Tag: hill
-
Roseberry from Larners Hill
A bank of cloud still smothers Little Roseberry while big brother is clear under blue skies. By the time I made my way around there, the cloud had dissipated. As something new, I thought about doing a somewhat arbitrary ‘on this day’ posting, so I pulled up the Daily Mail for 15th October fifty years…
-
Whorl Hill, the lair of the Worm of Sexhow
Autumnal sunshine, long shadows and a morning chill. A slight navigational error opened up this fine view of Whorl Hill, where there be dragons. Or rather one dragon, the worm of Sexhow. Thomas Parkinson wrote about it in his “Yorkshire legends and traditions” of 1888, but it was John Fairfax Blakeborough who suggested Whorl Hill…
-
The Wainstones
Pronounced ‘wean‘ or ‘wearn‘ in the local dialect. The familiar jumble of Bajocian sandstone crags and boulders at the western end of Hasty Bank. Much loved by the climbing fraternity and long distance walkers on the Coast-to-Coast, The Cleveland Way and the Lyke Wake Walk. Opposite the col, Garfitt Gap, is Cold Moor or ‘Caudmer‘.…
-
Crown End, Westerdale
The rigg separating Westerdale and Baysdale is mapped as Crown Head. That’s it on the right, rising to 236 metres (774 feet) at its highest point. Baysdale is the nearer valley, Westerdale straight ahead. Crown Head is best known as a site of pre-historic remains, representing activity between the Bronze Age and late Iron Age.…
-
On this day in 1962 …
… mountaineers Chris Bonington and Ian Clough become the first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger. The 13,040 ft. climb took them two days and was one of the fastest ever. Within three hours of reaching the summit they were back in their hotel room. Here’s what the Guardian said in their…
-
Bartle day
A dialect name for St. Bartholomew‘s Day, 24th August. A name that is preserved in the 19th-century poem by Captain John Harland ‘Reeth Bartle Fair’, a fair that was held at Reeth in Swaledale on St. Bartholomew’s Day. There are several weather related sayings for Bartle day: At St. Bartholomew, There comes cold dew. Which…
-
Osmotherley with Hambleton End in the distance
“Osmotherley is an endearing village on the fringe of the Hambletons and the Clevelands. It lies about a mile and a half to the east of the main Thirsk – Yarm road, but it is most accessible from Northallerton. The King’s Head hotel at Clack Lane End points the way to the village. It is…
-
Arthur’s Seat
I think half of Edinburgh must have been up Arthur’s Seat today, a hill described by Robert Louis Stevenson as “a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design.” The poor old King of Britain asleep in the depths of the extinct 250-metre high volcano must have been turning in his glass…
-
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…
-
Freedom Day
Another ‘dog day’, so named because these hot and sultry days of summer (in the northern hemisphere at least) are associated with the Dog Star Sirius rising with the sun. And ‘Freedom Day’ to boot. ‘Freedom’ to all those key workers, NHS staff and care helpers who cannot avoid the risk of prolonged exposure, to…