Pot Luck

I had lain in bed before dawn listening to the rain on the roof. On the garden two inches of slushy snow. A forecast of more rain. Not very inspiring. Even the dog kept her head down refusing to look at me. A cold, sloppy run up into the clag. But the day was brightening, […]

For a brief few weeks the moors are a sea of purple heather which is now at its best. Seen from Highcliff Gate, Sleddale Farm appears an island of lush green pasture. The name means a wide flat valley and was probably a meadow of summer pasture before being given to the priory to be […]

I’ve found a photo of Scarth Nick taken in 1935 in The Times and though I would try to replicate it. Unsurprisingly. the view looks familar but one thing that is noticeable is the tree cover, it seems to be a lot more nowadays. The photo accompanied a report on the bequest of Scarth Wood […]

I tried to use a little used Public Footpath which loops around from the foot of Carlton Bank to the now demolished Underhill House. But I became distracted by a mountain bike track and ending zig-zagging up through the trees eventually coming across an old holloway, well above the present road. Overgrown by gorse, it […]

… least not Cleveland Way walkers heading south to Helmsley. Walkers going clockwise will be trudging up this bank to Coate moor and Capt. Cook’s Monument. Bankside Farm itself probably dates from the 18th-century, while the distant building to the right is the former manager’s house and workshop for the Coate Moor Iron Company. The […]