Tag: folklore
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Roseberry Summit
A rather unusual view of the summit crag, the result of playing with a GoPro on a selfie-stick. The rock face is not as vertical as I remember but that may be due to an optical illusion due to the wide angle lens. The sandstone crag looks good but is considered unstable by the climbing fraternity.…
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Roseberry Well
I moved up to the Cleveland area in the Autumn of 1973 and I’ve been climbing Roseberry on a regular basis every since. It’s my patch. And I thought I knew every nook and cranny. I knew about Roseberry Well, where the young Prince Oswy is said to have drowned having been taken to the…
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Highcliff Nab
Recent felling has opened up a new view of Highcliff Nab, a bluff overlooking Guisborough. One myth once told by Guisborough folk is that Oliver Cromwell had cannons planted on the Nab, from which he bombarded Guisborough Priory, causing its demolition. Three old cannon balls were apparently found embedded in the stone wall of the…
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Shit Sack Day
Two years ago I posted about Royal Oak Day, 29th May, to commemorate when Charles II returned to London and was restored as King in 1660. On this day, true Royalists wear a sprig of oak leaves in recognition of Charles’s escape by hiding in an oak tree at Boscobel House, Shropshire, after his defeat…
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Saddell Castle
Saddell Castle was built in the early sixteenth century for the Bishop of Argyll. In one of the pillars of its gate are indentations which Kintyre tradition claims are the finger-and thumbprints of the Devil. The story goes that the Laird of Saddell mischievously wagered a village tailor to spend a night in the graveyard…
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A Method for May
On this day in 1937 the Bradford Observer ran this little piece in the paper’s ‘Yorkshire Gossip’ column:— A Method for May. Were you up at 4 o’clock this morning, gathering green branches, rehearsing the steps of your morris, ” feateously footing the hobbyhorse,” and washing your face in the dew ? Perhaps you did…
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King George on Blackthorn
The flowers of the Blackthorn are, I think, past their prime by now, but this Peacock, one of the aristocrat butterflies according to early entomologists, is feeding on any remaining nectar. In keeping with this blue-blooded theme, the fenmen of Norfolk called the butterfly ‘King George‘. On the other hand, another long-lost dialect name for…
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The Three Witches Oak
Since my last visit, this veteran oak has acquired a new epithet: ‘The Three Witches Oak‘ — from a story in J.J. Hutton’s ‘Murder, Mysteries and Tales of the Supernatural in the North Riding of Yorkshire‘. It’s the tale of three witches, Auld Nan Scaife o’ Spaunton Moor, Auld Nan Anne Pierson of Westerdale, and…
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The Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris)
A murky morning so my eyes were drawn closer to earth seeking for signs of the vernal awakening. This spring, in the old Slack’s Quarry, seems to be a favourite spot for the marsh marigold, its vivid yellow flowers already in bloom. Wikipedia says it should flower between April and August, but I suspect the…
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Little Fryup Dale
The Rev. J.C. Atkinson, writing in the late 19th-century, had a fascination for Little Fryup Dale, or rather the folklore associated with the area around the little knoll on the right, Fairy Cross Plain. It’s might seem odd that a man of the cloth should be so preoccupied with fairies, elves and hobs but belief…