yet I…