Out & About …

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

Month: November 2017

  • Snowstorm at Hagg’s Gate

    Snowstorm at Hagg’s Gate

    I was reminded today of a popular knick-knack of the 60s: a snow globe. A half dome of glass filled with water and snow confetti. Inside was a small scene, maybe including a reindeer or a Disney character. Given a shake, the scene would be transformed into a snowstorm. I am looking down through a…

  • Ayton Mines Memorial Bridge

    Ayton Mines Memorial Bridge

    During a brief break in the weather a chance to photograph a swollen River Leven below the Ayton Mines Memorial Bridge near Suggits. The footbridge was erected as a memorial to the five workers of Ayton Mines who lost their lives during the 1914-1918 war: From the 4th Battalion, Alexandra Princess of Wales’s Own (Yorkshire)…

  • Park Plantation Quarry

    Park Plantation Quarry

    First snow of the year. Nothing more than a flurry but still snow. Went searching for the site of a plane crash on Ingleby Bank. On 9 June 1941 an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk. V from the No.51 Sqn. RAF. flew into the hillside in poor visibility. It was returning to RAF Dishforth from a…

  • River Leven at Hutton Rudby

    River Leven at Hutton Rudby

    Mondays are my cycling days. Tootling around the villages of North Yorkshire. The River Leven at Hutton Rudby is spanned by a two-segmented arched bridge built in 1755 according to Pevsner, the historical architect. The river flows down a deep valley separating the two parts of the village. Rudby on the north side, and Hutton…

  • Alum Rock Quarry

    Alum Rock Quarry

    Another fine day in the Cleveland Hills. This is the view that will greet walkers on the Cleveland Way as they begin the steep descend around the huge bowl of Alum Rock Quarry into Slapewath. It could be said that here was the start of Teesside chemical industry for at the turn of the 17th-century…

  • Great Fryup Dale

    Great Fryup Dale

    After several trips of exploration around Great Fryup Dale this is becoming one of my most favourite views in the North York Moors. An example of a geological undercliff on the left, providing a complex area of knolls, re-entrants and depressions, just ripe for an orienteering map. A glorious frosty morning, followed by a Great…

  • Urra Moor

    Urra Moor

    It was very peaceful on Urra Moor today, once I had cleared the sound of a shoot in upper Bilsdale. Blue sky, puddles frozen, no wind, all quiet except for the occasional ka, ke, ke, ke, ke, kekekerrr of a grouse taking flight. But then a group of motorcyclists spoilt the atmosphere. Being on a…

  • Rievaulx⁩ Abbey

    Rievaulx⁩ Abbey

    The image of the life Cistercian monk is one of austerity, hard manual work and self-sufficiency, and one of the first Cistercian monasteries to be founded in the North of England was in the valley of the River Rye at Rievaulx⁩, in 1132. Seen here from the National Trust’s Rievaulx⁩ Terrace property, it grew to…

  • Hob Cross, Stanghow Moor

    Hob Cross, Stanghow Moor

    Yellow warnings issued for rain and high winds, and for once the Met Office was not overly pessimistic. Followed the Quakers Causeway, an ancient route from Guisborough Priory to Whitby Abbey. Higher on Stanghow Moor the stone trods still mark the way, worn smooth by countless feet, but approaching Hob Cross any stones must have…

  • River Ribble

    River Ribble

    Swollen from overnight rains a radged River Ribble, born in Yorkshire, flows on its 75 mile journey to the Irish Sea. It officially begins at Selside just a mile upstream but its main tributary, Gayle Beck, makes a significant contribution, draining Gayle Moor and half of Blea Moor and Cam Fell. Open Space Web-Map builder…