Category: Raisdale
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Who was Brian?
Brian’s Pond at Clough Gill Top has always intrigued me. An oasis on the bleak Bilsdale West Moor. But just who was Brian? The name and pond appears on the 1857 Ordnance Survey Six-inch map and I’ve always thought it a modern name. But I find it was actually a fairly popular name for Arthurian…
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Green Bank
I’ve entitled this ‘Green Bank’. That’s the name of the slight rise that can be made out on the col between Cringle Moor and Carlton Bank. Just to the left of Roseberry in the distant. The col is now lorded over by the misnamed Lord Stones Cafe. The foreground is heavily dominated by the skeletal…
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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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Raisdale
Looking down Raisdale from the back of Cringle Moor. The plan was to descend to the farm, High Clay (left of centre in the photo) and pick up the Public Footpath but the bracken proved uninviting. One thing that I hadn’t realised before and evident in this photo by the spoil heap (right of centre)…
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Ruffianly Attack on a Farmer
I just love it on those days when I awake without a clue, metaphorically speaking, of where I’m going and end up down the proverbially rabbit hole. An opportunity today for a one way trip from the Lords’ Stone (or the Lord’s Stones as the café has been called) to Clay Bank via Raisdale. This…
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A Sad and Shameful Case
A few posts ago I started to slip down a philosophical rabbit hole. Is the “right of property” one of the fundamental ‘evils’ in human society? Did we evolve to own property? I’ve kept thinking. Are there other constructs that may have been with us since we were hunting and gathering? Two come to mind…
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Just another dreich day
This is descending into Raisdale from the col with Scugdale. Just beyond the tree, the track becomes a well-defined holloway called Mill Lane. It used to be a ‘green lane’ and popular with off-road motorcyclists and motorists and was suffering from horrendous erosion. But, since downgraded to a Public Bridleway, it has recovered nicely, although…
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Contrasting farms in Raisdale
Ventured further afield than ever in the past nine weeks and came across this sheltered dale still clothed in bluebells. This lovely beck has no name although the dale is mapped as Raisdale, as is its sibling dale, which is actually drained by Raisdale Beck. Must be confusing for the postman. I passed through two…
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Back of the Cleveland Hills
“What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.” So wrote the Welsh poet W. H. Davies. I didn’t have much time to stand and stare today. Too much of a hurry. The Bilsdale Fell Race for me but managed to snatch this snap towards the end. It’s…
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Raisdale
That little offshoot of Bilsdale. The North York Moors seem particularly dour and rugged at this time of the year. Fifty shades of brown. But the cloud breaks and the sun’s morning rays brings an enchanting tranquillity to the dale below. Aelred thought so, writing in the 12th century. He was Abbot of Rievaulx, a…