Out & About …

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

Month: January 2019

  • Your friendly neighbourhood Robin

    Your friendly neighbourhood Robin

    Working in the shade of Roseberry, where the frost persisted all day. Two years ago, almost to the day, we planted a new hedge along the north-western boundary of Roseberry Common. Some of those saplings have failed to thrive and so the task today for the National Trust volunteers was to fill in the gaps.…

  • One of the joys of being out and about

    One of the joys of being out and about

    Fresh snow, clear skies, calm. An interesting climb up Carlton Bank. Proving too icy for the car so a tricky reverse. But it was worth it in the end. “Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit…

  • Roseberry Well

    Roseberry Well

    I’ve been saving this for a rainy day. For when the clag’s down. And the wind is whipping up the snowflakes. This small damp gash in the hillside is likely to be the Roseberry Well where a young prince was said to have drowned. Nowadays no water flows from the spring and the crevice acts…

  • Park Nab

    Park Nab

    Late afternoon stroll to catch the last of the winter sun. Park Nab is the prominent sandstone crag overlooking the village of Kildale, well loved by climbers. This nose of Warren Moor is still mapped as The Park, a relict of a medieval deer park. Across the valley Capt. Cook’s Monument stands atop Easby Moor.…

  • Paddy’s Hole

    Paddy’s Hole

    Out of the slag from Teesside’s blast furnaces Irish navvies built this small harbour at the mouth of the Tees. A refuge from the north-easterly winds. It’s a little community, but a sad, decaying community, where low tide exposes decades of discard and rotting boats that won’t ever float again. It’s also an unwelcoming place,…

  • Rosedale Abbey

    Rosedale Abbey

    One of the honeypots of the Moors, Rosedale Abbey emerged as a planned village during the 19th-century with buildings in the Gothic style. Very little remains of the Cistercian nunnery from which the village takes its name, just an angle with two buttresses and a few steps of a spiral staircase. The expansion of the…

  • Burns Night

    Burns Night

    Cleveland is a land of glacial outliers. Roseberry Topping, Freeborough Hill, Blakey Topping and, of course, Whorl Hill. Apparently, at a mere 237m high, it is the 2226th tallest hill in England, which I must admit I do find hard to believe. To the right of the hill are the ruins of Whorlton Castle which…

  • Bridestone Griff

    Bridestone Griff

    A slight covering of snow completely transforms the otherwise drab winter colours of Bridestones Moor. The is the upper reaches of Bridestone Griff. A griff is a North Yorkshire term for a deep, narrow valley, said to have formed by glacial melt-water, and sure enough, lower down, the glen does become steep but here, high…

  • Greenhow Burton

    Greenhow Burton

    A crisp cold magical morning to climb Roseberry. Fleeting breaks in the clouds allow the winter sun to reveal the frosty fields of Greenhow Bottom. Sometimes mapped as Greenhow Botton, the name derives from the Old Norse ‘botn‘ meaning a bottom or depth such as the innermost recesses of a dale. The oldest Ordnance Survey…

  • Ingleby Manor

    Ingleby Manor

    Quite a rare site. Seen from Turkey Nab, Ingleby Manor, basking in the winter sun, but come the summer this Grade II* listed house will be hidden by trees. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as “an interesting building, though much pulled about”. Parts date to its original construction in around 1580, when it…