Out & About …

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

Category: North York Moors

  • One man and his reluctant dog

    One man and his reluctant dog

    From his origins in Germanic and Norse mythologies Odin has been a revered god associated with many things: wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, battle, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, war. The list goes on to include the wind and it was certainly a wee bit windy on Odin’s hill today. How strong? I guessed a…

  • Holloway, Faceby Plantation

    Holloway, Faceby Plantation

    What must be an old forgotten track climbing the escarpment onto the moors through Faceby Plantation. It must be an ancient route. But leading to where? It seems to head towards the Public Footpath and linear earthwork which tops the skyline on Live Moor at Road Head above the spring with the delightful name of…

  • Park Nab from Percy Rigg

    Park Nab from Percy Rigg

    Park Nab, like a sleeping dragon with its breath creeping up the hillside. A dismal forecast. A day for keeping local. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Castleton and the Upper Esk Valley

    Castleton and the Upper Esk Valley

    From Danby Low Moor, to the north of Castleton in the Esk valley. The ‘New Road’ to Westerdale is reflected in the morning sun contouring around Rigg End, the appropriately named north end of Castleton Rigg. The south-west tip of Castleton village is on the left, Perhaps somewhere in the photo lies the site of…

  • A whiter shade of grey

    A whiter shade of grey

    I’ve been stalking this squirrel all week. It’s far more timid than other grey squirrels which I suppose has helped it to survive. I took this during a ten minute stand off. I lost patience first and tried to get closer, then ignominiously slipped down a bank. This is the third time I’ve seen a…

  • Crosscliffe Beck

    Crosscliffe Beck

    A dreich day with a mantle of mist over the trees that persisted all day. Separating the great expanses of Forestry Commission planting of Dalby and Langdale, Crosscliff Beck rises near Blakey Topping eventually flowing into the River Derwent. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Nuthatch

    Nuthatch

    You will probably hear this little bird before you see it. It’s very vocal, singing a variety of loud songs with lots of different whistle-sounding notes. It’s the nuthatch, nut jobber, nut cracker, nut pecker or wood cracker. All referring to its habit of lodging nuts in crevices in the bark of trees to crack…

  • Fly Agaric

    Fly Agaric

    A damp stroll this morning. Most toadstools I come across are usually past their sell-by date. Dirty, forlorn, and partially eaten by insects. This one seems pristine and the classic toadstool as drawn in children’s books; the Fly Agaric or Amanita muscaria, poisonous twice over. One poison is muscarine, causing nausea and vomiting eventually leading…

  • Scaling Dam

    Scaling Dam

    What came first the reservoir or the dam? I have always thought Scaling Dam was named after the village of Scaling when the reservoir was commissioned in 1958. But browsing the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1856 I noticed a hamlet by the name of Scalingdam comprising the sandstone buildings standing along the north side…

  • Cod Beck Reservoir

    Cod Beck Reservoir

    A chilly circumnavigation of Cod Beck reservoir. Above the sky is blue with just a hint of cirrus but down in the valley, the Greylags on their watery roost have yet to feel the warmth of the morning sun. Open Space Web-Map builder Code