Category: North York Moors
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Cliff Rigg and Roseberry
A view from Ayton Bank. On the right, Roseberry Topping, “Cleveland’s Matterhorn”, a glacial outlier, the remains of a spur of the moors eroded away by the last ice advance from the north-west as the ice, hundreds of metres thick, met the bulk of the high moors. Cliff Rigg, on the left, has a slightly…
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Rivelindale
A Public Footpath is mapped between Percy Cross and Highcliffe Farm crossing the vast bog of Sleddale Slack or Rivelindale as referred to in old documents. It is a little used path but there has been some recent cutting of the heather at the Percy Cross end. Across the bog, however, no such luxury, a…
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Old Ralph
11th-century wayside cross, often confused with Young Ralph, a taller cross standing a couple of hundred metres further north-east by the side of the Castleton to Blakey road. Even that prolific author Alfred J Brown got it wrong. Ralph was supposedly the bishop of Guisborough and the cross is a memorial to him. It is…
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Common Lizard
The whole day spent on the slopes of Roseberry, piling in fencing posts. Hard work. The old ones had rotted through. Being in one place means that nature often comes to you. The flyby of a sand martin, a distance cuckoo, the first of the year and peacock butterflies, also a first. And a common…
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The Cheshire Stone
But in Yorkshire. Looking towards Haggs Gate or Clay Bank top, the col between Hasty Bank and Carr Ridge. Also called the Cheddar Stone apparently. Another type of cheese. A hazy morning with a struggling sun. Only yesterday I learnt a new word and found myself guilty of it today, lalochezia. Suddenly I found myself…
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Jenny Bradley Stone
Let’s be clear I talking about the smaller stone, somewhat apt by having a feminine cognomen and is overshadowed by the more masculine 19th-century estate marker. This medieval wayside marker stands beside the Cleveland Way which follows at this point the old packhorse way from Baysdale Abbey southwards to Ryedale. Like a lot of medieval…
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Guisborough Wood
Took a trip up to Guisborough Woods to see for myself the devastating effect of Saturday’s fire. It covered an area of about 44 acres on an area of gorse and young spruce trees on the area known as “The Warren” above Cass Rock Quarry. Much was still smouldering but I suspect many of the…
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Boggle Hole
A name best known for the Youth Hostel that occupies the old corn mill buildings at the foot of a steep rocky ravine down which Mill Beck flows into the sea. Boggle Hole is one of the last six remaining Youth Hostels in the North York Moors, the others being Whitby, Scarborough, Osmotherley, Helmsley and…
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The Elephant Stone
Some wit referred to this as the Elephant Stone. I don’t know if that’s an “official” name but to me, it’s a complete misnomer. It looks nothing like an elephant and that is in spite of a strategically placed climbing hold as an eye, and some carved voracious teeth. Teeth, on an elephant! It can…
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The National Trust Omega Sign
There’s always been an omega sign, the classic National trust design, at the end of Aireyholme Lane on Roseberry Common but the angle on which it had been erected did not give a clear view with the Topping as a backdrop. So when, a couple of weeks ago, I was tasked, as a National Trust…