Category: North York Moors
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Reeves’s pheasant
After a disruptive morning, which is best left without further elaboration, my daily exercise took place in the dwindling daylight. So here is a photo of an unusual pheasant we came across earlier in the week. According to Google, it is a Reeves’s pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii). The bird was introduced on these shores in the…
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The Ironstone Depression and Winter’s Sustenance
In a deep depression caused by subsidence from the ironstone mining, a hawthorn tree is burdened with scarlet berries. Roseberry’s sandstone crag furnishes a striking backdrop. This tree will supply valuable sustenance for birds in the upcoming winter. Folk tales are rife with accounts of solitary Hawthorn trees flourishing above pots of buried gold. But…
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Northdale’s Mysterious Stone Pig-Sty?
During my wandering around the aesthetic barns of Northdale yesterday, this little curiosity caught my eye. A curving quadrantal chamber within a natural rock formation, adorned with two large recesses flanking the “southern” entrance and another substantial chamber gracing its northern flank. Clearly, the hands of man have toiled here, evident in the distinct dressing…
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Red House
According Tom Scott Burns, Red House formerly served as a tavern for wayfarers traversing the moors, likely vying with The Lettered Board Inn, or Hamer House, where those in the business of panniers, colliers, and smugglers sought reprieve during their journey. Red House, like Hamer House, fell into ruins over the ages. While the stones…
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Parvus Othensberg
Many will be aware with the old name for Roseberry Topping as “Othenesberg,” dating back to a 12th-century medieval charter. The initial element, a relic of Old Norse, traces its origins to the personal name Óthinn or Authunn. The subsequent constituent, also Old Norse, derives from “bjarg,” meaning a rock, thereby bequeathing the toponym “Óthinn’s…
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1874’s Graffiti: Dogs, a Fox, or a Pig on Broughton Bank
Today, I stumbled upon some Victorian graffiti – or should I say graffito? It depicts a duo of dogs, or perhaps a dog hot on the heels of a fox, or maybe even a pig in pursuit of a dog. The artistic merit of the second canine is up for debate. Dated with 1874, this…
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A Forgotten Quarry—With a view of Roseberry
A broken down dry-stone wall enticed me to scramble over for a gander and I stumbled upon an old sandstone quarry I never knew existed with a view of Roseberry from an angle I’ve not seen before. Ah, the uncomplicated pleasures of discovery. It wasn’t a large quarry, and a quick count reveals it to…
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Ingleby Manor and Lady Mary Ross’ Spectral Odyssey
I’ve wanted to post a photo of Ingleby Manor for quite some time now. However, the Grade II* Listed building is shielded from view by a formidable stand of lofty lime and oak trees. From this vantage point on Turkey Nab, one can just make out, albeit faintly on this murky morning, the rooftops nestled…
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Raddle me this
I awoke under the weather, got talked into taking a Covid test. Lo-and-behold, the little red line made its appearance, and my ailment took a turn for the worse. Fresh air, my trusty remedy, beckoned. Raindrops drumming on the windowpanes, I embarked on a brief, low-level stroll. “Raddle,” a peculiar term. Readers of Thomas Hardy…
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A moment in time — frozen ponds, Cleveland Way, and an impending transformation
I took this photograph with an eye toward history. It’s a scene on the brink of transformation. A couple of frozen ponds glisten at the low point between Round Hill and Badger Gill on Urra Moor. They drain southward into Hodge Beck—Bransdale. The Cleveland Way stands out as it crests the hill, slightly to the…