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Roseberry Hermitage
At one time there was once a hermitage on the summit of Roseberry. It was referred to in a letter to Sir Thomas Chaloner (1559 – 1615) by a person with the initials ‘H. TR’ (who remains somewhat of a mystery). The letter was quoted in the ‘The Topographer and Genealogist Volume II’, edited by John Gough…
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Nelly Ayre Foss
Waterfall of the week, Nelly Ayre Foss on West Beck although I prefer the name used upstream, Wheeldale Beck. A magical place especially on a sunny winter’s day but, wanting everything perfect, the sun happened to be directly behind the falls so they are backlit. Not ideal but not too distracting I think. But who…
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Kirkdale Cave
Whilst Cleveland basked in the winter sunshine, the Tabular Hills were covered in a grey corrugated duvet of low wet cloud. I had parked in Fadmoor for a circular wander along dry valleys and field tracks aiming to visit Kirkdale Cave. I’ve never actually seen the cave before and I don’t suppose any bones of…
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“No path” off Aireyholme Lane
It would have been a bit breezy on the top of Roseberry this morning. I was battered coming across Great Ayton Moor heading into the wind. The land far side of the gate is certainly not a path but it is Open Access land all the way to the summit. I think the hawthorn trees…
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Parting is such sweet sorrow
Shakespeare understood. He has Juliet say these words to say goodbye to Romeo. Their parting is full of sorrow but looks sweet as it gives them pleasure in the hope that they will see each other again in the morning. And a little alliteration does make it sound better. “Goodbye”, of course, is a valediction,…
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At the west end of Scot Crags
Well, it’s Scot Crags according to the first mappers of the Ordnance Survey. Probably better known as Barker’s Crags nowadays. I am looking down on the spur they mapped as Rakes Intake where Snotterdale merges with Scugdale. Scugdale is both an unusual valley and one of contrasts. It is one of the few east-west lying…
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Cairn with two boundary stones
A glorious day. My attention was diverted by a pair of mewing buzzards but they kept too distant for my camera. So back to earth, on Newton Moor, one of a pair of Bronze Age round cairns with two partly buried boundary stones. One is inscribed “TKS 1815” and the other stone “RY 1752” on…
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Greenhow Burton
A moment’s reflection watching the shadows of the cloud flit across the fields of Greenhow Burton. Today is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and a disturbing fact I heard this morning that a recent poll had found that one in 20 Europeans had never heard of the murder of…
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The Cleveland Dyke
A view north-west from Cliff Ridge along Langbaurgh Ridge and the line of the intrusion of igneous rock known as the Cleveland Dyke. The basaltic rock was intruded as molten magma flowed from a volcanic source near the Island of Mull in Scotland 58 million years ago. It is calculated the flow took up to…
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Huntcliff
The prominent landmark east of Saltburn-by-the-Sea. An hour before low tide. This was once the site of a Roman signal station which main purpose was to look out for pirates raiding settlements along the east coast. It comprised a stone turret 15-metre square with walls 2.3-metre thick suggesting it must have been quite a tall…
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