Author: Fhithich
-
South Gare
I think Redcar and Cleveland Council are missing a trick. South Gare, on a winter weekday morning was very busy. Dog walkers, bird watchers, folks just enjoying the bracing sea air, no fishermen this time though, must be the wrong time of tide. Yet the tip of the gare is fenced off, barred to the…
-
Lamb Stone, Great Hograh Moor
The Skinner Howe Cross Road was the old packhorse route to the Cistercian nunnery in Baysdale. Just after it crosses Great Hograh Beck there is a large boulder named on the Ordnance Survey map as the Lamb Stone. It’s a large sandstone boulder that shows signs of man’s hand at work. A square edge looks…
-
Castle Howard Gatehouse
Set on the Jurassic limestone of the Howardian Hills, the Castle Howard estate dominates the landscape. A spectacular example of 18th-century opulence. Approach from the south is through the Gatehouse with is pyramid roof, was built in 1719 by Sir John Vanbrugh, who designed Castle Howard itself. Maybe. There is some doubt whether Vanbrugh actually…
-
Tripsdale
Another fine morning but a day of indecision. Driving up Clay Bank and into Bilsdale I had no idea where I was heading. Chop Gate I suppose but the car park was ignored and in the end, I parked at Fangdale Beck and headed east up onto Coniser Howl, a huge large expanse of heather…
-
Blakey Topping, viewed from the south-east
Viewed from Thompson’s Rigg, Blakey Topping looks almost conical. From the south-west, it’s a humpback hill. Supposedly built by the giant Wade after an argument with his wife. In a fit of temper, he scooped up a handful of earth, thereby creating the Hole of Horcum, and threw it at her but missed. Blakey Topping…
-
Snotterdale
A side shoot of Scugdale, I remember Snotterdale as a lovely little valley. But alas no Public Rights of Way exists through so it remains hidden from public gaze. I had the opportunity to explore the woods in 1996 when they were used to stage the Jan Kjellström orienteering relays. And, as far as I…
-
Damaged walkway in Newton Wood
Who did this then? A 500kg horse maybe?
-
Market Cross, Guisborough
Recognise this? I am sure this is passed by hundreds of people every day but I suspect few actually look up. And who needs a sundial when we all have mobile phones. What struck me was that the gnomon on one of the sundials is ‘T’ shaped instead of the more usual triangular. In fact,…
-
Newton Dale
Perhaps the most spectacular of the North York Moors dales. Newton Dale rises in the ominous sounding Fen Bog and winds its way south to Pickering along a narrow valley with sheer sides gouged by glacial meltwaters. The wooded slopes are dominated by commercial forestry but with scattered deciduous pockets with their autumnal colours. It…
-
Barn at Castle Houses
From the Ainthorpe to Little Fryup Dale road, a fine view over Danby and the Esk valley. Open Space Web-Map builder Code