Month: September 2022
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In search of prehistoric rock art
What a dreich morning. Low cloud meant it was a day not conducive for photography, so I went to look for some prehistoric rock art on Garfit Gap. Garfit Gap is the col between the Wainstones and Cold Moor and contains many boulders on which with rock art has been identified. Now I’ve looked for…
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Happy Michaelmas Day!
Or Happy Feast of Michael and All Angels, which sounds even more of a mouthful. A day spent In Dove Dale, a National Trust property leading from Dalby Forest. The dale is a peaceful grassy valley with rushy flushes, bracken and scattered trees along a meandering stream. It is not grazed and is therefore sub-optimal…
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Winter is coming
A veil shrouds the ‘Four Sisters’ — Hasty Bank, Cold Moor, Cringle Moor and Carlton Moor. Mornings are getting damper. There’s a chill in the air. Winter is coming. I am half way up Park Nab on the Baysdale Road, killing an hour before the archaeological dig at a medieval chapel at Kildale. Today was…
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Percy Cross Rigg
Without looking at the map, I would have said the track along Percy Cross Rigg, or to use its Medieval name, Ernaldsti, on its journey south across Great Ayton and Kildale Moors, and on to Westerdale follows a pretty straight route. But this telescopic photo shows just how sinuous it actually is. The name is…
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Aireyholme Farm, Cliff Rigg and Great Ayton village
Wednesday, the 26th of September, 1917. William Arthur Trembath opens his eyes and blinks as they adjust to the hazy morning sun. It’s silent yet he is vaguely aware all around him is a frenzy of activity. The Battalion is consolidating their newly gained positions, connecting and deepening shell holes to form new trenches. He…
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Suart’s Reservoir
A busy weekend near Staveley in the Kent valley, “gateway to the Lakes”. Yesterday saw a return to Gurnal Dubs which visited in 2016 during the supervision of a DoE expedition. Today Suart’s Reservoir which is on the south side of the valley in the parish of Nether Staveley. It is entirely on farmland with…
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Mell-suppers and mell-acts, a long lost tradition of the harvest
A fine view of Roseberry and Black Bank. Today is the autumnal equinox and a reminder that from now on the hours of darkness will exceed that of daylight. By now harvest should be largely over. In our modern society harvest passes us by with hardly a notice. The day before yesterday I wrote about…
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Young Ralph Cross
A breather after riding up from Westerdale. Not the highest part of the Moors — that falls to Round Hill on Urra Moor — but it certainly has that feel about it. Young Ralph Cross has stood for centuries guiding and reassuring the weary traveller. Nowadays, most folk don’t stop on the busy Castleton to…
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The Maid of the Golden Shoon
The featured photo shows Turkey Nab overlooking the tiny village of Ingleby Greenhow, Ingleby is the scene of a charming folk tale from the pen of Richard Blakeborough featuring witches, fairies, maidens fair, knights in shining armour, dragons, along with baby snatching and cross dressing, and much, much more if you read between the lines.…
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Spawood Mine Switch House
I think this is an old switch house to the Spawood Ironstone Mine — I must admit I am relying on a map produced by the last operators of the mine, Dorman, Long & Co. Limited reprinted in Simon Chapman’s booklet “Guisborough District Mines”. The mine, the drift of which was off to the right,…