Category: Great Ayton Moor
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The bonebreaker of Great Ayton Moor
It’s been a botanical sort of week. Bog asphodel, I’ve always thought it a strange name. The bog bit is easy, but asphodel? Sounds very un-English to me. Its use was first documented in the late 14th-century and derives from the Latin ‘asphodelus‘ and the Greek ‘asphodelos‘ meaning the king’s spear. It was “the peculiar…
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Lonsdale Quarry
I often end up at this quarry. It avoids a good chunk of the busy gravel track along the escarpment between Gribdale and Little Roseberry. In all the years I think I have only seen anyone else here once – a couple wild camping. Its name appears on the 1853 O.S. map, and is probably…
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Dear Rishi Sunak,
I am writing this open letter, as one of your constituents, to express my concern at some of the aspects of the introduction of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021 which I believe has been deliberatively drafted as an excessively lengthy document (307 pages) and which is being rushed through the Commons on…
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From Crows to Cobras
I thought I would pop along to see if this ladder trap I last visited a couple of years ago had been in use. It doesn’t look like it. The dead crow that was there previously has long since long and the access gate was left open. Although these traps are not selective, birds of…
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What’s below this pond on Newton Moor?
I’m guessing this is a manmade pond, at the head of Howden Gill. It’s not shown on the 1958 OS Map. I’ve photographed it before but have always assumed it to be on Great Ayton Moor, but on closer inspection it’s actually to the north of the Newton parish boundary, so strictly that will make…
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Cock o’ the North
Ok, I known it’s a name more usually associated with the much smaller Brambling but I thought it suited this cock grouse guarding its territory. A territory which includes the pre-historic cairn cemetery and earthworks of Great Ayton Moor. The centrepiece is undoubtedly a Neolithic chambered cairn upon which the grouse is perched. It comprises…
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Last night, Hrímfaxi passed by, covering the ground with his spittle
I hope you are sufficiently replete after your haggis suppers with neeps and tatties. Happy Burns’ Night and all that; this the 262nd anniversary of the birth of Scotland’s national bard. I ended up today on Great Ayton Moor, the round cairn sprayed white with a featherlike hoar frost, a frost that forms when water…
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Howden Gill on Ayton Bank with the Cleveland Hills in the distance
Not many bees and insects around at the moment. In the midst of winter, they are either dormant or are still eggs, buried deep in the leaf litter. Honey bees will be cozy in their hives surviving on a sufficient supply of honey left for them by the beekeeper. But nationwide, bees and other pollinators…
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A new sign’s appeared
No Dogs No Bikes This is not a Footpath/Bridleway There is an increase in these signs across the moors. This one has been placed in the last fortnight or so right across a well-used path on Great Ayton Moor leading to Lonsdale Quarry. A blatant attempt by the landowners to intimidate the public to keep…
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Boundary Stone, Great Ayton Moor
The sun was shining on Great Ayton Moor this morning through a skylight in the cloud. North, south, east and west, there were banks of broody grey cloud. It looked like rain was falling to the north. I am at the highest point, 318 metres above sea level. A 19th-century boundary stone tops the ‘summit’.…