Out & About …

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

  • Whitestone Cliff and Gormire Lake

    Whitestone Cliff and Gormire Lake

    Looking down onto Lake Gormire near Sutton Bank. A place of myth and legend. In the distance is the elongated Jurassic outlier, Hood Hill with where Druids were said to have made sacrifices. Some say Lake Gormire was made when an earthquake swallowed up a whole town. The roofs of the houses and chimneys can…

  • The Cleveland Hills

    The Cleveland Hills

    Up onto Greenhow Bank to catch the sunset only to find it fizzled out when the sun dropped behind a low bank of cloud. But still enough light reflecting off higher-level clouds. A view to the Cleveland Hills across the fields of Greenhow Botton. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Cliff Rigg and Newton Wood

    Cliff Rigg and Newton Wood

    Explored a long-forgotten section of a Public Bridleway up Roseberry Topping that has recently been cleared of bracken. It’s just a wild guess but to me, the route points to an early tourist route up to the summit. I’ve posted about this before. It starts in Newton and goes up Roseberry Lane (or Wood Land…

  • Pond, Sneaton Forest

    Pond, Sneaton Forest

    The first time I orienteered in Sneaton the map was called Maybeck, the spruce trees were impenetrable and any excursion was a hands and knees job along one of the many ditches. Planted in the 1960s the forest is a commercial forest typical of the North York Moors. Today, 40 years later, the trees have…

  • Green Howe

    Green Howe

    Go to almost anywhere on the North York Moors and somewhere on the skyline there will be at least one round barrow. More likely you will be able to spot a dozen or so. The archaeologists tell us 541 of them have been recorded. Marked in Gothic script on Ordnance Survey maps as ‘tumulus’ or…

  • Howden Gill

    Howden Gill

    Another blashy morning with low cloud so no panoramic views today. Plenty of water around though. This is Howden Gill which drains Great Ayton Moor. The foam is caused by natural surfactants released from decaying organic matter in the stream lowering the surface tension and allowing the water and air to mix more easily creating…

  • Word of the day: tropism

    Word of the day: tropism

    From the Greek tropos meaning “a turning”, a tropism is the response in a plant’s growth due to an external environmental stimulus. There are many types, such as: Hydrotropism, growth in response to water for example when the roots grow towards areas of higher moisture Phototropism, in response to light Thermotropism, in response to temperature…

  • Mulgrave Castle

    Mulgrave Castle

    Standing on a narrow ridge between two parallel wooded valleys, Mulgrave Castle is part of the Mulgrave Estate owned by the Marquess of Normanby. Parts of the formidable curtain wall are Norman but the photo shows the keep which dates to the end of the 13th century. The large window in the east wall is…

  • Pinch, punch, first of the month …

    Pinch, punch, first of the month …

    … and no returns. October, the eighth month of the calendar of Romulus, the first king of Rome. And what a miserable morning. But it had brightened up by the end of the afternoon. A view south-east from Cliff Rigg towards Gribdale and Cockshaw Hill. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • West Beck, Beck Hole

    West Beck, Beck Hole

    Exploring the excavations of the 19th-century ironstone mining activities in Combs Wood near Beck Hole. These have been carried out by the Land of Iron project over a three year period. We found them easily enough. Most intriguing was a deep pit thought to have contained a waterwheel with a range of remains above which…

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