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Lonsdale
There is a wonderful phrase in Hebridean Gaelic, rionnach maoimi, meaning literally a mackerel panic but used to refer to the shadows cast on a hillside by clouds moving across the sky on a windy day. I am sure there must be a kindred word for a shaft of sunlight falling on the ground through…
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The Cleveland Tontine
A view from Swinestye Hill across the Vale of Mowbray. The Cleveland Tontine Inn, bottom left at the junction of the A19 and A172 is officially the northeasternmost point of the vale which boundary heads arbitrarily in a northeasterly direction to Scotch Corner. To the south is the Vale of Mowbray, to the north the…
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Banishead Quarry
A consequence of man’s thirst for slate flagstones. The site comprises two large quarries, Eddy Scale and Banishead, dug on either side of Torver Beck which was left flowing down a ridge between the two. Eventually, a section collapsed creating a waterfall into Banishead. With no apparent drain, the water level quickly rose creating a…
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Coniston Water
A view of the north end of Coniston Water from an unfamiliar angle. The righthand most house on the far side of the lake is Brantwood, where the poet John Ruskin lived. Travelling north (right to left) we come to big houses now used as outdoor education centres, Thurlston and Low Bank Ground, good memories…
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Torver Beck
Wet and wild in the Lakes so kept low. Torver Commons on the western side of Coniston water was one of my first Lakeland orienteering events. I remember getting hopelessly lost. The bracken meant I kept to the paths today. This is Torver Beck which drains a vast swathe of the Furness Fells, including the…
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Parasol Mushroom
A day spent up to my neck in bracken clearing the footpaths on Roseberry Topping so little opportunity for photography. I think this is a young Parasol Mushroom (Macrolepiota procera). Eventually, it will unfurl into, nor surprisingly, a parasol. It is reputed to be the best of the edible mushrooms but I have no confidence…
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Ewe Crag Beck
A run out from Danby to Sis Cross and back via Ewe Crag Beck, a deep long meandering valley. At its head it becomes Ewe Crag Slack where it is shallow, broad, and flat, forming a boggy col in the watershed. With “no stream worth mentioning” Frank Elgee suggests in his book The Moorlands of…
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Tramway kip, Newton Wood
Last Friday’s task for the National Trust volunteers was to clear bracken and brambles from the industrial archaeology remains in Newton Wood. Stripped of undergrowth the shape of this unusual structure becomes clear. It’s the head of a narrow-gauge tramway incline down which wagons full of ore from the Roseberry Ironstone Mine rolled down under…
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The Ship Inn, Saltburn
Early morning, a sleepy Saltburn braces itself for a hot day and the inevitable bank holiday crowds. It is said there used to be four inns in the tiny hamlet of old Saltburn: The Seagull, The Dolphin, The Nimrod and The Ship. Today only The Ship remains, reputed to be a smugglers’ haunt dating to…
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Easington drinking fountain
On the busy A174, a neglected Grade II listed structure almost smothered by shrubbery. The listing says … “Drinking fountain and troughs, alongside road, dated 1873. Dressed sandstone. Lion mask water spout in trefoil-headed niche under ornamented gable with 3 roundels bearing initials: “M.L.C.”, “M.G.M.”, and “K.L.M.” Semicircular basin on foliate stem flanked by semicircular…
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