Category: North York Moors
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Wayside cross, Black Hill
After a great exploration of Glaisdale Rigg, my final photo of the day. A stone’s throw from the where the car was parked, a Medieval wayside cross. Situated at the crossroads of Yarlesgate, the north-south pannierway linking Lealholm to Rosedale, and the east-west track from Glaisdale to Great Fryup Dale, down the very steep Beanley…
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Low Bride Stones
You might believe these squat sandstone stacks were laid down in seas long ago when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Their curious shapes the result of the wind and the rain. But A.J.Brown* suggests it was Wade who placed them during a game of duckstones. Now, this is not so unfeasible, for Wade was a giant…
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Sleepy larch
On the col at Roseberry Common. The larch looks windswept and battered. I wonder if it were a young sapling in 1904 for it was on this day (7th January) in that year that the radiotelegraph company Marconi introduced its new distress signal, ‘CQD’, CQ standing for ‘seek you’, and D for ‘danger’. This was…
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Cross ridge dyke, Skelderskew Moor
An evocative alignment of standing stones continuing down to North Ings Slack between Commondale and Skelderskew Moors. The stones are part of a dyke, an earth bank with a ditch dug alongside both of which have mellowed over time. The dyke extends for some half a kilometre from the Hob on the Hill boundary stone…
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Jack Sledge Road
Ever get that feeling of lethargy during the dark winter months. It hit me today. Must have melatonin to spare. And a wee sniffle didn’t help. So a potter around Danby Rigg. This is the Jack Sledge Road as it descends into Little Fryup Dale. It must be an ancient track linking the dale with…
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Prehistoric linear boundary, Bridestones Moor
A small section of the 930m long prehistoric earthwork forming the boundary between Bridestones Moor and Dalby Forest. The archaeologists are concerned that encroachment of the forest is causing damage to the ditch and earth banks. So the winter job of clearing the trees is now in its third year, and the end is in…
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Sir Michael Tippett
Today, Sir Michael Tippett, perhaps the leading British composer of the 20th-century, would have been 114 years old. He is most famous for his oratorio ‘A Child of Our Time’, which was inspired by the murder in Paris of a German diplomat in 1938 by a Jewish refugee teenager. The murder led to the attacks…
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Boxing Day Hunt
It’s becoming a tradition. Keeping an eye on the Boxing Day Hunt to see if they stray onto National Trust land. They appeared to have done last year and caused damage to the walkways in Newton woods. Admittingly that was in November; on a high profile day such as Boxing Day, I would be surprised…
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Cushat Hill
A glorious Christmas Day in Cleveland. Not sure the weather was so good in Bilsdale. It looks as though the dale was filled with cloud and overflowing the col between White Hill and Urra Moor. Most refer to the pass as Clay Bank but old maps show it as Cushat Hill. Viewed from some distance…
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Módraniht, a pagan tradition of Christmas Eve
To our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, December 24th was the Night of the Mothers or Módraniht when thanks were given to the mothers of the tribe. It was attested to in Bede’s 8th-century manuscript and probably involved a sacrifice. The tradition may have roots today in the Orkneys where Helya’s Night sees the children of each…