Out & About …

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

Tag: SSSI

  • Kalsarikännit

    Kalsarikännit

    A Finnish word for that feeling you have when you spend the evening getting drunk at home alone in your underwear, with no intention of going out. The word came to me when this afternoon when I was so attired, log fire blazing away. The beer came later. I had returned home tired and weary…

  • Moor burning, Stanghow Moor

    Moor burning, Stanghow Moor

    The Farming Today program on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday covered moorland management (it’s available here as a podcast for 28 days). On it was a representative from the Moorland Association who said that rotational burning of grouse moorland had been “voluntarily suspended”. If you are not aware, rotational burning is the practice when our…

  • Roseberry Plant Bed

    Roseberry Plant Bed

    On this day, in 1769, William Smith was born in Oxfordshire. In later life, he moved to Scarborough and became known as the Father of Geology. But I jump too far ahead. He became a canal engineer and thus became very familiar with the rocks encountered in constructing cuttings for canals in the Midlands and…

  • Petrified forest, Redcar Sands

    Petrified forest, Redcar Sands

    Every so often, after a particularly fierce storm, petrified tree stumps appear out of the sands on the beach at Redcar, only to be buried again a few weeks later. The last time was 2013. Last week’s Beast from the East scoured away a vast tract of sand revealing several tree stumps, fallen logs and…

  • Bridestones Moor

    Bridestones Moor

    Bridestones Moor, a National Trust property north of Dalby Forest, is a large area of unintensively managed heather moorland almost unique of the North York Moors where moors are usually either burnt too frequently for the benefit of grouse production or are overgrazed. The result is a moor with a terrific diversity of flora and…

  • Hutton Moor

    Hutton Moor

    This path across Hutton Moor provides a pleasant alternative from the hard gravel of the parallel forestry track on the other side of the fence. In spite of the heather moorland being Open Access Land the path is frequently used by dog walkers and mountain bikers. It is also a SSSI. A week ago I was running…