Category: North York Moors
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English bluebells
With low-pressure domination, and mist and drizzle all day, I thought I might as well take advantage of the spectacular display in the bluebell meadows of Newton Wood. I believe these are mostly English bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, although there may well be some Spanish bluebells in there or some hybridisation of the two. English bluebells…
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Ladder trap, Great Ayton Moor
Last week there was a furore over Natural England’s decision to revoke its long-standing General Licences to kill birds to prevent serious damage to livestock and crops. This followed a legal review of its licensing system which was found to be unlawful. Chris Packham, one of the three co-directors of the environmental organisation, Wild Justice,…
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Sowerdale
I read in the proceedings of the Cleveland Naturalists’ Field Club 1903-1904 a hypothesis that at the time of the last ice age a lake existed in Kildale trapped by a great ice sheet, a thousand feet thick, flowing down the Tees valley from Stainmoor Gap. I was aware of such an ice lake in…
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Disused sandstone quarry, Easby Bank
I heard somewhere that there is evidence of twelve sandstone quarries along the escapement between Capt. Cook’s Monument and Roseberry Topping. The stone gained from these quarries would have been used for buildings in villages and farms down in the vale of Cleveland and for the miles of drystone walls that divide the moors. This…
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Côte de Grosmont
A trip out to watch the Tour de Yorkshire. By the time the riders began the 4th Classified Climb at Grosmont, there was a break in the showers. The “Côte de Grosmont” is not long, only 500m but a gradient of 15% makes it a tough little climb. Amid a cacophony, Team INEOS, in their…
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Kirby Bank
Playing with the panoramic function on my phone. This is looking back on the climb up Cringle Moor. A rather dull drizzly morning brightened by the fields of rape in the Vale of Cleveland. The fence has a bit of history. It is on the line of the old boundary between two Lords. James Emerson,…
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Upper Farndale
Perhaps the most peaceful of the North York Moors dales. That is after the short daffodil season is over and even then this high up the dale is rarely visited. It could all have been so different if the Kingston upon Hull Corporation had had its way. It brought 2,000 hectares of upper Farndale in…
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Bluebells, Newton Wood
It’s that time of the year, the bluebells of Newton Wood. They seem a bit early, it was 10 May last year when I posted my photo. A dull morning with a touch of drizzle but clouds beginning to clear after lunch. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Shed skin of an adder
On Bridestones Moor near Dalby Forest. Find of the day a sloughed or shed skin of an adder, a process which snakes regularly need to do. Such a find would have once been of some value as it was believed that it had healing powers. Cast off snake skins were once used by labourers as…
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Mark’s-e’en watch
A warm, beautiful morning but very hazy, not conducive at all for distant landscape photographs. All the colours end up being washed out. It must be all this Sarahan sand. Tomorrow, April 25, is the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist which makes today St Mark’s Eve when it was the custom to sit…