Tag: wood
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Cliff Ridge Wood
The old tramway to the whinstone quarry at Slack’s Wood. A favourite morning walk along the bottom of Cliff Ridge Wood, part of the National Trust’s Roseberry property. An isolated kissing gate stands at the intersection of the path from the village of Great Ayton to Aireyholme Farm. Long gone is the fence so the…
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Lichtung
Shafts of light falling on a carpet of wood sorrel, a clearing in Slack’s Quarry Wood, a former whinstone quarry. Long gone are the smells and noises of quarrymen. A place now of peace and quiet, a place for contemplation. Heidegger, the German philosopher, likened a clearing such as this to a state of the…
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Leven Gorge
Upstream from Great Ayton and Easby the River Leven is confined by a narrow gorge as it flows through Mill Bank Wood. A few hundred metres downstream from here, where the gorge widens a little, is the site of a bleach and fulling mill that can be dated back to the 14th century. In the…
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Newton Woods
A day spent working with the National Trust to carry out repairs to the steps on the main tourist route up Roseberry through Newton Woods. Two tonnes of hardcore hand carried up in buckets to make good the treads which had sunk due to compaction. 28 done, only 170 to go.
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Staindale Beck
A quiet dale just outside the eastern edge of Dalby Forest Park with a wooded beck of crystal clear waters with small trout on one of the National Trust’s working farms. The name Stain Dale comes from the Norse and means a ‘stony valley’ probably because of the rock formations higher up the valley at the Bridestones.
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Oak Leaves
I was watching Springwatch last night and I’m sure I heard Chris P say that there are between 750,000 and 1,000,000 leaves on an oak tree. Mental calculations whilst walking in Cliff Ridge Wood tonight justified that figure. Ten leaves on a spring, ten sprigs on a branch the thickness of a pencil, ten branches the thickness…
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Slacks Beck
Another dreich day. Still it’s the last day of Spring today. Tomorrow it’ll be Summer so it’s bound to be sunny. Mist and low cloud mean my attention is drawn to closer details. This small stream has many names. Just below its source on Great Ayton Moor it is referred to as Howden Gill. Here…
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Male Fern
A wet miserable day with low cloud hiding any views of the hills so my attention had to be closer to my feet. In Newton Woods the bluebells have gone off the boil. Their vivid blues have paled and the bracken fronds overtaken them. But less prevalent than bracken are clumps of ferns. Now I’m…
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Belmont Ironstone Mine
Why is it that runners always think of biking as an easy option? An active rest day. My own bike ride today enabled me to get into Guisborough Woods which looked green and lush with vicious nettles on the floor and the sycamores not yet dense enough to keep out the light. I was surprised to…