Out & About …

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

Tag: spring

  • A splash of green

    A splash of green

    Heather moorland, for most of the year, especially in winter, offers a drab palette of dull browns. Only in late summer, when the heather comes into full bloom, do the moors take on their blanket of purple. Yet occasionally you come across a splash of contrast. Verdant bog mosses, most likely one of the UK’s…

  • Brandy Well

    Brandy Well

    John Fairfax-Blakeborough in his 1912 book with “Life in a Yorkshire village” writes: Speaking of superstitions reminds me of a tradition that the water in Brandy Well, half way up Carlton Bank, has most wonderful curative properties, and that a wish made here when drinking, is pretty certain to be fulfilled. The well is by the road side…

  • Roseberry Well

    Roseberry Well

    I’ve been saving this for a rainy day. For when the clag’s down. And the wind is whipping up the snowflakes. This small damp gash in the hillside is likely to be the Roseberry Well where a young prince was said to have drowned. Nowadays no water flows from the spring and the crevice acts…

  • One of The Three Sisters

    One of The Three Sisters

    A late evening view across to Easby Moor from above Turkey Nab. The 1857 Ordnance Survey map names this spring as The Three Sisters (one of). Her other two sisters are each 500m away to the north and south-east. This spring now flows into a covered concrete tank surrounded by a rickety fence but the…

  • Source of the Leven

    Source of the Leven

    Went searching for the spring marked on the OS map as the Source of the Leven on Warren Moor. This is the highest point water was flowing. Behind me was 50m of bog. The River Leven flows through the villages of Great Ayton, Stokesley and Hutton Rudby before discharging into the Tees just downstream of…