Author: Fhithich
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Farne Islands
The evening sun falls on the lighthouse on Inner Farne seen through a narrow sound mapped as Piper Cut. Three and a half kilometres away. We were anchored off Big Harcar and about to jump into the shallow water to “swim with the seals”. A brilliant experience. The Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland,…
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Ramsdale Stone Circle
How many stones make a stone circle? These three standing stones on the appropriately named Standing Stones Rigg on Fylingdales Moor are known as the Ramsdale Stone Circle. Ramsdale being the name of a hamlet and a beck that eventually flows into the North Sea at Boggle Hole. It is not known if there were…
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Bracken spraying on Roseberry
Roseberry looks different. Striped by quad bike tracks spraying the bracken that infests the Common. Bracken is found worldwide and in Britain, it is particularly invasive especially on the acidic soils of our moorlands. It’s always been with us, a pioneer plant quickly establishing itself as prehistoric man cleared the ancient woodland. But bracken remained…
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Whorlton Moor
A lone walker crosses a sunny Whorlton Moor and heads towards dark ominous clouds in the east. He is probably on one of the two long distance footpaths which use this stretch of the moors, the Cleveland Way or the Coast to Coast, the latter an unofficial but very popular walk starting at St Bees…
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Garfit Gap
Popped up Hasty Bank and Cold Moor for an amble around. A pleasant morning, loads of walkers on the Cleveland Way. This is Garfit Buttress, the south-western end of the outcrop of sandstone crags known as the Wainstones. Overlooking Garfit Gap towards Cold Moor. A view I’ve looked at many times, yet fresh every time.…
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Summerhouse Field
I think the farmer who tenants the Summerhouse field must be a reader of this blog. Just nine days after writing I hadn’t seen this field pastured for years, there were cattle lazing and grazing about among the tall grasses this morning. Although it is well known that Roseberry Topping is owned by the National…
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Commondale
Most people associate Commondale with the small collection of houses centred around the Cleveland Inn at the bottom of Sand Hill Bank. But Commondale only really begins there and ends downstream at the confluence of Commondale Beck with the River Esk. A narrow, secluded dale, about 4km long. Cyclists using the bridleway between Foul Green…
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Finally some sunshine
A week dominated by weather fronts sweeping across the country and where the mornings have become distinctly more autumnal. Nice to have some sunshine and clarity this morning then. This is a view north by northeast from Hutton Moor over Guisborough towards Redcar and the North Sea. On the right is Beacon Moor and Errington…
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River Leven, Little Ayton
“Sweet vale of Leven! how calm is thy stream, Gliding onwards in beauty like hour’s youngest dream.” Attributed to John Walker Ord by J. Fairfax-Blakeborough in Great Ayton, Stokesley & District, past and present, 1901. The bridge was built sometime in the late 19th-century by The Stockton Forge Makers of Stockton-on-Tees who produced castings and…
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Blakey Topping
A rewarding day on Thompson’s Rigg with the constant backdrop of Blakey Topping. The task was to install water vole fencing along Crosscliff Beck. Now that is not fencing to keep the water voles in but to keep sheep out. Water voles are one of our rarest native mammals and have suffered a sharp decline…