Out & About …

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

Month: November 2021

  • A blate cat maks a gallus moose

    A blate cat maks a gallus moose

    A dreich morning at Bloworth Crossing. Lots of water around — on the ground and in the air. Actually ‘dreich’ is quite an apt word to use on St. Andrew’s Day, the patron saint of Scotland — and also of golfers and fishermen, but that’s by the by. The word comes to us from, of…

  • Catoptrical wonderment

    Catoptrical wonderment

    After the storm of the weekend, Cod Beck Reservoir looks very serene this Monday morning.

  • Kissing Gate, top of Thief Lane

    Kissing Gate, top of Thief Lane

    At the top of Thief Lane there is a five-bar metal gate which I heard had succumbed to the ravishes of Storm Arwen but it seems the farmer has wasted no time in fixing it so I had to make do with the adjacent kissing gate. I’d thought of entitling the post ‘Gate-crashed‘, which is…

  • South Gare – Storm Arwen

    South Gare – Storm Arwen

    Even though Storm Arwen was abating, a north wind of 66 mph was still forecasted. A good day for blowing the cobwebs away. And a high tide to boot. The South Gare breakwater, guarding the entrance to the River Tees, was completed in 1888 as one of a suite of projects to improve access to…

  • Bousdale Hill Farm

    Bousdale Hill Farm

    Early morning jog up Roseberry. The day before the storm — Arwen, I hear it’s been named — a character from Lord of the Rings? A farm had been established on Bousdale Hill, the long spur extending northwards by Roseberry Common, by 1868. Prior to this it would have been rough upland pasture. The farm…

  • Rainbow, rainbow, Brack an gang hame …

    Rainbow, rainbow,
    Brack an gang hame …

    The dark clouds to the north east have been ominous all day. Kept at bay by the bitterly cold nor-westerlies. There’s always something striking about a rainbow. They are always in the opposite direction to the sun and a ‘Rainbow in the morning gives fair warning’ indicates rain in the west and generally heading your…

  • Stanah, St. John’s in the Vale and Thirlmere

    Stanah, St. John’s in the Vale and Thirlmere

    A low walk before the rain set in. I’m not sure what to call this valley. Thirlmere, Thirlspot, St. John’s in the Vale? Helvellyn Gill flows down it before its confluence with St. John’s Beck, the natural outflow of Thirlmere, which lies in the Wythburn valley. It’s all very confusing, but maybe not if you’re…

  • View east from Helvellyn

    View east from Helvellyn

    If Helvellyn were just a few metres higher we would have definitely been above the cloud ceiling. As it was, views of the Eastern Fells opened up for the briefest of moments. in this glimpse, the cliffs in the distance, right of centre, belong to Rampsgill Head. That much I’m sure. I think. The trouble…

  • Lammerside Castle

    Lammerside Castle

    In the Mallerstang valley overlooking the River Eden, the ruined Lammerside Castle dates from the 14th-century. It is a Peel-house, a fortified house built by a lesser landowner to protect his family, livestock, and retainers against predatory raids. Life in the Middles Ages was hazardous, particularly so in Northern England where a state of insecurity…

  • Causey Arch

    Causey Arch

    Prior to the late 17th-century, transportation of materials across the country was slow and difficult. Either by horse drawn carts or teams of ponies. More forward thinking industrialists were developing wagon-ways, horse-drawn first with wooden rails and rollers, then with flanged iron wheels. In the 1720s, when coal-owners were considering exploiting the coal fields below…