Out & About …

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

Month: November 2017

  • Tripsdale

    Tripsdale

    Another fine morning but a day of indecision. Driving up Clay Bank and into Bilsdale I had no idea where I was heading. Chop Gate I suppose but the car park was ignored and in the end, I parked at Fangdale Beck and headed east up onto Coniser Howl, a huge large expanse of heather…

  • Blakey Topping, viewed from the south-east

    Blakey Topping, viewed from the south-east

    Viewed from Thompson’s Rigg, Blakey Topping looks almost conical. From the south-west, it’s a humpback hill. Supposedly built by the giant Wade after an argument with his wife. In a fit of temper, he scooped up a handful of earth, thereby creating the Hole of Horcum, and threw it at her but missed. Blakey Topping…

  • Snotterdale

    Snotterdale

    A side shoot of Scugdale, I remember Snotterdale as a lovely little valley. But alas no Public Rights of Way exists through so it remains hidden from public gaze. I had the opportunity to explore the woods in 1996 when they were used to stage the Jan Kjellström orienteering relays. And, as far as I…

  • Damaged walkway in Newton Wood

    Damaged walkway in Newton Wood

    Who did this then? A 500kg horse maybe?

  • Market Cross, Guisborough

    Market Cross, Guisborough

    Recognise this? I am sure this is passed by hundreds of people every day but I suspect few actually look up. And who needs a sundial when we all have mobile phones. What struck me was that the gnomon on one of the sundials is ‘T’ shaped instead of the more usual triangular. In fact,…

  • Newton Dale

    Newton Dale

    Perhaps the most spectacular of the North York Moors dales. Newton Dale rises in the ominous sounding Fen Bog and winds its way south to Pickering along a narrow valley with sheer sides gouged by glacial meltwaters. The wooded slopes are dominated by commercial forestry but with scattered deciduous pockets with their autumnal colours. It…

  • Barn at Castle Houses

    Barn at Castle Houses

    From the Ainthorpe to Little Fryup Dale road, a fine view over Danby and the Esk valley. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Stop that pigeon

    Stop that pigeon

    Catch the pigeon

  • High Lidmoor

    High Lidmoor

    Job done, time for a bit of rest and recuperation for these pair of tups at High Lidmoor in Bransdale. A view northeast across the lush green intake fields alongside Shaw Beck to the bleak moorland of Shaw Ridge. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • Cliff Ridge Wood

    Cliff Ridge Wood

    The old tramway to the whinstone quarry at Slack’s Wood. A favourite morning walk along the bottom of Cliff Ridge Wood, part of the National Trust’s Roseberry property. An isolated kissing gate stands at the intersection of the path from the village of Great Ayton to Aireyholme Farm. Long gone is the fence so the…