Category: North York Moors
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Cairnholy Chambered Cairn
One of a pair, 6,000 to 4,000 years old, near Gatehouse of Fleet on the Solway coast. Although very robbed out an excavation was carried out in 1949 when a stone axe of Jadeite was found, a rock originating in the Alps.
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An heffalump trap?
I visited this brick lined shaft on Tuesday but I wasn’t happy with the photos so a return visit today. It was a ventilation shaft for the Coate Moor Ironstone Mine. A furnace would have been at the bottom and the air warmed would rise drawing in fresh air from the main drift entrance. Coate…
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Roseberry and fireweed
Rosebay willowherb or fireweed as it commonly known because it’s the first plant to grow after a fire. Also called bombweed for the same reason in the craters left by the blitz. Its downy seeds are carried along in the slipstream of railways and cars. Fireweed is common throughout the northern hemisphere. It’s eaten in North…
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Cute and cuddly alpacas
At least I think they are alpacas. Could be llamas. Back on the North Yorkshire Moors and these two were quite curious of me as I ran down the lane in Lounsdale. Alpacas have been bred for centuries in the Andes of South America for their wool and meat. I have never seen alpaca meat for sale in the…
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Ringlet Butterflies
I came across this amorous couple this morning on Roseberry Common. Butterflies are usually so flighty they’re difficult to photograph but so engrossed were these I could get within an inch with my little camera set on macro. They’re Ringlets apparently, quite common.
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Bell Heather
One of three types of heather found in the UK, the others being Cross Leaved Heather and the very common Ling. Bell Heather, or Erica cinerea to give it its Latin name, flowers much earlier than Ling and a much richer colour. It favours drier conditions like cling to this sandstone crag in and old quarry on Great…
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Sunshine and Grey Skies
An ugly scar across the heather moor of Carlton Moor, the yellow sandstone of the track accentuated by the threatening skies. The track is typical of estate roads all over the North York Moors providing easy access for the shooting parties. This track though was probably built by the glider station which used to operate on Carlton…
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Tom's Bransdale Fell Race
A 12km running race dreamt up by Tom Watson, a surveyor for the National Trust, and in whose memory the race is now held and organised by his friends and colleagues. The race is largely off road and involves 400m of climbing. It starts from the Trust’s Bransdale Mill, a charming spot in a charming dale. The photo was taken…
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Horse Tails
Horse Tails has been described as a living fossil. It is the only surviving member of the class of plants known as Equisetopsida which dominated the forests 360 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. At a time when the dinosaurs still had to evolve Equisetopsida for 100 million years grew up to a height of 30m during which our coal…
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Kettleness Alum Works
The alum works at Kettleness has completely transformed the promontory jutting out into the North Sea. It resembles a moonscape where nothing much grows even after the 150 years since the last alum was produced. Work started in the early 18th century. There are few remains. Much have been lost to the sea. It is only a…