Category: North York Moors
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Castleton Rigg
A visit to the seated man sculpture on Castleton Rigg overlooking Westerdale. Almost a year since I last came, just after it was erected. Still a monstrosity but proving very popular. Too popular. Parking is a concern and the route up is now widely bare of heather and vegetation making it susceptible to erosion. So…
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Bluebells and Roseberry
The Bluebell is the sweetest flower That waves in summer air: Its blossoms have the mightiest power To soothe my spirit’s care. Emily Bronte Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Ingleby Moor
On the Cleveland Way snaking across Ingleby Moor. The route follows the dusty tedious landrover track hugging the escarpment with Roseberry Topping never getting any closer. Cast your eyes away from the glorious views of the Tees Valley and every so often a gulley running parallel to the track might be discerned, evidence of Thurkilsti,…
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Paddy Waddell’s Railway
Paddy Waddell’s Railway was never built. A pipedream project beset with problems from the outset, politics and competition from other railway companies. The official name would have been The Cleveland Extension Mineral Railway and link the ironstone mines at Glaisdale with the North East Railway at Skelton. The embankment and cutting on the left were…
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Kirby Bank Trod
The medieval pannierway built for the monks of Rievaulx Abbey. I thought this trod is now the subject of a Traffic Prohibition Order making use by off-road vehicles illegal but on my return, I spotted a group of 5 motorbikers climbing the bank, too far away to see any number plates. Took a shot or two but not…
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Green Hairstreak
I almost disregarded it. Fluttering by too fast to chance a photograph. And with dull brown colouring on its top side wings, I thought it was a small moth. It was only when it landed and closed its wings that their vivid green undersides were displayed. A Green Hairstreak butterfly, beautiful. Normally liking to feed…
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Dry stone wall curiosity
Bransdale, the heart of the North York Moors, and a discovery of a peculiar arrangement of dry stone walling. I am on top of a double wall. To my left, a 5′ drop, to my right about a 10′. Not a particularly steep natural slope but the gap between the walls, about 4′ at the…
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Capt. Cook’s Monument and Cockshaw Hill
Late evening view of Captain Cook’s Monument, in this 250th year since Cook set out on his first voyage. Beneath the monument the commercial plantation of Little Ayton Moor, and below that, Cockshaw Hil,l with its disused sandstone quarry. Across the lush green fields, the line of the whinstone intrusion of the Cleveland Dyke can…
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Peacock on a Bluebell
After a few false starts, finally a vernal freshness to the morning. The bluebells are out in Newton woods but a week or so off their best. The more astute of you may have noticed an increase in the posting of telephoto photos. My new toy. Normal service will be resumed when the novelty wears…
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Wheatear
The flashing of white gave it away. My first Wheatear of the year, newly arrived from its warmer African wintering climes. It flitted ahead, alighting on the stone wall, teasing me into thinking I might get just a bit closer before it became bored and took to feeding on the insects in the muck sprayed…