Category: North York Moors
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A morning jog in the snow is so exhilarating
And following from yesterday’s pagan festival of Imbolc, today is 40 days after Christmas so it must be Candlemas, the Christian Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I don’t pretend to understand what that means but content with the quip that it is by now light enough to rise, pray and start…
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And so into February
The shortest month of the year, February takes its name from a Roman festival called “Februa” where the city was purified and evil spirits banished. The first day of the month happens to be the halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, qualifying it as the beginning of spring and the start of…
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Your friendly neighbourhood Robin
Working in the shade of Roseberry, where the frost persisted all day. Two years ago, almost to the day, we planted a new hedge along the north-western boundary of Roseberry Common. Some of those saplings have failed to thrive and so the task today for the National Trust volunteers was to fill in the gaps.…
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One of the joys of being out and about
Fresh snow, clear skies, calm. An interesting climb up Carlton Bank. Proving too icy for the car so a tricky reverse. But it was worth it in the end. “Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit…
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Roseberry Well
I’ve been saving this for a rainy day. For when the clag’s down. And the wind is whipping up the snowflakes. This small damp gash in the hillside is likely to be the Roseberry Well where a young prince was said to have drowned. Nowadays no water flows from the spring and the crevice acts…
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Park Nab
Late afternoon stroll to catch the last of the winter sun. Park Nab is the prominent sandstone crag overlooking the village of Kildale, well loved by climbers. This nose of Warren Moor is still mapped as The Park, a relict of a medieval deer park. Across the valley Capt. Cook’s Monument stands atop Easby Moor.…
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Paddy’s Hole
Out of the slag from Teesside’s blast furnaces Irish navvies built this small harbour at the mouth of the Tees. A refuge from the north-easterly winds. It’s a little community, but a sad, decaying community, where low tide exposes decades of discard and rotting boats that won’t ever float again. It’s also an unwelcoming place,…
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Rosedale Abbey
One of the honeypots of the Moors, Rosedale Abbey emerged as a planned village during the 19th-century with buildings in the Gothic style. Very little remains of the Cistercian nunnery from which the village takes its name, just an angle with two buttresses and a few steps of a spiral staircase. The expansion of the…
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Burns Night
Cleveland is a land of glacial outliers. Roseberry Topping, Freeborough Hill, Blakey Topping and, of course, Whorl Hill. Apparently, at a mere 237m high, it is the 2226th tallest hill in England, which I must admit I do find hard to believe. To the right of the hill are the ruins of Whorlton Castle which…
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Bridestone Griff
A slight covering of snow completely transforms the otherwise drab winter colours of Bridestones Moor. The is the upper reaches of Bridestone Griff. A griff is a North Yorkshire term for a deep, narrow valley, said to have formed by glacial melt-water, and sure enough, lower down, the glen does become steep but here, high…