Tag: dale
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Upper Farndale
Perhaps the most peaceful of the North York Moors dales. That is after the short daffodil season is over and even then this high up the dale is rarely visited. It could all have been so different if the Kingston upon Hull Corporation had had its way. It brought 2,000 hectares of upper Farndale in…
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Mark’s-e’en watch
A warm, beautiful morning but very hazy, not conducive at all for distant landscape photographs. All the colours end up being washed out. It must be all this Sarahan sand. Tomorrow, April 25, is the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist which makes today St Mark’s Eve when it was the custom to sit…
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Esklets
The very upper reaches of the River Esk, an island of old improved land surrounded by moorland. Land which somehow managed to escape being classified as Access Land under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 even though it was last farmed in the 1950s. Activity now seems to be devoted to the grouse…
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Kildale
As viewed from Percy Rigg Farm. A fertile green valley with Park Nab on the left and Coate Moor on the right. J. Fairfax-Blakeborough writing in 1901 in his book ‘Great Ayton, Stokesley & District, past and present’ recounts that Satan was often seen poaching in the dale with his imps. The gamekeeper, a Stephen…
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Back of the Cleveland Hills
“What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.” So wrote the Welsh poet W. H. Davies. I didn’t have much time to stand and stare today. Too much of a hurry. The Bilsdale Fell Race for me but managed to snatch this snap towards the end. It’s…
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Gribdale Gate
I have never really understood where Gribdale is. The oldest Ordnance Survey map marks Gribdale Gate as the col between Little Ayton and Great Ayton Moors. There is a Gribdale Plantation but apart from that, there is no other mention of the name, and there is no resemblance of a dale on the Great Ayton…
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Raisdale
That little offshoot of Bilsdale. The North York Moors seem particularly dour and rugged at this time of the year. Fifty shades of brown. But the cloud breaks and the sun’s morning rays brings an enchanting tranquillity to the dale below. Aelred thought so, writing in the 12th century. He was Abbot of Rievaulx, a…
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Hanging Stone, Danby Dale
When the Reverend J.C.Atkinson became the vicar of the parish of Danby in 1847 there was no village of Danby and as far as he could ascertain there had never been one. There was a Danby Dale, a Danby Rigg and a Danby Castle. There were several hamlets: Dale End, Little Fryup and Ainthorpe, and…
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Back of Cringley
Or Cringle Moor to give it its modern name. I prefer the old although an even earlier name was Cranimoor. A little-used path from the ruined farmstead of Clough up to Brian’s pond on Bilsdale Moor West. The stone from the buildings was used in the construction of Chop Gate village hall. A fate not…
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Easterside Hill
Lower Bilsdale and the distinctive bulk of Easterside Hill with its limestone cap dominating the confluence of the Rivers Septh and Rye. Seen from Ayton Bank on the edge of Rievaulx Moor on a dull overcast morning. Interestingly, a Dornier Do217 of the German Luftwaffe crashed into north end of Easterside Hill (to the right)…