Category: wainstones
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The Stones of Lamentation
One of the contenders for the most iconic landmark of the North York Moors must be the Wainstones – a rock-climbing wonderland adorned with jumbled columns of Middle Jurassic sandstone, once the ocean’s ancient bed. Legend has it that the name ‘Wain-stones’ might have derived from the Saxon word ‘wanian,’ meaning to howl, and hinted…
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The Wainstones
Playing on the Cleveland Hills today. This is a familiar landmark to all who know these hills. My dabble in artificial intelligence a few weeks ago, was not very convincing, but I thought I would give it another go. Maybe Shakespear with his iambic pentameter was too intelligent, so I thought KISS, ‘keep it simple…
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Wainstones
Seen from Cold Moor, across Garfit gap. The morning’s duvet just about blown off, and the December sunshine hitting the crags for the first time. The Wainstones are a popular climbing venue. It’s difficult to get any idea of scale with this shot. The maximum climb is about 35′, just over twice the size of…
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The Wainstones
Pronounced ‘wean‘ or ‘wearn‘ in the local dialect. The familiar jumble of Bajocian sandstone crags and boulders at the western end of Hasty Bank. Much loved by the climbing fraternity and long distance walkers on the Coast-to-Coast, The Cleveland Way and the Lyke Wake Walk. Opposite the col, Garfitt Gap, is Cold Moor or ‘Caudmer‘.…
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Mount Vittoria, Garfitt Gap and Hasty Bank
Today is the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoléon Bonaparte, aged 51, whilst in exile on the island of St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic. The autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer, but some believe he was killed by arsenic poisoning. This may not have been as sinister as it sounds,…
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The Wainstones
I was heading down a proverbial rabbit hole this afternoon when I stumbled across this little snippet from the York Herald, 25 Aug. 1849: “Gipsy” Party. — On Thursday week, a company from Bilsdale assembled on Wainstone-nab, intending to hold a “Gipsy” party on its summit. Wainstone-nab is a hill which overlooks the village of…
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A wet and wild Wainstones
What more is there to say? Perhaps a poem, a sonnet in fact, written in flowery Victorian language but titled quite simply “The Wainstones, Broughton Bank” From early youth, to more than three-score years, I’ve loved to climb the mountain on which stand The rugged WAINSTONES; or on every hand Are scenes of beauty; Cleveland…
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Garfit Gap
Popped up Hasty Bank and Cold Moor for an amble around. A pleasant morning, loads of walkers on the Cleveland Way. This is Garfit Buttress, the south-western end of the outcrop of sandstone crags known as the Wainstones. Overlooking Garfit Gap towards Cold Moor. A view I’ve looked at many times, yet fresh every time.…
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Cold Moor from The Wainstones
One of my main sources of knowledge and inspiration is Frank Elgee’s 1912 book The Moorlands of North Eastern Yorkshire. Elgee was born in 1880 and was a distinguished writer of the geology, archaeology and natural history of the North York Moors. Largely self-taught, he was the curator of the Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough from…
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The Wainstones
Making the most of a break in the lightning and storms, a quick trip up to the Wainstones. Still very humid though. Nice to see the ling beginning to bloom. Open Space Web-Map builder Code