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Robin Hoods Butts
The large expanse of heather moorland between Scaling Dam and Danby Beacon is one of the bleakest moors and at its bleakest at the height of the winter. I am reminded of Christina Rossetti’s poem published under the title “A Christmas Carol”: In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron,…
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Codbeck Reservoir
Not much wind this Christmas Day morning. The proverbial millpond. Plenty of folks making use of the perimeter path. Christmas Day, the day most Christians celebrate the birth of Christ. It hasn’t always been celebrated on this date. Prior to the 5th-century when Church leaders agreed to fix the date of the birth of Christ,…
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“Night of the Mothers”
Ah, Christmas Eve. If you were a pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon pagan you would be celebrating “Mōdraniht” tonight or the “Night of the Mothers“. We know this because the venerable Bede wrote it down in the 8th-century. However, he went no further into the traditions and customs but it is speculated that a sacrifice could have been…
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The Slapewath Gap
The defile between Belmont Bank and Airy Hill, the “natural” route east from Guisborough and on to Whitby. A route that would clearly connect up with the medieval trod, the Quakers Causeway, across the moors. In 1861 the Cleveland Railway was built through the gap to access the ironstone mines of East Cleveland enticing landowners…
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Clumber Lake and Church
The country estates of Clumber, Welbeck and Thoresby are known collectively as the Dukeries. Clumber was the seat of the Duke of Newcastle. It was a remnant of Sherwood Forest until he had the estate landscaped in the 18th-century. With an impressive circumference of eleven miles, The Duke created deer parks, woodland, gardens and had…
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Jemmy Coulstin’s Hill
A chance opportunity to run across Eston Nab from Flatt’s Lane to Guisborough. My visits to Eston are very irregular, and I quickly remembered why. The lower slopes were linear gloops created by offroad motorcycling enthusiasts but I soon left these climbing up above the sandstone strata. Eston Moor, with its high point of the…
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Smart water
Inspired by the humble cloud. Water as pure as the first drop of rain. Northumbrian spring water Vaporised to remove impurities, Then condensed back to … water. With mineral electrolytes added Potassium, calcium and magnesium. Replicating the water cycle. In a bottle of Polyethylene Terephthalate, Light and strong, Perfect for backpacking, Made from 30% 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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The Cleveland Hills
Not a rare phenomena on the Cleveland Hills but one of my favourites. Typically in the colder months fog in the Bilsdale valley spills over the low points in the hills, Haggs Gate, Garfit Gap and the Lords’ Stone. High above the delicate cirrus clouds portend the advance of a weather front bringing rain. These…
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Nan Scaife o’ Spaunton Moor
“Get you of the skull the bone part of a gibbetted man so much as one ounce which you will dry and grind to a powder until when searced it be as fine as wheatenmeal, this you will put away securely sealed in a glass vial for seven years. You will then about the coming…
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