Tag: ecology
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In search of three wells
There are many named features of the old Ordnance Survey maps which names no longer appear on the modern versions. I feel they must have been significant for the local farmers, gamekeepers and land agents to mention them when those early surveyors came knocking. I decided to check out three wells today on Scarth Wood…
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Live Moor promontory fort
A small Bronze Age fort on the north-west corner of Live Moor, more often called Knolls End. Within spitting distance of the Cleveland Way and Coast to Coast footpaths but no Information Boards adorn the site. It was only “discovered” in 1979 so there have been no excavations done. But … … there are sure…
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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…
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It can be done …
The relatively small patch of heather moorland around Captain Cook’s Monument has recently been strip mowed. This photo is technically of a strip on Little Ayton Moor, north of the parish boundary wall, but the area surrounding the monument, Easby Moor, also has at least two parallel strips. The moors are technically dry upland heath,…
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New hedge along the old tramway to Roseberry Mine
I have felt uneasy for some time about the prevalence of plastic tree guards. Their never-ending march seems to pervade into every nook and cranny of our countryside — from our National Parks to motorway verges. They are supposed to protect saplings from browsing animals and to cocoon them in a mini-greenhouse. But are they…
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Oak sapling in Newton Wood
Or should I say a ‘yack‘ sapling, yack being an 18th-century Yorkshire term for the oak. We also have ‘yackrams‘ for acorns. This is really a follow-on from yesterday’s post about the planting of woodland on bracken covered slopes unsuitable for general agriculture. Newton Wood is a predominately oak woodland but with ash, lime, sycamore,…
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Green Bank
I’ve entitled this ‘Green Bank’. That’s the name of the slight rise that can be made out on the col between Cringle Moor and Carlton Bank. Just to the left of Roseberry in the distant. The col is now lorded over by the misnamed Lord Stones Cafe. The foreground is heavily dominated by the skeletal…
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Different moor, different view
I’ve never been on this bit of Kildale Moor before. Never seen Capt. Cook’s Monument from this particular angle. Usually I’m on my bike when I cross Brown Hill but today I was on foot so I was minded to leave the tarmac and head south until the view opened up. But the sun broke…
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Orange peel
“It is a sober commentary on the British way of life that the National Trust has to spend £250 a year picking up litter on its properties in the Lake District. People presumably visit these places to drink in the especial beauty of the scene, but apparently they leave them more or less covered in…