Tag: National Trust
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Low Staindale
A delightful former farm-house situated in Staindale in the parish of Lockton. The farmstead is shown on the Thomas Jefferies map of 1775 and it is believed the farmhouse certainly dates from that time with later alterations and extensions. The house itself is Grade II listed but two of the outbuildings are also of historical…
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Nunnington Hall
This National Trust property is tranquilly situated on the banks of the River Rye. Built on the site of a Saxon homestead it’s a place that oozes history. The earliest part of the south-facing house dates from the mid-16th-century but most is 17th-century work carried out for Richard Graham, first Viscount Preston and Master of…
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Where is the Elephant Hole?
The National park have recently been at worked erectly a new kissing gate, steps and fingerpost below Aireyholme Farm. One ‘finger’ confuses me, it points to the ‘Elephant Hole’. Where exactly is the ‘Elephant Hole’? Some opinion seems to be that it is the large bowl at the top of Cliff Rigg. But if this…
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A doomed Ash tree
The Ash, one of our major trees along with oak, birch, elm and lime. It’s a strong and flexible wood, traditionally used for spears or axe handles. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘aesc‘ meaning a spear or lance. But since 2012, a disease has been devastating Ash trees — Ash Dieback, caused by a…
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Craze Naze
What a lovely assonant name, although many Cleveland Way walkers will no doubt pass it without giving it a second thought, eager to get to Whitby or Robin Hood’s Bay, in whichever direction they are heading. On the Six-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1853, it is named as Dobson’s Nab. I wonder who Dobson was.…
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A tale of two trods
They say that sheep will blindly follow the sheep in front. It’s part of their gregarious instinct. Yet will they follow the exact same route day after day? For surely this sheep-trod has taken many weeks to develope. And if they do, then they must have a terrific terrain memory. It be wrong to…
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A vote to ban ‘trail-hunting’ on National Trust land
Regular readers of this blog will know I volunteer for the National Trust on properties on the North York Moors. I do this principally to give something back to an organisation whose values I fully support. I am not fantastically enthused about old houses and gardens, it is conservation and the natural environment that interest…
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Scarth Wood Moor – a Neolithic village?
I’ve run across Scarth Wood Moor near Osmotherley many times in orienteering races but I can’t honestly remember encountering this boulder field. This is not surprising as, looking back at the 2019 map, I see nothing on the orienteering map, any exposed boulders were not considered significant enough to have been mapped. The boulders have…
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Sunday morning climbing Roseberry
The National Trust acquired the main western slope of Roseberry Topping in 1984 and, by July 1995, had spent £500k on improvements with another £500k planned over the next four years. Much of this money was spent on footpath improvement which had been somewhat neglected when in private ownership. With folks climbing Roseberry increasing year…
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Jet mining on Roseberry Common
An intricate necklace of 110 beads of jet was found in a burial cist in Kilmartin, Argyll. It has been dated to between 2050 and 1800 BC. The jet is considered to be ‘Whitby Jet’. Jet is the fossilised remains of the Araucaria or monkey puzzle tree that were buried in marine sediments during the…