Out & About …

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

Month: March 2020

  • Bilsdale sunset

    Bilsdale sunset

    A twilight navigation event. Such a great evening to be out on the moors. And for today’s completely irrelevant fact, it was on this day in 1629 that the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir John Finch, tried to adjourn the House of Commons on the orders of King Charles I. He was held…

  • White Hill from Carr Ridge

    White Hill from Carr Ridge

    A view that will be familiar to walkers heading west along the Cleveland Way and Coast to Coast trails which both descend down to Haggs Gate or Clay Bank Top before climbing up Hasty Bank onto White Hill. The modern paved route is directed just off to the right but this cleft in the scarp…

  • Tarn Hows

    Tarn Hows

    If you were to look at a calendar of the Lake District, one of the months is sure to feature Tarn Hows. It is one of its most picturesque views. Yet it is entirely manmade. Until James Garth Marshall, whose father, John Marshall, had made the family fortune from his flax mills in Leeds, began…

  • Rose Castle

    Rose Castle

    Our home for the weekend. First documented in 1789-91 when William Bowe “slate getter of Rose Castle” registered the birth of his son, William, and daughter Ann in the parish register of Hawkshead. A getter was a quarryman and William would have worked in the nearby small slate quarry producing flagstones for flooring. The late…

  • Loughrigg Tarn

    Loughrigg Tarn

    Thus gladdened from our own dear Vale we pass And soon approach Diana’s Looking-glass! To Loughrigg-tarn, round, clear and bright as heaven, Such name Italian fancy would have given … The encircling region vividly exprest Within the mirror’s depth, a world at rest – Sky streaked with purple, grove and craggy bield, And the smooth…

  • More moor burning

    More moor burning

    As soon as the weather improves so the heather burning resumes. The left-hand plume is, I think, on Cold Moor, the right, on Snilesworth. A further one, behind me to the east is Gisborough Moor. Six weeks to go before the season ends for this winter, on 15th April. If you want some good news,…

  • Ryston Bank

    Ryston Bank

    Why do new shoes feel so good? Maybe I keep the old ones too long. No studs left but the Kevlar uppers are still OK. So with a spring in my step from the new pair and a smattering of snow on the Cleveland Hills, I head up onto Little Roseberry. The fire alarm at…

  • Kildale

    Kildale

    Where is Kildale? It seems such a vague place. The village is well known but where exactly is Killi’s dale. Generally, the parish encloses the upper reaches of the River Leven but it also extends into the watershed of the River Esk with Sleddale Beck and Baysdale Beck forming the boundary. Most, but not all…

  • Helmsley Castle

    Helmsley Castle

    Not inspired by a wind-blasting on the high moors I headed to Rievaulx and a sheltered bimble along the Rye valley. For 900 years Helmsley Castle, standing on its rocky outcrop on the north bank of the Rye, has dominated the town to the west. Castles are almost entirely absent from the bleak upland plateau…