Category: North York Moors
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Church Way, Ainthorpe Rigg
I often find I visit a stretch of moor that I haven’t been to for years then, a short time later, I’m back on that very same moor. So it was today, I found myself back on Ainthorpe Rigg, and on the Old Hell Road, the old corpse road. This would have been the final…
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Red sky in the morning, sailors’ warning.
“Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors’ warning.” So goes one version of the old saying based on generations of observations of farmers and seafarers. A saying that was first documented in the Bible although probably in use long before that. In Matthew (ch. 16 v. 2), When it is…
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Halfway up the Incline
The halfway gate, good fresh snow and blue skies. Magic. The mile-long incline, maximum gradient 1 in 4½, came into operation in 1861 to transport ore from the Rosedale Ironstone Mines. At the peak of ironstone production 1000-1500 tons was hauled down daily, operations continuing throughout the night. The incline was self acting, that is,…
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The Bones of Winter
Such a wonderful phrase for which I can not claim credit nor provide a quotation, it’s just one of those phrases which I’ve read and has stuck in my mind. And it certainly felt as though winter had been defleshed today on Eweing Knoll, Dromonby Bank. I’m on the jet miners track which contours Cringle…
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The Grey Squirrel
A cute little furry thing but scorned by wildlife managers and conservationists. Native to North America the grey squirrel was introduced into Britain by Victorian landowners to enhance their gardens and estates and is now common and widespread. It is considered an invasive non-native species, causes damage to our woodland and wildlife and has pushed…
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Britain’s 23rd Favourite Walk
A disappointing snowfall. Threatening but just a flindrikin. Roseberry Topping wasn’t so much wearing a cap but a grey veil. Didn’t see a soul except for this lone cyclist pushing his bike down the hill. Why? And a gravel bike at that. Roseberry, recently placed 23rd in a ITV list of Britain’s favourite walks. Part…
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Trennet Bank Plantation
Climbing from William Beck Farm. Across Bilsdale the overnight snowfall picks the remains of the Trennet Bank Plantation, an unsightly conifer woodland that was felled by the National Park Authority in 2015/6 under their Trennet Bank Project. The plantation of Sitka spruce and Lodgepole pine dates from the 1970s. It was planted close to the…
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A view east from Hawnby Hill
Bilsdale Moor West. A beam of sunshine is shining on Wethercote Farm which must be one of the highest farms in the area. The land is recorded as belonging to Rievaulx Abbey around 1145 and contains quarries from which stone was used in the construction of the abbey. In the 18th century, coal was mined…
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Cleveland Hills from Roseberry
A view south from Roseberry towards Whorlton Hill with Beacon Hill and Near Moor behind. Early afternoon.
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Smout House Dovecote
A dull start to the day at the National Trust’s offices in Bransdale but a shaft of sunlight fell on the white dovecote. First used by the Romans, dovecotes were used traditionally to provide a source of meat and eggs but this one I think is modern and purely ornamental. The wind was raw, thirty…