Category: North York Moors
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Graeme’s Legacy — The history of Grime Moor
On a dull overcast day, I found myself volunteering with the National Trust at their Bridestones property. The sun, playing hide and seek in the clouds, occasionally showered the moor with some spectacular lighting. Our task was on Grime Moor, supposedly named after Graeme, a onetime local landowner. We were making habitat piles from felled…
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Ingleby Bank woods — where two bodies were found hidden
Looking down on Hagg’s Gate from the crest of Cushat Hill. Hagg’s Gate and Cushat Hill, names no one uses nowadays. Ingleby Bank, on the other hand, is a name that has roaming issues. The O.S. map claims it’s the slope of that ridge on the other side of the vale of Greenhow. But it’s…
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On This Day in 1971 — The Cairngorm Plateau Disaster
Memory, a slippery eel, isn’t it? We’re nearing 60 years since JFK was shot in Dallas—tomorrow’s the day actually, 22nd November. I can still see my dad’s face, shocked by the news as we sat around our black and white telly, flames dancing in the open coal fire. Meanwhile, young me just pondered why the…
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From Shinrin-Yoku to Komorebi
For those of us who’ve practically become one with nature by running through every type of forest imaginable, here’s a revelation: the Japanese have a term for it – ‘shinrin-yoku.’ In layman’s terms, it’s ‘forest bathing.’ Californians, ever the trend setters, are all over it. So, have I been a forest-bather all this time? Now,…
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Wind, Rain, and the ever-changing Bridestones
The geological makeup of the North York Moors primarily comprises strata of sedimentary rock, deposited beneath the waters during the Jurassic Age. As the Jurassic sea level rose and fell, rocks of various densities were left. Over time, wind and rain tirelessly eroded away at these rocks, reshaping the landscape. Here at the Bridestones, the…
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From Spider Bites to Scorpion Stings: DEFRA’s Leadership Labyrinth
On a rather dreich stroll across Urra Moor, the swirling clouds over Bilsdale managed to inject a bit of interest into an otherwise lacklustre affair. Now, I had it in my notes to have a whinge about Thérèse Coffey’s decimation of the 2010 consensus concerning the future of our public paths. Today seems an opportune…
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Toad-under-a-harrow
At first, it’s all dreary drizzle, the kind that makes you question your decision to leave the comfort of indoors. But wait an hour, and the heavens part ways, allowing the sun to cast its golden glow upon Roseberry, turning it into a vision against the still brooding rain clouds. A rainbow always spruces up…
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Remembrance Sunday on Easby Moor
On Remembrance Sunday, a brisk stomp picking up the memorial on Easby Moor for the solemn service by the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team has become an unspoken tradition. A simple plaque there pays tribute to the unfortunate crew aboard a Hudson airplane, their three lives ending on a bitter February morning in 1940. They had…
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Midnight Corner
Today’s post comes swift and direct, plucked from the heights of the Ingleby Incline, that rapid ascent from the Cleveland plain to the moor’s crest in just over a mile. Unveiled in 1861 and closed in 1929, this line’s purpose was to transport Rosedale Ironstone to the steel mills of Ferryhill in County Durham. Down…
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Ingleby Stone Quarry Company
Howling wind and relentless rain were more than enough to persuade me that a brisk walk on the open moor was no place to be. So, I cunningly decided to park up at Bank Foot and set out for a saunter in the sheltered woods that cover Ingleby Bank. I soon found myself on the…