Category: North York Moors
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View from the top of Newgate Bank
Bilsdale directly below me, Hawnby and Ryedale in the distance separated by the hump of Easterside. A lovely day for a bike ride, plenty of apricity. It’s Mischief Night. At least it was when I was a kid, growing up in the 50s and 60s. The day before Bonfire Night. None of this Halloween plastic…
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Westworth Plantation
Gone but not forgotten. Felling is ongoing but already the view is already dramatically changed. I feel a sense of sadness. Commercial coniferous plantations are not the most diverse of environments yet I’ve always had an affection for Westworth Plantation. It was on one of my training circuits when I lived in Guisborough and one…
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Who did this then?
I noticed this last week. It’s hard to imagine it was accidental. Someone has gone to the effort of moving the stones to the side creating a clear route through. If a stonewaller had done that, the stones would have been laid out and graded, heavier stones nearer the gap, with receding rows of smaller…
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Needle Point, Newtondale
I came across an image a while ago from the British Geological Society website of a crag in Newtondale called Needle’s Eye. That must be worth a visit. Unfortunately, the link no longer seems to be working so I’ve grabbed a copy from Google’s cache. An extract from an 1836 book “Illustrations of the Scenery…
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A bullfinch sky over Roseberry
Perhaps not the best of sunsets but the crepuscule has always been a magical time. Throughout the millennia, man must have gazed upon the mesmerizing sky, reflecting on the day gone and the morrow to come. In Norfolk, a red-hued sunset was called a ‘bullfinch sky‘. I like that phrase but is it red enough…
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Kalsarikännit
A Finnish word for that feeling you have when you spend the evening getting drunk at home alone in your underwear, with no intention of going out. The word came to me when this afternoon when I was so attired, log fire blazing away. The beer came later. I had returned home tired and weary…
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Lonsdale
I had a vague plan to run around the head of Lonsdale to Percy Cross but surveying the dale from Lonsdale quarry I remembered that I used to often follow a route crossing the valley by keeping upside of the moor wall. Those were the days when I rarely stuck to paths. On the descent…
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Old Meggison
I’ve heard that some new fencing has been erected at Old Meggison on the River Leven. So that was a good enough excuse for me to head over to Kildale Woods for a wander. Old Meggison is a lovely waterfall, accessed by a “Concessionary Footpath” which is awaiting the confirmation of an order to upgrade…
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A changing pastoral scene
We are all familiar with flocks of sheep grazing on the hills and moors. They were first introduced by the Romans and we are now by far the largest sheep and lamb producer in the EU with a quarter of the total flock. We have 14 million breeding ewes here in the UK which last…
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Staithes and Cowbar Nab
A view east from Boulby Bank. The sea looks quite benign from this height but beyond the lee of the cliffs the westerly winds were whipping up the white horses. It was much worse on this day in 1885, 135 years ago, when the North Sea coast was battered by a severe storm. Whitby, just…