Category: North York Moors
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The Moors Centre
A lovely clear morning for a stroll over Ainthorpe Rigg. The North York Moors National Park’s Danby Lodge looking good in the vernal sunshine. It started life as a hunting lodge for John Dawnay, the 5th Viscount Downe. Before the renovations a date of there was a date of 1774 on the lintel of a…
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Back of the Cleveland Hills
“What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.” So wrote the Welsh poet W. H. Davies. I didn’t have much time to stand and stare today. Too much of a hurry. The Bilsdale Fell Race for me but managed to snatch this snap towards the end. It’s…
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A mossy bagel
Woke up this morning to wind and solid rain with no reprieve forecasted. Inspiration found me in a tweet by Robert Macfarlane. A piece of music by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg is titled “Skovstilhed”. It’s his Opus 71 no. 4 and is translated as woodland peace. Macfarlane describes it as the calmness of spirit…
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The Summerhouse
“Beware the Ides of March” so said the soothsayer to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play. A day in the Roman calendar corresponding to the 15 March when all debts must be settled. And of course the day Caesar was assassinated. But for me, a day for a leisurely stroll up Roseberry Topping. Often erroneously referred…
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Aireyholme Farm
Best known as where James Cook lived as a boy and where his father was employed as the farm foreman, although it is likely that the Cook family’s actual cottage was sited a little distance out of shot to the left at the foot of Cliff Rigg. The modern farm buildings in the photo date…
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Young Ralph
Walked into Bransdale Mill yesterday with a Duke of Edinburgh training group in what turned out to be a glorious day. The journey out today turned interesting. The cross known as Young Ralph is probably medieval and to me always looks better in wintry conditions. It is perhaps best known as the logo of the…
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Gribdale Gate
I have never really understood where Gribdale is. The oldest Ordnance Survey map marks Gribdale Gate as the col between Little Ayton and Great Ayton Moors. There is a Gribdale Plantation but apart from that, there is no other mention of the name, and there is no resemblance of a dale on the Great Ayton…
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Sir John de Graham’s Castle
One of the best example of a motte and bailey castle I’ve seen. Unusually square shaped, the depth of the motte can be gauged by the wooden steps built to preserve the slope with the actual castle would have been timber-framed. It would have had commanding views over the Carron Valley, a viewed obscured today…
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Cora Linn
Just above the dramatic Falls of Clyde. William Wallace country. His cave where he hid after fleeing from the English is said to overlook the Cora Linn. Along with several other locations throughout Scotland. Linn means a pool and Cora is said to be a daughter of Malcolm II who reigned in the eleventh century,…
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Coriolus versicolor
Confined to a classroom all day so an early morning dog run up Cliff Rigg was all I could manage. Too early for decent lighting but a display of colour on a fallen tree at the bottom of Thief Lane caught my eye. This is Coriolus versicolor, a very common fungus from a large family…