Out & About …

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

Search results for: “"cleveland dyke"”

  • Percy Rigg Hut Circles

    Percy Rigg Hut Circles

    It’s been at least three years since I posted a photo of the Iron Age hut circles at Percy Rigg. This is a group of five circular huts, one of which can be seen in the photo, although not all would have been in use at the same time. The occupants were farmers, probably living…

  • Monument Mine

    Monument Mine

    On this day, June 8th, in 1850, legend has it that John Vaughan and John Marley were out shooting rabbits on Eston Nab. Marley tripped over a burrow and as he sprawled on the ground, his hand landed on the purest ironstone he had ever seen, “Eureka!” he cried. He had discovered vast main seam…

  • On Cliff Rigg

    On Cliff Rigg

    An end of the afternoon dog walk up Cliff Rigg, part of the Cleveland Dyke, an igneous intrusion formed 56 million years ago that withstood the forces of the glaciers. In the distance is Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor, and the Cleveland Hills, but the air is filled with the coconut scent of the…

  • Pond, Sneaton Forest

    Pond, Sneaton Forest

    The first time I orienteered in Sneaton the map was called Maybeck, the spruce trees were impenetrable and any excursion was a hands and knees job along one of the many ditches. Planted in the 1960s the forest is a commercial forest typical of the North York Moors. Today, 40 years later, the trees have…

  • Cliff Rigg and Roseberry

    Cliff Rigg and Roseberry

    A view from Ayton Bank. On the right, Roseberry Topping, “Cleveland’s Matterhorn”, a glacial outlier, the remains of a spur of the moors eroded away by the last ice advance from the north-west as the ice, hundreds of metres thick, met the bulk of the high moors. Cliff Rigg, on the left, has a slightly…

  • Cliff Rigg Quarry

    Cliff Rigg Quarry

    Former whinstone quarry that dominates the modest Cliff Ridge overlooking the village of Great Ayton. The whinstone seam is part of the Cleveland Dyke, a protrusion of very hard volcanic rock cutting through the surrounding soft sedimentary rocks. It was formed 58 million years ago from a volcano near the Isle of Mull and can…

  • Capt. Cook’s Monument and Cockshaw Hill

    Capt. Cook’s Monument and Cockshaw Hill

    Late evening view of Captain Cook’s Monument, in this 250th year since Cook set out on his first voyage. Beneath the monument the commercial plantation of Little Ayton Moor, and below that, Cockshaw Hil,l with its disused sandstone quarry. Across the lush green fields, the line of the whinstone intrusion of the Cleveland Dyke can…

  • Sunset on Cliff Rigg Quarry

    Sunset on Cliff Rigg Quarry

    Headed up to Cliff Rigg to view the sunset which sort of fizzled out. The ridge is part of the Cleveland Dyke and is a protrusion of very hard volcanic rock cutting through the surrounding older sedimentary rocks. Formed 58 million years ago from a volcano near the Isle of Mull, it outcrops in many…

  • Searching for the Cook Family Cottage

    Searching for the Cook Family Cottage

    What a change from yesterday. A bitterly cold wind. Helped out this morning with an archaeological survey in a small copse where it is thought the cottage was in which the young James Cook lived. The site is on National Trust land close to Aireyholme Farm where Cook’s father was employed as a farm labourer. Two surveys were…

  • Cliff Ridge Quarry

    Cliff Ridge Quarry

    The whinstone seam forming Cleveland Dyke has been extensively quarried and used for paving setts and road making. A narrow strip of the stone called a plug was usually left as shoring to stop the softer shales collapsing. The rock column left of centre is the remains of such a plug. The Cleveland Dyke is…