Category: Bridestones
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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…
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Prehistoric linear boundary, Bridestones Moor
A small section of the 930m long prehistoric earthwork forming the boundary between Bridestones Moor and Dalby Forest. The archaeologists are concerned that encroachment of the forest is causing damage to the ditch and earth banks. So the winter job of clearing the trees is now in its third year, and the end is in…
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Deck the hall with boughs of holly ….
On shrub clearance on Bridestones Moor and a large holly tree is amongst the casualties. Oh dear, it’s considered bad luck to fell a holly tree. But I didn’t actually fell it. The cutting of boughs to deck the halls is acceptable as is pollarding for use as winter fodder. Very nutritional apparently. Which leads…
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Sunshine on Grime Moor
Volunteering with the National Trust on Bridestones Moor. On a wet, windy day with poor visbility a moor can feel so inhospitable. But then quite suddenly the front passes, blue skies emerge, and the sun shines on Grime Moor. It’s back to being magical. Grime Moor is the pasture in the distance; ‘Grime’ is derived…
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Bridestones Moor
The National Trust’s rare area of heather moorland just north of Dalby Forest. Rare because it is not intensively managed unlike most of the rest of heather moorlands on the North York Moors which are managed for one purpose only, that is to maximise the breeding of grouse for shooting, in spite of having the…
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As mad as an atter
In Dovedale Griff near Dalby Forest volunteering with the National Trust when this little beauty was discovered in one of their reptile habitats. Now I have it somewhere in the back of my mind that “an Adder” was originally “a Nadder”. No idea where this came from, I could well have dreamt it. But Google…
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Dovedale
A stream meanders through the meadows of this lovely steep-sided valley, a National Trust property on the edge of Dalby Forest. Higher up the dale becomes narrower and is known as Dovedale Griff, formed by glacial melt-water from ice fields at the end of the last ice age. When the climate warmed and the permanent…
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Sundew
On the poor, acidic soils of the moors, such as at Bridestones, some plants need an edge to survive. This small Tolkienesque plant, “the dew of the sun”, supplements its diet by catching small insects. Sticky hairs project from a rosette of red round leaves trapping insects, slowly turning them into a nutritious soup to…
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Prehistoric linear boundary at the Bridestones
The National Trust’s second winter season of tree and scrub clearance of the prehistoric linear boundary at Bridestones is almost over. Tree felling stops in the spring and summer to avoid disturbance of nesting birds. Just remaining for this winter is to stack the brashings and logs to create wildlife refuges. The Bronze Age earthwork…
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Litter picking at Bridestones
Volunteering with the National Trust at their Bridestones property. One of the tasks today was a litter pick. Now you might think that as it takes a bit of an effort to get to these fascinating wind shaped sandstone outcrops, £8 entry into Dalby Forest, resisting the temptation of the visitor centre, a mile walk…