Out & About …

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

Month: January 2021

  • Cock o’ the North

    Cock o’ the North

    Ok, I known it’s a name more usually associated with the much smaller Brambling but I thought it suited this cock grouse guarding its territory. A territory which includes the pre-historic cairn cemetery and earthworks of Great Ayton Moor. The centrepiece is undoubtedly a Neolithic chambered cairn upon which the grouse is perched. It comprises…

  • Do you want the good news or the bad news?

    Do you want the good news or the bad news?

    I’ll start with the good. Yesterday the Government announced that “Legislation will be brought forward to prevent the burning of heather and other vegetation on protected blanket bog habitats“. This is great news. A recognition at long last that the burning of heather moorlands is detrimental to their peat structure and their natural habitats. Burning…

  • Standing stone on Kildale Moor

    Standing stone on Kildale Moor

    I believe this is just a waymarker rather than a boundary stone or religious cross. The North York Moor Historic Environment Record (HER) map suggests it dates from the 19th-century. It stands alongside a path designated as “F.P.”on the 1895 Ordnance Survey map. This is one of the paths The Ramblers have identified during their…

  • Monument Mine

    Monument Mine

    A wet day so keeping it close with an exploration of the ironstone mine below Capt. Cook’s Monument. Winter is the best time for viewing the remains, before the brambles and gorse run riot. The featured image is an overview of the site. It’s been taken from approximately above what would have been one of…

  • Haswell’s Hut

    Haswell’s Hut

    Dull, overcast, and menacing rain. The blue skies over a snow blanketed moors seem an age ago. ‘Haswell’s Hut (Site of)’ is a feature named on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map that has intrigued me for some time. It is shown as just south of the Spot Height of 714 feet and east of the…

  • Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine

    Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine

    Today’s photo is of Ward Nab, or Cook’s Crags, the name by which the climbers know it. It’s on the southern tip of Easby Moor. A completely unrelated fact is that today in 1823 Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine, died. He has been referred to as the ‘Father of Immunology’ whose work…

  • Last night, Hrímfaxi passed by, covering the ground with his spittle

    Last night, Hrímfaxi passed by, covering the ground with his spittle

    I hope you are sufficiently replete after your haggis suppers with neeps and tatties. Happy Burns’ Night and all that; this the 262nd anniversary of the birth of Scotland’s national bard. I ended up today on Great Ayton Moor, the round cairn sprayed white with a featherlike hoar frost, a frost that forms when water…

  • Just off the Baysdale road is an unfinished millstone

    Just off the Baysdale road is an unfinished millstone

    One face has been dressed as had the circumferential edge. I guess the plan was to flip it and then work on the underside face. But why and when was it abandoned? The obvious destination would have been one of the two mills at Kildale. Just before the River Leven leaves the parish boundary in…

  • Ever felt you’re being looked at?

    Ever felt you’re being looked at?

    I can across these two beauties today near Easby. I think there’re Kerry Hill sheep which originated from Kerry in Powys, Wales. I just love the distinct black patches over the eyes. On this day in 2013, Ed Miliband clashed with David Cameron in Prime Minister’s Questions. Cameron had said the Conservatives would seek to…

  • There’s some good snow drifts on Carr Ridge …

    There’s some good snow drifts on Carr Ridge …

    … on the way up to Urra Moor. Solid enough to bare my weight … almost. It was fun until the crust gives way and I end up with a face plant. The ruined dry-stone wall marks the boundary between the parishes of Bilsdale Midcable and Ingleby Greenhow and a dressed stone declares the land…