Out & About …

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

Author: Fhithich

  • Scarth Wood Moor

    Scarth Wood Moor

    Working with the National Trust widening their section of the path around the Cod Beck Reservoir to make it more wheelchair accessible. As we were knocking off, the sun came out giving some dramatic lighting. And tonight I am told is Mischief Night, supposedly because this was the night when Guy Fawkes was up to…

  • Cock Howe

    Cock Howe

    A rouky run from the Lords’ Stone Cafe to Chop Gate via Noon Hill and Cock Howe. ‘Rouky‘ — listed in a dictionary of North Country dialect words as misty, damp, or foggy. I did initially type the word ‘claggy‘; for I have some recollection of hearing someone once using it to describe that familiar…

  • Flying on a wing and a prayer

    Flying on a wing and a prayer

    Now that the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference is underway in Glasgow I was hoping to feature a photo that shows the effect of climate change on our North York Moors. But, unless you live in an area which has been subjected to flooding or fires, any effects are either incrementally small or subtle. Right…

  • Gribdale

    Gribdale

    I’ve never really figured out where Gribdale begins and where it ends. There is no dale as such.  The col between Capt. Cook’s Monument and Great Ayton Moor is known as Gribdale Gate. Beyond that, we’re into Lonsdale, so Gribdale must lie this side. But there is no valley. A stream does spring out from…

  • Kildale and St. Cuthbert’s Coffin

    Kildale and St. Cuthbert’s Coffin

    I delayed going out this morning because of the dismal weather. It was still raining when I left the house at 12:00 but by the time I crossed the River Leven at the other end of the village the sun was out. I discovered something about Kildale the other day, although when you think about…

  • The Wreck of the Rohilla

    The Wreck of the Rohilla

    At 1:00 pm on 29th October 1914, HMHS (His Majesty’s Hospital Ship) Rohilla set sail from Leith Docks bound for Dunkirk where she would help evacuate wounded soldiers from the Western Front. She had been built in 1906 and intended to be used as a luxury cruise ship, but almost immediately was requisitioned as a…

  • Osmotherley Cross and Barter Table

    Osmotherley Cross and Barter Table

    The mornings have become more gloomier as October draws to a close, and an early start meant the honey pot that is Osmotherley was quiet. Sited next to the village cross is the unique Barter Table, a large flat sandstone on chunky legs. It is thought to date from the 16th-century and was used as…

  • A view of Swainby from Scarth Nick …

    A view of Swainby from Scarth Nick …

    … but the point of interest is not the village of Swainby, nor the wooded Whorl Hill on the far right. It is the field visible in the between the gap in the treeline on the left. Or more specifically the isolated tree in that field. It is around about here that a stone coffin…

  • Scald Law

    Scald Law

    A breezy run on the Pentlands Hills under the threat of a wet forecast which, apart from one short shower, never materialised. The Pentlands are the range of hills running south west from Edinburgh. I read there are 150 hill names, the highest being Scald Law at 579m, just pipping Carnethy Hill by six metres.…

  • The Shellycoat of Leith

    The Shellycoat of Leith

    A few days in Leith on the outskirts of Edinburgh and a chance to look out for one of Scotland’s most elusive creatures. So elusive in fact that one long term resident of Leith had never heard of the town’s watery inhabitant. Walter Scott wrote about the Shellycoat in his 1802 book ‘Ministrelsy of the…