Out & About …

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

Month: August 2018

  • Coniston Hall

    Coniston Hall

    It’s eighteen years since I was last at Coniston Hall. A National Trust tenanted farm run as a campsite on the side of Coniston Water. Very little changed, still as popular. The vernacular architecture of the Lakeland chimneys still intrigues me. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Coal Tit

    Coal Tit

    An early stroll in the sunshine with the dog. This little tit caught my eye, performing acrobatics on the downy seed heads of a thistle. It didn’t stay long before dashing off only to return a moment later; repeated this several times in the brief period I watched. Constantly on the go. I’m pretty sure…

  • Potters Ridge

    Potters Ridge

    On Codhill Heights looking up towards Potters Ridge. A precarious cairn. One of a pair, both newly built. First time I have seen them. The moorland is part of the 3,460 acres of grouse moor owned by the Baron Gisborough whose farms received £89,278.37 under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2016. Open Space Web-Map…

  • Gribdale Terrace

    Gribdale Terrace

    An evening stroll up Capt.Cook’s Monument hoping to catch a spectacular sunset. Instead, a diffuse grey blanket gradually smothered the sun. The white cottages of Gribdale Terrace, built for whinstone miners, on the far left overlooked by Roseberry Topping. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Avenue of Yews, Whorlton Churchyard

    Avenue of Yews, Whorlton Churchyard

    Yew trees have been long associated with churchyards. They are believed to be the longest living organisms in Europe, the oldest have been shown to be over 4,000 years old. Which begs the question which came first, the church or the tree? It is known that the yew was sacred to native Britons so it…

  • Kettleness Scar

    Kettleness Scar

    Low tide at Kettleness exposing the Pliensbachian mudstone scar below the headland. Scar comes from the Old Norse sker for a reef. The Scots skerry and Gaelic sgeir derive from the same root. The scene might look benign but the below the waters lie a graveyard of ships. The Ceres, The Curlew, The Golden Sceptre,…

  • Carlton Bank Trig Point

    Carlton Bank Trig Point

    A view of Odin’s hill, Roseberry Topping, sandwiched between the trig point and old parish boundary stone on the highest point of Carlton Bank. The summit, at 408m above sea level is the third highest point on the North York Moors. Today it is generally known as Carlton Moor but has also been mapped at…

  • The Heads, Great Fryup Dale

    The Heads, Great Fryup Dale

    I always like to make a connection with my daily photo with any words accompanying it. Sometimes, most times, I choose my words after taking the photo. Other times I know what I want to write and go out seeking a photo. So I was over in Great Fryup Dale this morning and struggling to…

  • V-ewes of Roseberry

    V-ewes of Roseberry

    We’re art, a drove of sheep without a shepherd, and I am a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So where are you being driven? Nowhere! Then you must be a flock. And what big teeth you don’t have, for a wolf. No, we’re a hurtle or a trip making eyes at you, baa none. Why that’s…

  • Sunley’s Daughter

    Sunley’s Daughter

    A couple of weeks ago I posted about a fascinating film made in the 1970s by Barry Cockcroft for ITV television called “The Children of Eskdale”. Another film by Cockcroft and available on the BFI website is “Sunley’s Daughter”. Also set in the early 70s it is the story of Mary Sunley, a young girl…