Out & About …

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

Category: Roseberry Topping

  • Ounsbury toppin hill

    Ounsbury toppin hill

    So Christopher Saxton annotated the hill in his Atlas of the Counties of England and Wales which he published in 1579. Commissioned by Elizabeth I, it was the first definitive map of England and Wales with each county being engraved on a separate copper plate on a scale of 1″ to 3⅓ miles. Maps were…

  • Roseberry and Black Bank

    Roseberry and Black Bank

    Odin’s hill from Ayton Bank. On the right is Little Roseberry with Black Bank almost clear-felled of its coniferous plantation. It’s barely ten years ago but I find it hard to remember what it was like. A tour of the escarpment on a glorious morning with blue skies. Lower down the fields are a bit…

  • High Bousdale from Roseberry

    High Bousdale from Roseberry

    A view from the summit of Roseberry Topping towards Guisborough down the forested valley of High Bousdale, between Bousdale Hill and Ryston Bank with the Hanging Stone at its nab. High Bousdale was once contemplated as a means of access to the ironstone holdings below Roseberry. There would have been an incline from the Middlesbrough…

  • Roseberry in the Golden Hour

    Roseberry in the Golden Hour

    That last hour before period sunset, when the sun is low on the horizon and its rays pass through the atmosphere for a greater distance, becoming weaker, more diffracted, and appearing redder. The spoil heap is from the transhipment yard where the iron ore from the Roseberry Mine was transferred from the narrow-gauge railway onto…

  • Roseberry

    Roseberry

    It was raining when I set off and ten minutes before I took this, I was in cloud on the summit. And then the sun came out. Turned out nice. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • The Carrs

    The Carrs

    An uncommon view of Roseberry across the flatlands of Moreton Carr and Upsall Carr but one that would be easily recognised by commuters on the A171 Guisborough By-Pass. The ‘Carr’ element of these names comes from the Old Scandanavian word kjarr meaning a marshy area, giving an insight into the terrain in medieval Cleveland. Open…

  • Autumn Equinox

    Autumn Equinox

    At 08:50 this morning the ecliptic path of the Sun crossed the celestial equator and day and night were of equal length. For those of us in the northern hemisphere it’s the Autumn Equinox. So my project for today was to take an autumnal photo. I had in mind a palette of “feuille-morte” of the…

  • Airy Holme

    Airy Holme

    A view from Roseberry Topping to Capt. Cook’s Monument across the great bowl of Airy Holme, Slacks Wood and Ayton Bank, just before a tremendous downpour. The National Trust boundary of Roseberry is the fence line in the foreground just before the bracken limit. Aireyholme Lane can just be made out crossing left to right.…

  • Bracken spraying on Roseberry

    Bracken spraying on Roseberry

    Roseberry looks different. Striped by quad bike tracks spraying the bracken that infests the Common. Bracken is found worldwide and in Britain, it is particularly invasive especially on the acidic soils of our moorlands. It’s always been with us, a pioneer plant quickly establishing itself as prehistoric man cleared the ancient woodland. But bracken remained…

  • Summerhouse Field

    Summerhouse Field

    I think the farmer who tenants the Summerhouse field must be a reader of this blog. Just nine days after writing I hadn’t seen this field pastured for years, there were cattle lazing and grazing about among the tall grasses this morning. Although it is well known that Roseberry Topping is owned by the National…