Month: May 2018
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Castleton Rigg
A visit to the seated man sculpture on Castleton Rigg overlooking Westerdale. Almost a year since I last came, just after it was erected. Still a monstrosity but proving very popular. Too popular. Parking is a concern and the route up is now widely bare of heather and vegetation making it susceptible to erosion. So…
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Bluebells and Roseberry
The Bluebell is the sweetest flower That waves in summer air: Its blossoms have the mightiest power To soothe my spirit’s care. Emily Bronte Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Ingleby Moor
On the Cleveland Way snaking across Ingleby Moor. The route follows the dusty tedious landrover track hugging the escarpment with Roseberry Topping never getting any closer. Cast your eyes away from the glorious views of the Tees Valley and every so often a gulley running parallel to the track might be discerned, evidence of Thurkilsti,…
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Paddy Waddell’s Railway
Paddy Waddell’s Railway was never built. A pipedream project beset with problems from the outset, politics and competition from other railway companies. The official name would have been The Cleveland Extension Mineral Railway and link the ironstone mines at Glaisdale with the North East Railway at Skelton. The embankment and cutting on the left were…
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Wild garlic
The favourites of the woods at this time of the year are undoubtedly the bluebells but lower down wild garlic carpets the damp sumps of Newton Wood. Also known as ramsons, the plant has long been used medicinally, usually in tonics made from the bulbs. It is widespread throughout Europe and Asia where the bulbs…
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Kirby Bank Trod
The medieval pannierway built for the monks of Rievaulx Abbey. I thought this trod is now the subject of a Traffic Prohibition Order making use by off-road vehicles illegal but on my return, I spotted a group of 5 motorbikers climbing the bank, too far away to see any number plates. Took a shot or two but not…
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Green Hairstreak
I almost disregarded it. Fluttering by too fast to chance a photograph. And with dull brown colouring on its top side wings, I thought it was a small moth. It was only when it landed and closed its wings that their vivid green undersides were displayed. A Green Hairstreak butterfly, beautiful. Normally liking to feed…
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Guibal Fan House, Huntcliff Mine
A well-known landmark beside the Cleveland Way, the Guibal Fan House to Huntcliff Ironstone Mine. The drift entrance to the mine was the other side of the Cleveland Railway with ore being hauled up a ramp in wagons and tipped directly into railway trucks. The entrance and mine buildings have been lost to coastal erosion.…
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Dry stone wall curiosity
Bransdale, the heart of the North York Moors, and a discovery of a peculiar arrangement of dry stone walling. I am on top of a double wall. To my left, a 5′ drop, to my right about a 10′. Not a particularly steep natural slope but the gap between the walls, about 4′ at the…
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Capt. Cook’s Monument and Cockshaw Hill
Late evening view of Captain Cook’s Monument, in this 250th year since Cook set out on his first voyage. Beneath the monument the commercial plantation of Little Ayton Moor, and below that, Cockshaw Hil,l with its disused sandstone quarry. Across the lush green fields, the line of the whinstone intrusion of the Cleveland Dyke can…