Out & About …

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

  • A match and a hatch in a Yorkshire village

    A match and a hatch in a Yorkshire village

    Capt. Cook’s Monument was busy, busy this morning. The early sunshine brought out the crowds. But while everyone headed as far as the monument, a hundred metres or so south-east, Cook’s Crags above Kildale was deserted. A favourite viewpoint of mine. And now, still in the festive mood, a complete rambling diversion. A quiz question,…

  • Boxing Day

    Boxing Day

    Everyone knows that Boxing Day originated from the practice of distributing the contents of the Christmas Box that had been placed in churches in the days preceding Christmas for casual offerings. The box money would be opened on Christmas Day and the contents doled out the next day, St. Stephen’s Day, by priests to the poor.…

  • Now this is a white Christmas

    Now this is a white Christmas

    For the last 46 years, I have run on Christmas morning. Today was no exception. No new snow overnight but yesterday’s had acquired a frozen crust. This is looking down the Cleveland Way on Ingleby Moor. Quiz question: who described his Christmas day thus? “Lay pretty long in bed, and then rose, leaving my wife…

  • There’s something thrilling about being out in a snow flurry

    There’s something thrilling about being out in a snow flurry

    Although Kirby doesn’t look too happy; but I think she is really. An amble over Carlton and Live Moors. Low cloud, not much to see or photograph. I wish you all the best possible Christmas, under these difficult circumstances.

  • Face to face with the snake-haired Gorgon

    Face to face with the snake-haired Gorgon

    I popped along to see how Medusa’s fairing. Deciding to approach the old dear from above, I descended through a remaining swathe of coniferous trees, sheltered briefly from the incessant rain. For a moment I thought I had blown it as I sled on my derrière past the massive split boulder through which the ancient…

  • A new sign’s appeared

    A new sign’s appeared

    No Dogs No Bikes This is not a Footpath/Bridleway There is an increase in these signs across the moors. This one has been placed in the last fortnight or so right across a well-used path on Great Ayton Moor leading to Lonsdale Quarry. A blatant attempt by the landowners to intimidate the public to keep…

  • A founderous circuit of Scaling Dam

    A founderous circuit of Scaling Dam

    No photo of the rising sun on this Winter Solstice, but one of Scaling Dam which has the distinction of being half in Tier 3 and half in Tier 2. There was not much activity. Just the odd angler. All watersports are in their winter hibernation. The state of the “Circular Walk” around the reservoir…

  • Byanna’s Sunday

    Byanna’s Sunday

    The sun was being a bit elusive this morning, remaining hidden behind a bank of cloud until I was almost home. A gap through the trees provided this view of the still sleepy village. Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice or Yule, the old pagan celebration. Which means that today, the Sunday before Yule is Byanna’s…

  • A splash of green

    A splash of green

    Heather moorland, for most of the year, especially in winter, offers a drab palette of dull browns. Only in late summer, when the heather comes into full bloom, do the moors take on their blanket of purple. Yet occasionally you come across a splash of contrast. Verdant bog mosses, most likely one of the UK’s…

  • Aerial Ropeway Base, Cliff Rigg Wood

    Aerial Ropeway Base, Cliff Rigg Wood

    Standing proud in Cliff Rigg Wood, a concrete base that supported one of the steel trestles for an aerial ropeway that ran from Ayton Bank Ironstone Mine to sidings at the west end of Cliff Ridge where the ore was loaded into railway trucks. As the trestles were of a tripod design there would have…

Care to comment?