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Burton Howe
The largest of four tumuli on a low knoll on the long ridge of Ingleby Moor. The other three are 60m to the north. It’s tempting to assume the name derives from the Old Norse ‘Botn’ meaning a hollow, as does the name of the hamlet of Greenhow Botton which it overlooks. Burton Howe is…
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Stanch Bullen and Round Hill
I’ve always thought this was Fairy Cross Plain but that is not strictly correct. That name belongs to the col just off to the right, where Little Fryup Dale becomes Great Fryup Dale, where the myth persisted through the centuries as the home of elves and fairies. The small rounded knoll has a more descriptive…
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Roseberry summit
Roseberry was quiet this morning. What more can I say? So I’ll digress. The other day, I came across a new word and stored it in my memory banks for a suitable occasion. The trouble is it’s a Dutch word ‘struisvogelpolitiek‘ but I think it’s worthy of it slipping into common usage just as we…
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Whorl Hill
I am on Live Moor and looking across to the conical hump of Whorl Hill, the glacial outlier that is a distinctive landmark on the western fringe of the Cleveland Hills. Behind me is the ditch and ramparts of the pre-historic promontory fort, so this is a view that our Iron Age ancestors would probably…
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Baysdale Abbey Bridge
A single-arch bridge crossing Baysdale Beck, near to and contemporary with the small Cistercian nunnery of Baysdale Abbey. Which puts its construction in the 13th-century, although “the attached piers and parapet are probably 17th-century in origin with later alterations”. Which begs the question of which bits are original? No trace remains of the abbey, its…
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Pilgrimage of Grace
On the 19th October 1536, Henry VIII lost his patience at the rebels on the Pilgrimage of Grace. He wrote to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk: “You are to use all dexterity in getting the harness and weapons of the said rebels brought in to Lincoln or other sure places, and cause all the boats…
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Sleddale Farm
A shaft of sunlight falls upon Sleddale Farm, an island of cultivation in a sea of dull heather moorland. The name itself means “a wide flat valley”. The farmhouse is probably Victorian but it’s been cultivated since at least the 16th-century. At the dissolution of Gisborough Priory, Henry VIII granted its grange, Sleddale Close, to…
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Nanny’s Nook
A dull morning for a bike ride, but dry. Just outside Commondale on the Kildale road, there is a small copse. It hides a double right-angled bend in the dry stone wall called Nanny’s Nook, said by Frank Elgee to have been frequented by a witch and the site of an ancient settlement. This may…
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Scandale Pass
In the Lakes. A one-way trip from Hartsop to Rydal. One-way trips are always more interesting. I haven’t used the High Pike ridge of Dove Crag much. A couple of times descending in the Fairfield Horseshoe. This view is from High Pike summit looking towards Scandale Pass, the col between Red Screes and Dove Crag.…
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“They say this is the finest view in all England, my liege”
So Robert the Bruce’s groom may have remarked as the Scottish King contemplated the view on the afternoon of 14th October 1322. Probably – not “Yer bum’s oot the windae” the King replied. Definitely – not. But it is quite likely this spectacular view could have indeed been seen by Robert the Bruce. On a…
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