Out & About …

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

Category: Lonsdale

  • A new sign’s appeared

    A new sign’s appeared

    No Dogs No Bikes This is not a Footpath/Bridleway There is an increase in these signs across the moors. This one has been placed in the last fortnight or so right across a well-used path on Great Ayton Moor leading to Lonsdale Quarry. A blatant attempt by the landowners to intimidate the public to keep…

  • Lonsdale

    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…

  • Lonsdale Quarry

    Lonsdale Quarry

    A wet morning following by a wet afternoon. The sky mottled shades of grey. It is said the stone used in the building of Christ Church in Great Ayton in 1877 came from Lonsdale Quarry although surprisingly egress for the stone blocks seems to have been uphill over Great Ayton Moor. The quarry is occasionally…

  • Climb to Percy Cross from Lonsdale

    Climb to Percy Cross from Lonsdale

    Last Tuesday evening I walked with the Smellies, a group of ex-athletes. Think Last of the Summer Wine. Anyway, we walked from Bank Foot across the fields to Battersby, then climbed Coleson Bank, along the moor before descending Turkey Nab. Both Coleson Bank and Turkey Nab are ‘green lanes’, ancient routes which have managed to…

  • Gribdale Gate

    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…

  • Blue-bores over Lonsdale

    Blue-bores over Lonsdale

    There’s about enough blue in the sky for a Dutchman’s pocket handkerchief or to patch a pair of sailor’s trousers. A Scotsman might say they’re blue-bores, glimmers of hope that the darkness will give way. Oh, I do like that turn of phrase, but can’t get out of my mind a motorway services just off…

  • Rowan tree, Lonsdale Quarry

    Rowan tree, Lonsdale Quarry

    The striking red berries of the Rowan tree stand out against the drab Autumn colours of the moors. The Rowan or Mountain Ash has long been associated with superstition and folklore. In Greek myology the goddess of youth, Hebe, lost her cup of ambrosia, said to rejuvenate youth. It was stolen by demons and the gods sent…