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Aireyholme Farm
Best known as where James Cook lived as a boy and where his father was employed as the farm foreman, although it is likely that the Cook family’s actual cottage was sited a little distance out of shot to the left at the foot of Cliff Rigg. The modern farm buildings in the photo date…
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St Andrews Old Church
Once thought to be the smallest church in England although that honour goes to a Wiltshire Church at Bremilham. It was actually once part of a bigger church dating back to the 12th-century although a fragment of a 9th-century cross has been found suggesting an even older building. The church stands beside the B1268, a…
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Play of the Weather
The god of rain took an early lead in the ageless battle to decide the British weather. And as I write this the day ends with the god of wind, Gareth, firmly dominant. This parallel was explored in John Heywood’s “Play of the Weather“: Amidst a mass of bickering, in-fighting, backstabbing and intrigue, the gods…
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Saltburn Sands
A bracing stroll along the beach at Saltburn. This morning’s Inshore Waters forecast for Berwick-on-Tweed to Whitby:- Wind: West or northwest 5 or 7 occasionally gale 8 at first, backing southwest 4 to 5, increasing 6 or 7 later. Sea State: Moderate, occasionally rough, becoming slight or moderate later. Weather: Wintry showers, rain later. Visibility:…
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Young Ralph
Walked into Bransdale Mill yesterday with a Duke of Edinburgh training group in what turned out to be a glorious day. The journey out today turned interesting. The cross known as Young Ralph is probably medieval and to me always looks better in wintry conditions. It is perhaps best known as the logo of the…
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Gribdale Gate
I have never really understood where Gribdale is. The oldest Ordnance Survey map marks Gribdale Gate as the col between Little Ayton and Great Ayton Moors. There is a Gribdale Plantation but apart from that, there is no other mention of the name, and there is no resemblance of a dale on the Great Ayton…
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Fallow deer, Studley Royal Park
There are three herds of deer in Studley Royal Park, Sika, Red and Fallow, about 600 in total. This morning they arrived to greet the National Trust ranger’s feeding tractor together in one massive pack yet still each herd sticking close together. They are currently being fed every other day but this will soon stop…
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Antonine Wall
A huge ditch gives some idea of the scale of the engineering the Romans put into the building of the Antonine Wall. Stretching 40 miles across Scotland between the Clyde and the Forth estuaries, it was built of the orders of the Emporer Antonius Pius in AD142 and occupied for 22 years before being abandoned…
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Sir John de Graham’s Castle
One of the best example of a motte and bailey castle I’ve seen. Unusually square shaped, the depth of the motte can be gauged by the wooden steps built to preserve the slope with the actual castle would have been timber-framed. It would have had commanding views over the Carron Valley, a viewed obscured today…
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Cora Linn
Just above the dramatic Falls of Clyde. William Wallace country. His cave where he hid after fleeing from the English is said to overlook the Cora Linn. Along with several other locations throughout Scotland. Linn means a pool and Cora is said to be a daughter of Malcolm II who reigned in the eleventh century,…
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