Tag: heather
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Not the best of landings
I haven’t whinged on about litter recently. The problem hasn’t gone away. There’s a couple of new websites that have been set up to geolocate litter. Firstly there’s the Marine Conservation Society in support of their campaign for the introduction of a plastic Deposit Return System. And then there’s the Open Litter Map (#OpenLitterMap), an…
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Live Moor and Whorlton Hill
The low lying cloud was playing tricks this morning. Great Ayton, Stokesley: sunshine and blue skies. Carlton, just 4 kilometres down the road, dense fog obscuring the sun. Then, climbing up Carlton Bank into the sun again. Brilliant. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Armouth Wath
When Baysdale Abbey was sold in 1803, the sale included a “supposed very considerable” coalmine. This would have been at Armouth Wath at the head of Baysdale, one of the furthest tributaries of the River Esk, although mining activity by this time would have been on the decline having reached its peak in the 18th…
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West Gill in North Dale
Reading the depressing news that a bird of prey had been shot in Rosedale earlier this week reminded me to head down that way. No precise location was given in the report so a toss of the dice saw me in West Gill, North Dale, a deep unfrequented gash in Rosedale Moor. A cracking day…
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Eskdale’s stolen water
The sandstone boundary stone on the left is inscribed “RC” the initials of Robert Chaloner, the 19th-century landowner and lord of the manor of Guisborough, but it is the waterlogged ditch in front which took my interest today. Mapped as “The Race” it is a leat semi-circumventing Hutton Moor, capturing the water runoff from draining…
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Holy Well Gill
It must have needed a torrent of water to have carved this gill on Pamperdale Moor near Osmotherley. Certainly not water from the spring mapped as Holy Well and situated way down the gill not far to its junction with Crabdale Beck. The “spring” in the photo, higher up, doesn’t even qualify with an Ordnance…
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Kempswithen
With low cloud shrouding the North York Moors I had to dig into my bank of “bad weather” ideas. Earlier this year I recalled seeing a large new sandstone “PRIVATE NO ACCESS” sign which I thought a bit over the top. So I headed for Kempswithen, the site of a 18th-century agricultural experiment but now…
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Hambleton Street
The ancient drovers’ route along the western edge of the North York Moors. A route that probably has been used since prehistory. The name “street” implies Roman usage and it’s mentioned by name in a document of 1577. Traffic peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries when herds of cattle were driven from Scotland to…
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Parci Gill
Parci Gill is a tributary of the River Rye nestling between Cow Ridge and Sour Milk Hills on the moors to the west of Bilsdale. The name, Parci, sometimes written Parsi, is unusual and its etymology is difficult to explain. It has been suggested that it may predate the more usual Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon roots.…
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Hutton Moor
This stand of larch has always intrigued me. It first appears on the 1952 edition of the Ordnance Survey map, is circular and isolated on the heather moor. It can not be self-seeded. Who planted it? And why?