Category: North York Moors
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Lowcross Farm
I remember being intrigued by the wall of this barn when driving past it on the old road which went through Lowcross Farm, near Pinchinthorpe. The farm has long since been by-passed and the memory had faded but a recent visit to the stables there worked a few brain cells. The holes are for ventilation,…
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Bell heather
The North York Moors contains the largest continuous tract of upland heather moorland in England and are renown for their display in the late summer of heather. Swathes of the lilac Ling or Calluna vulgaris cover the moors for a brief period in August. There is another heather, which is a much richer purple colour…
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On Wayworth Moor
There’s nothing quite like exploring a new place, seeing a new view, or just the sudden recognition of a familiar view from a different direction. The last time I was on Wayworth Moor to look at the stone circle was 2016. Five years, it seems an eternity. Ahead, Leven Vale is suffused in the verdurous…
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Disused quarry below Ward Nab
I once read that there is evidence of 12 sandstone quarries on the escarpment between Roseberry Topping and Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor. The stone was used for farms, barns and the miles of dry stone walls. A localised, small scale industry but having a massive impact on the character of the moors. On…
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What’s the difference between a stoat and a weasel?
Traditionally there has always been widespread killing of both types of mustelids by gamekeepers. ‘Vermin’ control, they call it. On the moors and open countryside, it is generally stoats, weasels preferring woods and hedgerows. But there is considerable overlap in their ranges. The traps used are spring traps, of which the best-known is the Fenn…
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30 June 1934, the Night of the Long Knives
Strong winds and a threat of rain were keeping folks away from Roseberry this morning. I’ve gotten in the habit of avoiding the summit if crowded, so this was my first visit for a week or so. When this is posted, it’ll be 86 years since the leaders of the SA, the Nazi Party’s paramilitary…
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Red Barn
In 1678, long-held Protestant hostility towards Catholicism was re-ignited by the Popish Plot which alleged a Catholic conspiracy to assassinate King Charles II. Panic gripped the country. Anyone suspected of being Catholic was driven out of London and forbidden to be within ten miles of the city. In November that year, the House of Commons…
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It’s looking a bit black over Bill’s mother’s
An East Midlands expression that came back to me on Potter’s Ridge, a small hill that has Highcliffe Nab on its northwestern end. A few moments later the first drops of rain arrived. And don’t ask who Bill was, ’cause I never found out. On strange phrases, I learnt a new word today – ‘quockerwodger’…
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Hedge Bedstraw
I thought at first someone had placed this posy of flowers in the top of the one metre high Tuley tube, but after much deliberation, the family conclusion is that it’s Hedge Bedstraw (Galium mollugo), a herbaceous annual of the same family of plants that gives us the sticky weed or cleavers, those long straggling…
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Lonsdale Slack
The dog found a new pool in Lonsdale. A welcome relief for a black dog from the morning’s sun. Well, three pools actually, in Lonsdale Slack, a tributary of the River Leven. Presumably created as a wildlife habitat. Forestry felling work is ongoing so it’s pleasing that time and money have gone into this project.…