Out & About …

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

Category: Baysdale

  • In Baysdale Beck

    In Baysdale Beck

    Two stoops or gateposts mark a long-lost crossing of Baysdale Beck about 275 metres upstream of the modern-day ford at Hob Hole. The width between the post suggests a passage on foot and for pack horses only. “Ploughman“, writing in 1908, observed that “the supports of an ancient bridge is still preserved, by the interweaving…

  • Some days photographic opportunities are few and far between

    Some days photographic opportunities are few and far between

    Today was such a day. Rain, drizzle, a brief interlude of bright sunshine, then more drizzle, followed by a touch of rain. I was on the bridleway mapped as Skinner Howe Cross Path crossing Great Hograh Moor when the sun made one of its brief appearances. This is looking north-west across Baysdale, look closely and…

  • The Wicked Squire of Basedale

    The Wicked Squire of Basedale

    A photo of Baysdale to accompany this story I came across by Richard Blakeborough in the Northern Weekly Gazette from 1912 It’s a cracking story, which I fear would be diminshed if I attempted to trim it down. I am therefore repeating it in full which makes this my longest post ever (which I’ve split…

  • The Cheese Stones’ rock fonts

    The Cheese Stones’ rock fonts

    Elgee suggests the name Cheese Stones , “probably” originates because the rock was used in local cheese presses. Now that may be the case but I do not understand why rock from this particular outcrop should be used for pressing cheeses. In the same article, appearing in the Northern Weekly Gazette in 1902, the future…

  • Baysdale Abbey

    Baysdale Abbey

    Very little remains of the 12th-century Cistercian nunnery; a large farmhouse now occupying the site. The farmhouse probably dates from the 17th-century although I read it has a date of 1822 above the date. A priory was founded in 1162 at Hutton Lowcross, near Guisborough; but soon the nuns were removed to the village of…

  • Chequerboard moorland

    Chequerboard moorland

    I suppose it would be petty of me to whine about this anthropogenic change to the moors created by mowing of the heather moorland. I should be thankful that this moor is no longer being burn and great plumes of smoke waft across the skyline but I fear the random patches of the old black…

  • Baysdale

    Baysdale

    Today is Australia Day. An Australian national holiday to commemorate when the British First Fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, sailed into Port Jackson so establishing the first permanent white European settlement on the continent. The year was 1788, almost eighteen years after Captain James Cook had set foot on the place. The fleet comprised eleven…

  • The one that got away

    The one that got away

    I nearly ran over a fish today. It was massive. This big — hands held wide apart. There I was, cycling down Hob Hole and this ginormous fish was wriggling across the ford. Its dorsal fin and back were clear of the water which was about two to three inches deep. By the time I…

  • The Wishing Stone

    The Wishing Stone

    This has been on my to-do list since the spring after reading a blog post on the Arcanum web-site. It’s a large, deep, circular basin on a boulder on Ingleby Moor that is speculated to have be manmade and used for ritual purposes: the making of wishes or prayers, or curses and so on. As…

  • Shooting Butt No. 2 on Warren Moor

    Shooting Butt No. 2 on Warren Moor

    I will call this a ruined grouse butt although I suspect it is still in use. Anyway above the ‘2’ is a stone with a carved grouse dated, I think, 1975. I have it in mind that this was carved by Roland S. Close (1908-1978), the amateur archaeologist and an estate worker at Kildale. If…