Out & About …

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

Month: September 2021

  • Devoke Water

    Devoke Water

    In the classic Monty Python sketch, John Cleese walks into The Cheese Shop and utters the immortal line: And I thought to myself, ‘a little fermented curd will do the trick’, so, I curtailed my Walpoling activities, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles! The phrase…

  • Mediobogdum

    Mediobogdum

    The ‘Cohors IV Delmatarum‘ (4th Cohort of Dalmatae) were tough mountain men from the Adriatic coast of the eastern Mediterranean. It is thought the Roman auxiliary regiment was involved in the invasion of Britain in 43 AD and again suppressing the insurgency led by Boudicca. Eventually peace descended on the southern half of Britannia but…

  • Scafell from Eskdale Moor

    Scafell from Eskdale Moor

    One family name that keeps cropping up time and time again is the Percys, earls of Northumberland. Think Alnwick Castle. One branch of the family owned much of Kildale in the North York Moors and were involved in the re-establishment of Whitby Abbey, and I now find their fingerprints in Eskdale, on the westernmost side…

  • It’s going to be a scorcher

    It’s going to be a scorcher

    Eskdale has always been a charming valley, less frequented than the eastern dales. Times are a changing though, particularly since the demand for ‘staycations’. The National Trust have taken over one of the campsites and their marketing is being well employed. A ‘pop-up’ campsite appeared lower down the valley which caused some concern. The dale…

  • Gummer’s How

    Gummer’s How

    A few days in Eskdale in the Western Lake District. Very limited wifi so postings will be spasmodic. I bagged a new Wainwright yesterday, Gummer’s How, east of Windermere. At least I don’t recall climbing it before. It’s one of Wainwright’s “Outlying Fells” and certainly one of the easiest, a mere ½ mile from the…

  • Battle Of Stockton Campaign, Green Dragon Yard

    Battle Of Stockton Campaign, Green Dragon Yard

    Headed down to Stockton-on-Tees today to attend the “Battle Of Stockton” commemoration. This is a somewhat largely forgotten episode from the annals of Teesside’s history when 2-300 fascists organised by the British Union of Fascists and arrived by bus from Tyneside, Manchester and Lancashire to march through along Stockton High Street. The protest was met…

  • Orthostatic walling, Westerdale

    Orthostatic walling, Westerdale

    An orthostat, in the true sense of the word, is a large upright stone, think of a standing stone or menhir, but one that has been built into a structure or wall. There’s a few in Stonehenge. However, the term has been applied vernacularly to any huge stones that are built into walls such as this…

  • Crown End, Westerdale

    Crown End, Westerdale

    The rigg separating Westerdale and Baysdale is mapped as Crown Head. That’s it on the right, rising to 236 metres (774 feet) at its highest point. Baysdale is the nearer valley, Westerdale straight ahead. Crown Head is best known as a site of pre-historic remains, representing activity between the Bronze Age and late Iron Age.…

  • Himalayan balsam on the banks of the Leven

    Himalayan balsam on the banks of the Leven

    The clump of pink flowers on the far bank is Himalayan balsam, a notorious invasive plant, the scourge of conservationists and environmentalists. The plant was particularly rampant on this stretch of the river about six years ago and they did have a blitz to eradicate it but it has returned. There are more clumps further…

  • The Park, Kildale Moor

    The Park, Kildale Moor

    A view south along the Cleveland Hills on the meteorological first day of Autumn.  Corrugated skies of grey. The heather is just about to change, not many more days when there is a hint of the purple. This moorland was once part of a medieval deer park of the Percys of Kildale. Just out of…