Out & About …

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

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This week

  • Black Howes, Moorsholm MoorBlack Howes, Moorsholm Moor 8th December 2017 A skith of snow turn Black Howes on Moorsholm Moor negative. A skith being the name for light covering of snow. The Bronze Age burial mound is one of a…
  • A view looking north along Ainthorpe Rigg. in the distance is the village of Danby.Nan Hardwicke — Witch or Hare? The Folklore of Cleveland 9th April 2023 There are very few Cleveland villages which, at one time or another, one of the inhabitants had not been stigmatised as a witch. More often than not, it was some…
  • A rustic stone bridge with a single arch crosses a river. The bridge is made of large, ashlar stones and has a road crossing over it. Along the riverbank, there is dry bracken and a few trees. A large ivy-covered with a hollowed out inner dominates the foreground. In the distance, a village with a pub and several other buildings is visible. The trees in the background are bare and the sky is overcast.Lealholm and the story of John Castillo, Poet and Stonemason 23rd December 2024 Lealholm developed around the first place you could sensibly cross the River Esk, just downstream of the dramatic gorge of Crunkly Ghyll. In the good old days, people splashed through…
  • A manmade lake sits below rolling hills, the water a cool blue against banks of bare grey rock and rubble. Rough grassland climbs the slopes, dotted with young trees and scrub still finding their feet, and a dark line of forestry runs along the ridge behind. Down on the shoreline, near a small pool of pale turquoise water, an orange digger stands parked on a stretch of cleared track, a small reminder that this stretch of ground is still being coaxed back to life after its mining days.St Ninian’s Eco-Leisure and Wellness Park 31st August 2026 Every summer for close on thirty years we have travelled north on the M90 past a mighty scar of an opencast coal mine. I have no early memories of it;…
  • A view from the upper slopes of Carlton Bank, North Yorkshire, looking north-west across open moorland of dead bracken and heather towards the patchwork of green fields in the valley below. A conifer plantation runs along the right-hand side, bordered by a road with a small car park. Low cloud and mist hang over the hills in the distance.Not Guilty: The Carlton Bank Case, 1972 9th March 2026 Carlton Bank. Even on a dreich day there was a surprising number of folk around. Yet, in May 1972, it was the scene of one of the more extraordinary legal…
  • A wide, panoramic view of the abandoned Cliff Rigg quarry, showing a steep hillside. The left side of the hill is covered in green and brown scrub and gorse. The centre features a prominent, steep slope of dark shale, sparsely vegetated with rusty-red bracken and dark green shrubs. At the top right, a flat, dark area with the path along the quarry edge, extends across the top, meeting a bright blue sky with wispy clouds. The top left shows the distant, flatter landscape of the surrounding countryside.The Scar on the Hill: Cliff Rigg Quarry 9th December 2025 A dreich veil hung over North Yorkshire this morning, so I look back instead to yesterday, when the sky was clear, the air still, and the sun at least toyed…
  • Florence TerraceBlakey Ridge and The Lion Inn: From Crutched Friars… 8th September 2023 A view across Rosedale towards Blakey Ridge. In the front, Florence Terrace, one of many rows of terraced cottages built to house the ironstone miners and their families. Rosedale’s population…
  • BirchdaleBirchdale 8th February 2023 I had a faint recollection of crossing Newton Mulgrave Moor before and indeed I had. It’s still a bit of a haze though. Lying north of the A174, it’s an…
  • A dry stone wall runs beside a village road, topped by a tall clipped hedge. Set into the base of the wall is a row of sunken sandstone troughs, part of the Moorsholm Docks, filled with moss and small white flowers. A pale collared dove stands on the paved path in front of them.Stagnant Ponds No More 23rd August 2026 Moorsholm Docks do not often see me cycling past, which is a shame, since the place has a story worth telling more than once. These six sunken sandstone troughs sit…
  • An expansive panoramic view from a grassy hilltop overlooks a vast landscape of dark, rugged land interspersed with numerous interconnected lochs and stretches of sea under a dramatic, cloudy sky. The land is a mix of dark green and brown, indicating peatland or moorland, with small islands and peninsulas dotting the water. In the far distance, a hazy outline of the distant Isle of Skye is visible on the horizon where the sky meets the water. The foreground is dominated by the texture of green and brown grasses on the slope.Benbecula: Island of Fords and Forgotten Classrooms 30th May 2025 And so to Benbecula: flat, battered by wind, the Atlantic on one side, soggy peat and bog on the other. In the middle of it all stands a single hill,…

All Time

  • Thimbleby and the Vale of MowbrayFrom Barbados to Morrisons—The history of Thimbleby… 11th August 2023 The agricultural landscape of the Vale of Mowbray stretches across to the Dales , a view made visible through the recent felling of what was called ‘The Big Wood’ on…
  • The Giant's BootThe Giant’s Boot 8th April 2020 Northern Ireland’s most visited attraction is the iconic Giant’s Causeway, polygonal columns of basaltic rock formed sixty million years ago when molten lava spread across the land and created clouds…
  • Duncombe Park Army CampDuncombe Park Army Camp 5th April 2021 About 3km after crossing Rievaulx Bridge with its opportunity to gaze at the majestic abbey, the Cleveland Way crosses a concrete road at Griff Lodge. Here the National Trail bears…
  • RoseberryMiddlesbrough’s Dark Past: the 1961 Cannon… 21st August 2023 A reminder popped up on my phone today that back in 1961, things had hit a boiling point on Cannon Street in Middlesbrough. Three nights of rioting had built up…
  • SE0478 On Dead Man's HillOn Dead Man’s Hill 20th February 2019 Or the continuing story of Jenny Twigg and her daughter Tib. We parked up at Scar House Reservoir at the top of Nidderdale last night and from across the reservoir,…
  • Lochan of the Lost SwordLochan of the Lost Sword 25th September 2023 Beneath the reflections of the autumnal hues rests an abandoned sword, a long-sword, the claymore that belonged to Robert the Bruce. Near this wee loch lies Dal Righ, a place…
  • 2019-02-19 SE1274 Jenny Rig and her daughter Tib.jpgJenny Twigg and her daughter Tib 20th February 2019 Ee, I love maps me. I happened to notice the name “Jenny Twigg and her daughter Tib” marked on the map of Fountains Earth Moor overlooking Nidderdale, and so I…
  • Hackness HallThe Hackness Shame 27th August 2020 I had a look around the Forge Valley near Scarborough, a place I’ve always wanted to see but never had the opportunity. I must admit, I wasn’t that overwhelmed. A…
  • A high view capturing the vast, green, hilly landscape of the Outer Hebrides. In the foreground, large, grey, flat rocks are scattered amidst patches of grass. The midground features rolling green hills with visible sheep paths, leading down to a cluster of small white houses with dark roofs. Beyond the houses, a calm blue loch, dotted with several small boats, extends towards the horizon, where more hills rise. To the left, a turquoise bay with a sandy beach glistens. The sky is partially cloudy with patches of blue.Crash on Vatersay: The Lost Catalina of 1944 7th June 2025 I had hoped to photograph the tombolo that links the two high points of Bhatarsaigh—a narrow strip of machair, that low, sandy grassland so typical of the Outer Hebrides. But…
  • An elevated, wide-angle view of the rolling green countryside of North Yorkshire on a misty, overcast day. In the foreground, a slope of dark reddish-brown bracken and scrub leads the eye down into a valley of patchwork green fields separated by dark hedgerows and thin lines of trees. Dense, low-hanging grey clouds dominate the upper half of the frame, but a dramatic break in the mist allows bright, ethereal "God rays" to beam down onto the valley floor. The light catches the texture of the fields and a distant forested area, creating a stark contrast against the moody, shadowed hillsides in the background. The atmosphere is quiet, damp, and atmospheric.Solmōnaþ — Cake, Mud, and Lowered Hopes 1st February 2026 It is Solmōnaþ. Cake Month. A rare cause for cheer in the damp gloom of February. In the Anglo-Saxon calendar, Solmōnaþ sat where February is now. It marked a time…