Category: North York Moors
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Crosscliffe Beck
A dreich day with a mantle of mist over the trees that persisted all day. Separating the great expanses of Forestry Commission planting of Dalby and Langdale, Crosscliff Beck rises near Blakey Topping eventually flowing into the River Derwent. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Nuthatch
You will probably hear this little bird before you see it. It’s very vocal, singing a variety of loud songs with lots of different whistle-sounding notes. It’s the nuthatch, nut jobber, nut cracker, nut pecker or wood cracker. All referring to its habit of lodging nuts in crevices in the bark of trees to crack…
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Fly Agaric
A damp stroll this morning. Most toadstools I come across are usually past their sell-by date. Dirty, forlorn, and partially eaten by insects. This one seems pristine and the classic toadstool as drawn in children’s books; the Fly Agaric or Amanita muscaria, poisonous twice over. One poison is muscarine, causing nausea and vomiting eventually leading…
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Scaling Dam
What came first the reservoir or the dam? I have always thought Scaling Dam was named after the village of Scaling when the reservoir was commissioned in 1958. But browsing the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1856 I noticed a hamlet by the name of Scalingdam comprising the sandstone buildings standing along the north side…
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Cod Beck Reservoir
A chilly circumnavigation of Cod Beck reservoir. Above the sky is blue with just a hint of cirrus but down in the valley, the Greylags on their watery roost have yet to feel the warmth of the morning sun. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Hob Hole
A popular picnic spot since at least the Edwardian times. The very name ‘hob‘, perhaps a shortening of hobgoblin, evokes an image of a remote place, an abode of mischievous elves that prey on weary travellers. The ford, where the Kildale to Westerdale Road crosses Baysdale Beck is accessed by a hair-raising descent followed by…
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Clear Felling, Hutton Lowcross Woods
Recent felling, new vistas. I know it’s just a crop – in, get the job done, and out but I wish it wasn’t left in such a mess. The path is there somewhere. Below Hanging Stone on Ryston Nab. Highcliff Nab in the distance. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Sunshine over Danby
Over the Heads, heads in the clouds and Danby apricating far away. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Remembrance Service, Easby Moor
The Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team’s very moving remembrance service at the memorial to the three servicemen killed in the 1940 plane crash on Easby Moor. 100 years ago today the Great War ended in Europe; a war that had lasted for 4 years and 97 days; a war that had claimed the lives of 9…
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A fine day for a stroll up Roseberry
Roseberry was busy with many taking advantage of the November blue skies. The rockface looks as though there’s been a bit of a rockfall with patches clean of weathering. I haven’t heard of anything though. The main crag was exposed in the major rockfall which occurred in May 1912 when the shape of the summit…