Out & About …

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

Author: Fhithich

  • A moorjock on Barker’s Ridge

    A moorjock on Barker’s Ridge

    Grazing below Stony Wicks, a scrappy sandstone set of crags at the head of Scugdale, this moorland sheep is oblivious to the eerie sight of the morning fog creeping up the dale from the Vale of Cleveland. Colloquially known as Moorjocks, this sheep is probably a Swaledale, said to be one of the mountain breeds…

  • When Roseberrye Toppinge weares a cappe …

    When Roseberrye Toppinge weares a cappe …

    Towards the weste there stands a highe hill called Roseberry Toppinge, which is a marke to the seamen, and an almanacke to the vale, for they have this ould ryme common, “When Roseberrye Toppinge weares a cappe Let Cleveland then beware a clappe.” For indeede yt seldome hath a cloude on yt that some yll…

  • Great Fryup Head

    Great Fryup Head

    A vague plan hatched. Mooch up to the head of the dale through Canon Atkinson’s undercliff. End up at Yew Grain, the waterfall on the left. But The Hills proved far too interesting so this is as far as we got. The waterfall on the right is Spa Dike. Arising out of George Gap Spa,…

  • Where have I been today?

    Where have I been today?

    A dreich day, so decided to do a little exploring. I’ve been into this lovely secluded little valley only once before, its name implying a broken rocky cliff but there seems an absence of bare rock. It appears a natural place to graze cattle, hidden away from passing travellers and prying eyes, hemmed in by…

  • Prehistoric cross dyke, Fylingdales Moor

    Prehistoric cross dyke, Fylingdales Moor

    Fylingdales Moor is a huge area of heather moorland owned by the Strickland Estate but managed by the Hawk and Owl Trust as a conservation area using “traditional moorland management techniques”. The moor contains many archaeological features. The largest is this prehistoric cross dyke, three parallel ditches with earthbanks between, 780m long. Often the uniformity…

  • Bramble leaves

    Bramble leaves

    Battered by Storm Callum. Ninety minutes running with eyes down glimpsing the occasional red leaf amongst the browns and yellows. The red of the bramble must be my favourite autumnal colour. Anthocyanins are chemicals found in the blackberries and synthesise in some of its leaves when sugar levels increase in the Autumn, giving them their…

  • Stocking Crags Wood, Bransdale

    Stocking Crags Wood, Bransdale

    A slow, misty drive over Rosedale Head. Past the Lion Inn, its solitary light pinpointing our position. Into lovely Stocking Crags Wood with its enrapturing colours and moss-covered boulders. Very autumnal. Cleaning up the bird boxes ready for next year’s tenants. Out with the old nest, just one tiny unhatched egg. And for the treecreepers…

  • Chop Gate

    Chop Gate

    Woe betides anyone who pronounces this village with a hard ‘g’, in the same way as your garden gate. As every Yorkshireman will tell you it’s Chop Yat which is a mix of etymological roots. The Yat is Old Norse for a road and Chop comes from the Old English ‘ceap‘ for an itinerant peddler.…

  • A view from Turkey Nab across lower Kildale

    A view from Turkey Nab across lower Kildale

    Earlier this year, on January 29 a dead buzzard was found “on top of a dry-stone wall, next to a layby on the Kildale to Commondale road near Percy Rigg”. The RSPB and the police were informed and the bird was sent off for toxicology tests which came back in July saying the likely cause…

  • East Rosedale old kilns

    East Rosedale old kilns

    Lovely rich colours of the sandstone masonry of the old calcining kilns at East Rosedale, miraculously still standing after a century of abandonment. The inner linings of fire bricks look very precarious. An idea of the industrial scene in the 1920s can be seen in this old photo https://goo.gl/images/yALTvw although when it was taken the…