Category: North York Moors
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Brock or Huckster? What’s behind the name of the Badger Stone?
I succeeded in reaching the Badger Stone before the snow came. By the time I returned to the car, I had transformed into a snowman. The Badger Stone, an oddity in itself, is a sturdy sandstone outcrop standing alone and distant on the periphery of a plateau within a desolate moorland, rising to a height…
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The Scented Secrets of ‘Mousse de Chêne’
What a delightful day! Bitter, raw, cold enough to freeze your marrow. The wind, a so-called “lazy wind,” doesn’t bother taking the scenic route around you; it simply chooses the direct route, right through your very being. Upon Coate Moor, amidst a gap in the trees, a view up Kildale. The young trees hereabouts, mostly…
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An Iron Age Boundary?
A view along an obvious alignment of stones, stretching from the boundary barrow at Hob on the Hill to the head of North Ings Slack. Associated with it is a pronounced dyke, termed a cross-ridge, although that appears a stretch of the definition. The date is believed to be the Iron Age, and the structure’s…
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From Stone Ruck to Roseberry: Though a Neolithic lens
The recognition of a clustering of rock-art sites around the perimeter of Scugdale has given rise to a hypothesis concerning a plausible ancient prehistoric route encircling the valley. This period corresponds to approximately 5,000 years ago, specifically the Middle Neolithic era, when Scugdale likely comprised a blend of thick woodland and the marshy vestiges of…
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Barbed Wire’s Impact on Land, Livestock, and Liberty
In 2003, the heavy metal band Iron Maiden released their album, Dance of Death, which including the epic ‘Paschendale’ [sic]: Whistles, shouts and more gun fire Lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire Battlefield nothing but a bloody tomb Be reunited with my dead friends soon Many soldiers eighteen year Drown in mud, no more tears…
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A Nature Whodunit: The Case of the Wayward Eucalyptus
Attention green-fingered readers. Can anyone identify this tree? It’s growing in a pretty exposed spot on Cliff Rigg. According to the ‘Seek’ app on my trusty phone, it’s a member of the myrtle family, and opinion is that it might be part of the Eucalyptus genus. If that’s true, this tree has ventured quite a…
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Yat stoops on Easby Bank
On a morning with ever-changing atmospheric conditions, I found myself in pursuit of that elusive sun. The weather played tricks, switching between drizzle and dullness one moment, and dazzling sunlight accompanied by rainbows the next. Thus, an opportunistic approach in selecting a photograph for today’s posting. This pair of ‘yat stoops‘ located on Easby Bank…
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Tragedy at Snaper House
The upper reaches of the River Riccal, one of several valleys draining the southern moors through the Tabular Hills. Downstream, Riccalldale hides behind its wooded, narrow dale entrance. Head up a bit, and the catchment broadens and becomes shallower, going by the name of Cowhouse Beck. It’s mostly a mix of meadow and pasture intakes,…
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Plough Monday
The Monday after Epiphany used to be a day off for ploughmen up North. You’d enter a village and come across these agricultural labourers, all decked out in ribbons and those pristine white smocks, dragging the Fool-plough through the streets. It was their way of saying, ‘Hey, don’t forget, your bread depends on us pushing these…
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Ayton Banks Ironstone Mine — its legacy
Playing with my new tripod, a Christmas goodie. I do like the motion blur effect of long exposures. The water is draining from the Ayton Banks ironstone mine, the stone of which turned out to be poor-quality, leading to the mine’s brief existence. It had opened in the first decade of the 20th-century but closed…