Category: North York Moors
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Just another dreich day
This is descending into Raisdale from the col with Scugdale. Just beyond the tree, the track becomes a well-defined holloway called Mill Lane. It used to be a ‘green lane’ and popular with off-road motorcyclists and motorists and was suffering from horrendous erosion. But, since downgraded to a Public Bridleway, it has recovered nicely, although…
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Aireyholme
An earlyish start for a walk back home from Pinchinthorpe and once again, setting out in the dull and gloom and thick cloud. Almost home and out pops a sunbeam, a phenomenon which in naval slang would have been termed a ‘Jacob’s Ladder‘. And the sun shone on Aireyholme Farm, and the fields south and…
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The holly and the …
Need I go on? You must be so familiar with the Christmas carol. Holly, traditionally a masculine plant compared with the feminine ivy, although holly is what is called dioecious, meaning that individual trees are either male or female. Flowers occur on both male and female trees but only the female trees have berries and…
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Mount Snever Observatory
To modern ears, the word ‘observatory’ is associated with telescopes and distant stars but the Mount Snever Observatory was built with the intention of viewing nature in all its glory. The 35 feet high belvedere tower is a somewhat austere structure, built in 1838 by John Wormald of Oldstead Hall to commemorate Queen Victoria’s coronation…
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Bankside Farm
A bit of a ‘lucky dip’ walk today. Generally dull and gloomy, with the occasional brief sunny spell. One such spell occurred when I was climbing out of Kildale towards Capt. Cook’s Monument on the Cleveland Way. Above the pasture field known as Ley Close, Bankside Farm and its neighbour Bankside Cottage reflected the apricity.…
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Now that’s what I call a green lane …
… but not what most folks usually associate with the term, an off-road route for motorbikes and 4wd vehicles. Actually, the term ‘green lane’ has no legal significance. An unsurfaced route for vehicles would be a ‘byway open to all traffic’ or a BOAT. This is, in fact, a Public Bridleway providing access rights for…
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Sandbeds Plantation
There’s something about a beech woodland is that is magical. Strong low sunshine creating long shadows on a winter carpet of leaves. I know this is not a natural landscape, Sandbeds Plantation above the village of Kildale below Coate Moor. The uniformity of the elegant trunks is a giveaway, probably planted sometime in the late…
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Roseberry and the Covid tiers
FaceBook is buzzing. The local BBC has reported that “while part [of Roseberry Topping] is in Redcar and Cleveland, subject to the tier three restrictions, its peak is in Hambleton in tier two” and folk have really got themselves into a tizzy. The broadcaster had picked up a story from Teesside Live which also headlined…
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Otter Hills, Westerdale
I never know what’s the proper name for this dale. It’s the dale of Tower Beck which becomes Whyett Beck before its confluence with the River Esk which takes the name Westerdale up to the river’s source in the Esklets. Yet if you follow Tower Beck upstream to its source just below Young Ralph Cross…
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Odin’s dark side
What’s the time? Half-past Snow Hall Farm, it must be 09:32 precisely. Odin’s brother, Loki, the trickster, was considered to be the dark side of Odin, his sinister shadow. Perhaps Odin’s hill as a gnomon points to Loki, constantly shifting. And so, into December, the final month of this tumultuous year. Originally the tenth month…