Category: Kildale
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Cook’s Crags overlooking Kildale
Named as Ward Nab on the largest scale maps but known affectionately as Cook’s Crags by the climbing community. The ling is blooming nicely, here seen in a more natural setting than the vast swathes of moorland with which it is normally associated. The low lying shrub has been used through the ages as a…
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19th Century guide post
The old Ordnance Survey map shows a footpath linking the farms of Wood End in Kildale and Sleddale. The footpath has long since disappeared but is evidenced by this waymarker across Kildale Moor. It is believed to be 19th-century.
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18th-Century Privy
A fine example of vernacular architecture at its best, the outside toilet or privy at the bottom of the garden of Warren House in Kildale. The privy is a Listed Building Grade II in its own right. Rubblestone walls with a pantile roof with, apparently, the wooden-seated privy still inside. I didn’t sneak a look…
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Kildale
As viewed from Percy Rigg Farm. A fertile green valley with Park Nab on the left and Coate Moor on the right. J. Fairfax-Blakeborough writing in 1901 in his book ‘Great Ayton, Stokesley & District, past and present’ recounts that Satan was often seen poaching in the dale with his imps. The gamekeeper, a Stephen…
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Old Meggison
Usually, mornings are my best time of the day. Of late, however, my morning stroll has been in the damp and cold followed by an ever brightening day long after my post lunch torpor and sluggishness has set in. Another revisit today. Old Meggison, a lovely little waterfall on the River Leven in Kildale. It’s…
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A view from Turkey Nab across lower Kildale
Earlier this year, on January 29 a dead buzzard was found “on top of a dry-stone wall, next to a layby on the Kildale to Commondale road near Percy Rigg”. The RSPB and the police were informed and the bird was sent off for toxicology tests which came back in July saying the likely cause…
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Lamb Jam on the Baysdale Road
Gathering the sheep. We had just overtaken the farmer working his dog. Not sure why though. The ewes were already shorn. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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The Pheasant vs The Lapwing
In the early 80s, I worked on the tropical island of Borneo for 18 months. It was on my first run on the moors after I returned that I realised just how quiet they were. In the jungle, there was a constant cacophony of sound, so much you tended to become oblivious to it. Here…
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Nesting time on the moors again
They are still burning on the moors. Several people have commented to me that they did not think burning was allowed at this time of the year. Surely it is nesting time? Well yes, burning can still take place, until the 15th April, and yes, it is nesting time. The normal time that burning in…
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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…