Out & About …

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

Month: September 2020

  • Autumnity

    Autumnity

    We’re well and truly into autumn, a morning chill, a low sun and a palette of russett and golds. Bracken is a formidable plant. It’s been around since the dinosaurs, with fossil records going back over the last 55 million years. But its success represents a real threat to biodiversity, shading out other plants, producing…

  • Nothing to see here …

    Nothing to see here …

    Just a scene of everyday countryfolk mingling prior to exercising their natural right to kill the red grouse, Lagopus lagopus scotica. The keepers, beaters and general folk of a lower class were mustering out of shot. Grouse shooting has been declared an “organised outdoor sport” or “licensed outdoor physical activity” and as such is exempted…

  • Byland Abbey

    Byland Abbey

    In its heyday, Byland Abbey ranked alongside Rievaulx and Fountains as one of the three great monasteries of the north. But the Cistercian order from Savigny took 43 years to found a permanent site for their monastery. It began across the Pennines when, in 1134, a community of monks from Furness Abbey set out to…

  • New signs

    New signs

    New signs have appeared on Roseberry. A bit late, summer being almost over. Shame it’s come to this. How long before it is trashed? I wonder what percentage of the population has actually heard of the Countryside Code. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Creag Meagaidh from Coire Ardair

    Creag Meagaidh from Coire Ardair

    Coire Ardair is a classic glacial corrie, the Lochan a’Choire surrounded by a back wall of steep precipitous crags. The name of the high point, the Munro Creag Meagaidh, means in Gaelic, the crag of the boggy place, referring I guess to the boggy summit plateau. Early 20th-century climbers referred to the mountain as Craig…

  • Sunset over Eigg and Rùm

    Sunset over Eigg and Rùm

    A fitting finale to this year’s Scottish trip. Tomorrow we begin the journey south. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Airsaig Canal

    Airsaig Canal

    Surely the last thing you would expect to find in the Western Highlands would be a canal, the Crinan and the Caledonian excepted of course. But there’s another one in Arisaig. It was built to enable timber to be floated down from a sawmill at Loch nan Eala to the sea. The lade, to give…

  • Port Achadh an Aonaich

    Port Achadh an Aonaich

    About a mile south of the distributed settlement of Smirisary near Glenuig. Along a very rugged but well-defined path. Port Achadh an Aonaich is at the path’s end and known locally as “White Sands”. Smirisary is a fascinating place. Most of the old cottages have been renovated and made into holiday homes but with no…

  • Camas an Lighe

    Camas an Lighe

    Still on the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Camas an Lighe is more commonly known as the Singing Sands although I am not sure if that is a literal translation. But they didn’t sing for us. We had expected a coral beach that does ‘sing’ indeed when you walk on it. Carraig Fhada on Islay is a good…

  • View to Rùm from Beinn Resipol

    View to Rùm from Beinn Resipol

    Beinn Resipol is a relentless climb, gradually getting steeper and steeper nearing the summit. But the views are well worth the climb. Super if today a little hazy. The loch is Loch Sliel, connected to the sea by the short River Shiel. In the distance is the island of Rùm. The name Bienn Resipol shows…