• Port Mulgrave: A Harbour of Erosion and Memory

    Port Mulgrave: A Harbour of Erosion and Memory

    The last time I ventured down Rosedale Cliff to Port Mulgrave was sometime before the world discovered a new way to grind to a halt — the dreaded COVID. Shortly afterwards, a landslip completely wiped out the path. Today, visiting the beach was not on the itinerary, but fate – in the form of National…

  • Cleopatra’s Needle and its Tenuous Connection to the North Riding

    Cleopatra’s Needle and its Tenuous Connection to the North Riding

    Let us journey back to this day, 21st January in 1878, to Gravesend, Kent. Imagine the children, thrilled to avoid school, lining the Thames estuary to witness the grand arrival of Cleopatra’s Needle. This 3,500-year-old, 224-ton, 21-metre-high granite obelisk had been towed from Alexandria to London in a cumbersome iron vessel shaped like a cylinder.…

  • Four Years On: From Relief to Dread

    Four Years On: From Relief to Dread

    A dreary morning on Great Ayton Moor, perfectly suited to my mood. Four years ago, I posted about watching Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th President of the United States. It was the first time I had ever bothered with such a ceremony, accompanied by an immense sense of relief. Today, there is no such…

  • Bold Venture Gill

    Bold Venture Gill

    The public footpaths through Highcliffe Farm have been diverted. Fascinating. I am sure there is an entirely compelling reason for depriving the public of paths they have used for decades. Perhaps the landowner fancied some peace and quiet, or maybe there was a pressing need to shift things about for reasons too profound for us…

  • Flocking Together: Hebridean Sheep and Sheepdog Training

    Flocking Together: Hebridean Sheep and Sheepdog Training

    I heard, through the ever-reliable grapevine, that this small flock of Hebridean sheep at Aireyholme Farm is being used to train a young sheepdog. Predictably, just before this photo was taken, the dog had had its lesson, and the sheep were beginning to calm down. Hebridean sheep are apparently the darlings of the sheepdog training…

  • Saplings and Shotguns: A Day in Bransdale

    Saplings and Shotguns: A Day in Bransdale

    A thrilling day of digging in sunny Bransdale, planting Bloworth Wood with saplings. The chosen species were native: oak, hazel, alder, and Scots pine. Once upon a time, Bloworth Wood was a joyless conifer plantation, but thanks to the National Trust, it has been clear felled with the grand dream of establishing a “natural” woodland.…

  • Brume, Roke, and Other Vapourous Delights

    Brume, Roke, and Other Vapourous Delights

    There is something magical about mist creeping up the dales of the North York Moors, at least if you’re being sentimental. Behind me, the mist—sorry, ‘brume’—was crawling up the Vale of Mowbray, but that was less of a spectacle than this show over Raisdale and Bilsdale. Speaking of brume, it is the ideal word for…

  • A Walk along Hasty Bank to the Sound of Gunfire

    A Walk along Hasty Bank to the Sound of Gunfire

    A return to Hasty Bank along a lovely trod, an old favourite, thoughtfully chosen to avoid the paved motorway of the Cleveland Way. What a transformation from three days ago, when there was proper snow cover. Now the snow has almost melted away, revealing the bleak “bare bones of winter,” as some poet once lamented.…

  • The Light: Conspiracy Bile Delivered Direct to Your Letterbox

    The Light: Conspiracy Bile Delivered Direct to Your Letterbox

    There I was, about to embark on my virtuous trek up Roseberry Topping, coat in hand, when a free newspaper crashed through the letterbox like an unwelcome guest. A relic of a bygone era, I thought, since such things had ceased to grace my street years ago. Still, the design carried a whiff of credibility,…

  • POW! WHACK! The Circus Returns to Town

    POW! WHACK! The Circus Returns to Town

    On this day in 1966, the campy spectacle of Batman made its debut on American television. Adam West donned the cape, Burt Ward chirped as Robin, and Cesar Romero refused to shave his moustache to play the Joker. Although by the time it hit British screens, I was too old, but I remember it well.…

Care to comment?