Out & About …

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

Author: Fhithich

  • The Convict Peace in the North Riding

    The Convict Peace in the North Riding

    Spent the day with the National Trust in Bransdale, tidying up Spout House farm which is due to have new tenants. Spout House is the first one you come to as you drop into the dale from Gillamoor. While researching something to write about connected with the featured image I came across this piece in…

  • Easby Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

    Easby Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

    I’ve had my eye on this Grade II listed building for some time but there always seems to have been a car or two parked in front. It’s a simple building of local stone with a Welsh slate roof, and ‘probably’ dates from the 18th century. It seems an odd site for a chapel. Easby…

  • Egton Bridge Gooseberry Show

    Egton Bridge Gooseberry Show

    Not even a war has stopped the Egton Bridge Gooseberry Show from being held during this first week in August. Until 2020 came along with the Coronavirus. Every year since 1800, the contestants have dedicated the whole year to the growing of the biggest goosegogs possible. A one way system operated around the table where…

  • The Great North Bog

    The Great North Bog

    Whenever I hear the dull throb of a helicopter I am reminded of the 1970s American T.V. comedy series ‘M.A.S.H.’ I can’t get that theme tune out of my head now. Last Thursday, whilst working with the National Trust in Bransdale, a helicopter had been operating from Bransdale Ridge. It was busy all day ferrying…

  • Scarth Wood Moor – a Neolithic village?

    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…

  • The Butts, Codhill Heights

    The Butts, Codhill Heights

    A modern take on the lines of shooting butts that typically cross the heather moors of North Yorkshire. Butts awaiting their clients while lines of workers chase the grouse over their heads on the Glorious Twelfth. Although they have a bit of a wait; I’ve heard the grouse numbers are down this year. These butts…

  • The bonebreaker of Great Ayton Moor

    The bonebreaker of Great Ayton Moor

    It’s been a botanical sort of week. Bog asphodel, I’ve always thought it a strange name. The bog bit is easy, but asphodel? Sounds very un-English to me. Its use was first documented in the late 14th-century and derives from the Latin ‘asphodelus‘ and the Greek ‘asphodelos‘ meaning the king’s spear. It was “the peculiar…

  • The last you expect to find in a North York Moors dale …

    The last you expect to find in a North York Moors dale …

    A giant rhubarb looking plant, like something out of Jurassic Park. I think it is Gunnera tinctoria or Chilean rhubarb, an ornamental plant native to Chile and Argentina. It a massive plant with leaves that can reach up to 2½ metres across. The underside of the leaves and their stems have small thorns, not too…

  • The Pale

    The Pale

    I’m always on the look out for an out of the way viewpoint. I discovered this by a short walk across the heather from a bike ride up to Percy Rigg. It shows the full extent of Lonsdale, from its head at Gribdale gate to its confluence with Kildale and portrays a microcosm of history.…

  • Rosebay willow herb

    Rosebay willow herb

    Until the industrial revolution Chamerion angustifolium was a comparatively rare plant of woodland clearings and was often planted in gardens. Since then it has become the most successful coloniser of open land, embankments, waste grounds. I can remember the fluffy seeds being carried along in the draft of a thundering steam train. Each plant produces…