Out & About …

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

Author: Fhithich

  • Ben Arthur/The Cobbler

    Ben Arthur/The Cobbler

    At 884m high, Ben Arthur, familiarly known as The Cobbler, is only a Corbett but is a cracking hill. It is one of a group of hills known as the Arrochar Alps: The Cobbler, and the Munros Beinn Narnaim and Beinn Ime. I believe technically The Cobbler refers to the central peak and Ben Arthur…

  • Hillend Iron Age Hill Fort

    Hillend Iron Age Hill Fort

    Caerketton Hill is on the north-eastern end of the Pentland Hills outside of Edinburgh. With its dry ski slope, it dominates the view from the Edinburgh bypass. About halfway up is a distinctive knoll that is the site of an Iron Age hill fort. It takes its name from the small hamlet at the foot…

  • Percy Rigg Hut Circles

    Percy Rigg Hut Circles

    It’s been at least three years since I posted a photo of the Iron Age hut circles at Percy Rigg. This is a group of five circular huts, one of which can be seen in the photo, although not all would have been in use at the same time. The occupants were farmers, probably living…

  • Dry hedging in Newton Wood

    Dry hedging in Newton Wood

    A tiring day in Newton Wood on the main route up Roseberry making some dry hedges from cut sycamore saplings. Dry hedges are basically a wall of branches weaved between stakes. They provide good habitat for all small mammals and insects but the primary aim for these hedges is to encourage visitors not to wander…

  • Westerdale and Crown End

    Westerdale and Crown End

    Westerdale, as the name suggests is the westernmost dale of the valley of the River Esk, although why Westerdale and not just Eskdale is lost to time. It’s a dale which has escaped the 19th-century mineral extraction of other valleys. There was some jet mining but this was mostly small scale and has not left…

  • Roseberry from Ryston Bank

    Roseberry from Ryston Bank

    September, the meteorologists say we are now into autumn, the ‘back-end‘ of the year when mornings are that bit chillier and trees show signs of taking on their russet hues. In Macbeth, Shakespeare referred to the season as ‘sear‘. The King laments he is in the autumn of his life, he is cursed and will…

  • Far House

    Far House

    A long-abandoned farmstead on the west bank of the River Rye, in the manor of Arden. It was last occupied in the 1930s. Although, it is named as Far House on the oldest Ordnance Survey maps the farm has been identified as previously being called Paddock Wath, a name which Bill Cowley records was still…

  • Shandy Hall and Laurence Sterne

    Shandy Hall and Laurence Sterne

    In 2003, The Guardian published one of those 100 greatest lists that we’re all familiar with. This one was for “the 100 greatest novels of all time“. No. 1 was Don Quixote, followed by Pilgrim’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe. Surprising but not altogether unexpected. To me, what was surprising was that, in 7th place, was…

  • Waymarker stone, Carr Ridge

    Waymarker stone, Carr Ridge

    This heather alongside the Cleveland Way seems to have avoided the worst of the ravishes of Lochmaea suturalis, the heather beetle. Not a bad display. The beetle overwinters dormant deep in the undergrowth of the heather, emerging in the spring when they are able to fly up to a range of several miles. The Wikipedia…

  • Maddy House Farm

    Maddy House Farm

    A while ago I came across these few intriguing paragraphs by A. J. Brown in his book “Striding through Yorkshire”. He is describing a walk from Commondale to Castleton: Instead of following the direct road to Castleton by the side of the beck – a feeder of the Esk – I followed a roundabout footpath…