Month: May 2020
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A pair of hares
Can you say a brace of hares? What is the collective noun for a group of hares? So many to choose from: a band, a down, a drove, a flick, a herd, a husk. I don’t like herd, but do two count as a group anyway? I haven’t the patience for nature photography so when…
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Saltburn’s White Elephant
One for posterity. I may be wrong but I think this is “the large pillared shelter known locally as ‘The White Elephant’” according to one website, although many communities use that name for structures that seem to have no real value. The name alludes to the king of Siam’s habit of making a present of…
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Kildale Church
Recent forestry work on Coate Moor has opened up new vistas including this view of Kildale Church. Officially, the Church of Saints Gregory and Cuthbert although St. Gregory is often left off with the church just being referred to as St. Cuthbert’s, a name which was actually used in older documents. There is some speculation…
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On Cliff Rigg
An end of the afternoon dog walk up Cliff Rigg, part of the Cleveland Dyke, an igneous intrusion formed 56 million years ago that withstood the forces of the glaciers. In the distance is Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor, and the Cleveland Hills, but the air is filled with the coconut scent of the…
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Roseberry
It looks like the ending of this lockdown is going to be as mismanaged as its introduction, exacerbated by certain sections of the media. Judging by their front page, The Daily Mail now seems to be intent on generating animosity for teachers by suggesting they are cowards if they don’t risk their health. We currently…
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Hasty Bank
It’s been at least 9 weeks since I last ran along the narrow path that contours around the back of White Hill, the south-facing bank at the head of Bilsdale. Clay Bank car park was fairly busy, I’ve seen it more so. But I hardly saw a soul on the hill. It’s good to be…
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The bluebell meadows, Newton Woods
With the lockdown eased I don’t feel so guilty about posting photos taken on my daily exercise. I have deliberately avoided doing so. Roseberry is still there, and the bluebells are out, intoxicating the woodland floor with a violety-blue wash but, in the upper meadow at least, they are perhaps past their prime. Bluebells flower…
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Kentdale
The Kent valley must be the quietest of the Lakeland dales. Hidden from the main tourist route with very few places to park and a ‘dry’ valley with no pub. This ruined sheepfold and barn is on the Garburn Pass, an ancient drovers’ route from Troutbeck, overlooking the middle section of the valley. Kentmere Tarn…
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Dunnet Bay
What do you call a group of imps or fairies? A herd, a flock, perhaps a mischief? Anyway, Dunnet Bay is the landfall of a bridge across the Pentland Firth that the imps employed by the wizard Donald Duibheal Mackay had been told to build. They wove the main rope out of sand, but when…
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Beinn Fhada
In spite of its Munro status, Beinn Fhada has been described as a boring mountain. The name translates as ‘the long hill’, being as long as the whole of its neighbouring Five Sisters ridge. However, the summit plateau, Plaide Mhòr, is significant. It is the largest extent of preglacial land surface surviving in the western Highlands.…