Out & About …

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

  • The Battle of Homildon Hill

    The Battle of Homildon Hill

    I just love it when I learn something new out the blue. The plan was an early start to bag Humbleton Hill, a 298 metre hill overlooking Wooler. On the map, a hill peppered with Gothic letters: a couple of settlements, a fort, a hut circle, and a homestead. Plenty to pique my interest. But…

  • The Cheviots

    The Cheviots

    Exploring the lower foothills of The Cheviot today. I had set out with the intention of bagging the big one but my mind still thinks I’m four decades younger. And it was a bit warm and I’ve always suffered in the heat. But enough excuses. A remarkably peaceful area ,especially after the coast. I only…

  • Howick Haven

    Howick Haven

    One of the many small sandy bays along this stretch of the Northumbrian coast between Boulmer and Caistor. At the turn of this century, an amateur archaeologist spotted some worked flints protruding out of an eroded sandy cliff just beyond the far side of the bay. He reported the finds to Newcastle University who investigated…

  • Sir Guy, the Seeker

    Sir Guy, the Seeker

    One stormy night, a brave and noble knight, Sir Guy, is riding along the coast and arrives at Dunstanburgh Castle on the Northumbrian coast. Suddenly the gates burst open to reveal a tall old man with a white beard and a halo of flames flickering around his bald head. Around his waist, there is a…

  • New memorial on Roseberry

    New memorial on Roseberry

    I must admit to feeling some disappointment when I found this wooden cross erected on the summit of Roseberry this morning. It’s some weight and would have been quite a task to carry it up. Even if it’s not intended to be permanent, is it fair to blight the hill for everyone else? And is…

  • Lonsdale Quarry

    Lonsdale Quarry

    I often end up at this quarry. It avoids a good chunk of the busy gravel track along the escarpment between Gribdale and Little Roseberry. In all the years I think I have only seen anyone else here once – a couple wild camping. Its name appears on the 1853 O.S. map, and is probably…

  • Miners’ Bait Table

    Miners’ Bait Table

    Has it really been 50 years since the potash mine at Boulby was opened? If so, it was before my time, I was still at uni. I can’t ever remember it not being there. It was certainly controversial at the time. “… the classic battle between the beauty of a national park and the beast…

  • An attempt at recreating a vintage postcard of Saltburn-by-the Sea

    An attempt at recreating a vintage postcard of Saltburn-by-the Sea

    This postcard is from the East Cleveland Image Archive website. The consensus is that it dates from the late 1960s. A miserable failure I think. I was working from memory and in hindsight believe I was too low down the bank. And not close enough to the edge but the nettles beat me. Some big…

  • Bransdale – Eastside

    Bransdale – Eastside

    Bransdale is a idyllic community of scattered farmsteads. It seems to have always been the case. Eastside and Westside were once two separate townships belonging to two separate parishes before they were merge into Bransdale-cum-Farndale in 1873. You would have thought that crime would have been a rare occurrence in this remote dale, but in…

  • Greenhow Moor, looking towards the old ironstone mine at Rud Scar

    Greenhow Moor, looking towards the old ironstone mine at Rud Scar

    On the 16th June 1814, the stagecoach ‘England Rejoice’ set off from Stockton on bound for Whitby. It was the return leg of a new service offering weekly return trips with York and Stockton. The coach had left the Freemason’s Tavern, Whitby at “exactly” six o’clock on the Monday morning bound for York. The journey…

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