Tag: moor
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Tick magnets
There seems to be less sheep on the moors nowadays. Not sure if this is a deliberate policy. Certainly, in other upland areas, there are concerns about over grazing. At one-time moorland farmers were actively encouraged to graze their sheep on the moors by gamekeepers. The sheep would act as magnets for ticks which also…
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Sleddale
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…
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Live Moor
Setting off from Mount Grace Priory this morning I overtook plenty of walkers doing the Cleveland Way, all fresh from their overnight accomodation in Osmotherley. In fact the only person going the other way was this solitary walker on Live Moor about to climb the few contours to its summit. To the right, hard to…
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Newton Moor
Back on my home hills after three days in the Lakes and a chance to catch up what’s been happening in the world. The news saddened me. In Langholm, in the Scottish Borders, a hen harrier has been found dead. An autopsy has been carried out on the young male, one of only three chicks raised…
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Bridestones
A climb up to Nab Ridge between Bilsdale and Tripsdale. Ended up trying to wade though a thistled rough pasture whilst following a diverted path around the manicured lawns of Cam House. And the pet llamas took a dislike to the dog. I was aiming for the Bride Stones, a Bronze Age round barrow, long…
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Scarth Wood Moor
Early morning mists dissipate over Scarth Wood moor, a National Trust property near Osmotherley. The clear blue skies soon gave way to Autumn showers.
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Red Stone
The rainbow portends a squall. It’s easy to forget winter is approaching. This boundary stone on Greenhow Moor looks 18th century, marking the limit of the Feversham Estate. Now is it the ‘Red Stone’ that’s marked on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map? The location is about right but this stone doesn’t look significant enough to warrant a…
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Urra Moor
A drab misty start to the week with rain threatening. The boundary stones across Urra Moor probably mark the limit of the Feversham estate. Bilsdale below is only just visible.
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White Gill
In the Tabular Hills, limestone country in the southern half of the North York Moors and a view west over the Vale of Mowbray to the Yorkshire Dales, supposedly one of the “finest views in all of England”. White Gill, the stream at the bottom of a deep valley with no name, and downstream, the village of Kepwick.…
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Yorkshire Fog
A couple of months ago, in the summer, I heard an assessor telling the Duke of Edinburgh group I was supervising that the grass that which grows in profusion on disturbed or burnt areas on the moors is called ‘Yorkshire Haze’. An interesting snippet of a local plant name I thought and locked it away in my grey cells. I…