Out & About …

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

Tag: rock

  • Hanging Stone, Danby Dale

    Hanging Stone, Danby Dale

    When the Reverend J.C.Atkinson became the vicar of the parish of Danby in 1847 there was no village of Danby and as far as he could ascertain there had never been one. There was a Danby Dale, a Danby Rigg and a Danby Castle. There were several hamlets: Dale End, Little Fryup and Ainthorpe, and…

  • Low Bride Stones

    Low Bride Stones

    You might believe these squat sandstone stacks were laid down in seas long ago when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Their curious shapes the result of the wind and the rain. But A.J.Brown* suggests it was Wade who placed them during a game of duckstones. Now, this is not so unfeasible, for Wade was a giant…

  • Sir Michael Tippett

    Sir Michael Tippett

    Today, Sir Michael Tippett, perhaps the leading British composer of the 20th-century, would have been 114 years old. He is most famous for his oratorio ‘A Child of Our Time’, which was inspired by the murder in Paris of a German diplomat in 1938 by a Jewish refugee teenager. The murder led to the attacks…

  • Hanging Stone and the Vale of Mowbray

    Hanging Stone and the Vale of Mowbray

    A hammer-shaped sandstone rock on the southern end of Thimbleby Bank, between Osmotherley and Over Silton and offering fine views across the Vale of Mowbray. Views which were spoilt by the noise of a constant barrage of gunshots, many a clay pigeon blasted to smithereens. The Vale of Mowbray is that the broad lowlands between…

  • View from the Cheshire Stone

    View from the Cheshire Stone

    And a fine view it is on a lovely morning. So easy to pooh-pooh the dire weather forecast. The large basin on the flat sandstone top does not look natural but no doubt it is. And judging by the rate of erosion of prehistoric rock art on sandstone boulders elsewhere on the North York Moors…

  • Hanging Stone, Ryston Nab

    Hanging Stone, Ryston Nab

    Hanging Stone, overlooking Hutton Lowcross. one of the many Deltaic sandstone outcrops along the scarp of the moors.The name is pretty common, presumably because like other crags from below it appears to hang over the valley. Ryston Nab, the nose on which its on, has a more interesting name being documented in the 14th century…

  • Castleton Rigg

    Castleton Rigg

    A visit to the seated man sculpture on Castleton Rigg overlooking Westerdale. Almost a year since I last came, just after it was erected. Still a monstrosity but proving very popular. Too popular. Parking is a concern and the route up is now widely bare of heather and vegetation making it susceptible to erosion. So…

  • The Sheep Walk

    The Sheep Walk

    A view familiar to Cleveland Way Walkers and Coast to Coasters. Both long-distance trails pass through this gap between outcrops of rocks collectively known as The Wainstones. The climbers refer to the gap as the Sheep Walk, although sheep will need to resort to scrambling to climb it. A Danish chieftain was supposed to have…

  • The Pepperpot, Bridestones

    The Pepperpot, Bridestones

    Of the fascinating sandstone columns and rock outcrops that are known as the Bridestones, the Pepperpot is perhaps the most photographed. The Bridestones are the last remnants of a Jurassic sedimentary rock layer deposited some 150 million years ago that have been eroded over the millennia by wind, frost and rain. The name is not…

  • Mosedale

    Mosedale

    A neighbouring valley to yesterday’s post but far more significant, it’s watercourse, the River Caldrew, having a watershed covering perhaps half the Northern Fells. On the right Carrock Fell with its steep southern flank. A calmer day than yesterday but the high tops covered in cloud. Open Space Web-Map builder Code