Category: North York Moors
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Baysdale
Today is Australia Day. An Australian national holiday to commemorate when the British First Fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, sailed into Port Jackson so establishing the first permanent white European settlement on the continent. The year was 1788, almost eighteen years after Captain James Cook had set foot on the place. The fleet comprised eleven…
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Hrímfaxi, the goddess of the night’s horse, pulls her chariot through the dark sky
It was pretty bleak on Urra Moor this morning. I had half expected to see ‘The Hagmare of Orrer‘, a witch that was said to roam the moor in the guise of a horse. I had met this beast earlier on Greenhow Moor. The great plow of Watership Down thundering out of the freezing mist.…
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The North York Moors Draft Management Plan
I found out today that the North York Moors National Park have been consulting the public on their Draft Management Plan November 2021. The trouble is the deadline for comments was 21 January 2022. I’ve missed the boat. I wonder where they publicised this “consultation”. Anyhow, the plan proposes six “outcomes”: 1. A resilient landscape…
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The Cleveland Plain from Ingleby Incline
As I was struggling up the Ingleby Incline I spotted the carving of the top hatted gentleman about ¾ of the way up and a nascent connection with one of today’s historical anniversaries formed. I have taken a photo of the carving before. Nothing much has changed so I thought I might as well reuse…
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Back o’ Cranimoor
A wander around the back of Cranimoor, more familiarly known as Cringle Moor. On what was an otherwise overcast morning, a patch of sunlight tantalisingly moves up Raisdale before petering out before reaching Wath Hill, the prominent hill at the head of the dale. Raisdale was once a source of building stone for Hartlepool and…
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On this day in 1950, George Orwell died
On this day in 1950, George Orwell died after a three-year battle with tuberculosis. He was a prolific writer including Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, both controversial books, widely viewed as an attack on totalitarianism. ‘Orwellian‘ is an eponym describing the world imagined in 1984. A dystopian society ruled by “The Party” with lies, disinformation, denial…
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Old Wives’ Well
A chance to explore the moorland south of Goathland known as Simon Howe Rigg and into the depths of Cropton Forest in search of a moorland cross and a well said to be a holy well. The two features are just 373 metres apart which may or may not be a coincidence. Old Wives’ Well,…
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A late afternoon wander
A strange sort of day. Blue skies in Ayton this morning but Nunthorpe enveloped in a low lying fog, which by late afternoon was beginning to creep higher. The cottage is known as Airey Holme Cottage, built sometime in the later half of the 19th-century and recently modernised. Most of the census returns are not…
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Billy’s Dyke
So named after William the Conqueror, who was supposed to have passed this way in his harrying of the north. Here he met with a storm and cursed in its face. I’m surprised I haven’t posted about this 4.4km earthwork along the eastern edge of Bilsdale before but it’s not exactly the most photogenic subject. Another…
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When is a moss not a moss?
The answer of course is when it’s a lichen. Now I’m going to stick my neck out and say this is Cladonia portentosa. Folks commonly refer to it as Reindeer Moss but that name strictly relates to Cladonia rangiferina which is uncommon and found high in the mountains of Scotland and Wales. As the name…