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Old Kirk Shore
Woke up to a sea fret but by the time I set off to explore the coastline north of the former fishing town of Stonehaven, it was well on the way to clearing. Stonehaven can just be made out through the mist. The coast comprises vegetated cliffs which form the eastern end of the Highland…
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Guillemots
Magnificent sea birds which spend most of their time at sea, only coming to land to nest on the sea cliffs where level ground is at a premium. At the RSPB Fowlsheugh Reserve just south of Stonehaven. The name Fowlsheugh actually means “bird cliff” so it is quite appropriate. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Battle of Dunbar 1650
Some of you might remember, but, in 2013, work was stopped on the construction of the new café at Palace Green Library between Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle when human remains were found, tightly packed in two mass graves. It was probably on the local news but when it was released that the bodies were,…
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Slacks Beck
I know a confluence is where two streams or rivers converge. The usual node in a river network. A meeting of waters. But what is a parting of waters called? Where a stream separates into two courses. I know of one, in the Lake District, Raise Beck above where it tumbles down to Dunmail Raise.…
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Blue Lake
Originally known as Hanging Stone Dam it became known as Blue Lake because of the blueish tinge it had from salts washing out of the alum shales. But after a day’s rain, there was no sign of any blue tonight. It was built in 1880 by Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease to provide water power for…
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The Summerhouse
High cirrus clouds portend the coming of a weather front and wind and rain. The Summerhouse, perched on the bed of Cleveland Ironstone, was built in the 18th-century probably just to enhance the landscape. It is thought a platoon of local volunteer militia were billeted in it while maintaining the beacon on Roseberry summit. One…
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Rank Crag
Exploring the head of Scugdale. A distinct line of crags and broken ground at around the 310m contour, the same height as the nick on Stoney Ridge above Holy Well Gill on the southern edge of Scugdale. A coincidence? Maybe not. Between 26,000 and 10,000 years ago during the last ice age, a great glacier…
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Lonsdale Quarry
A wet morning following by a wet afternoon. The sky mottled shades of grey. It is said the stone used in the building of Christ Church in Great Ayton in 1877 came from Lonsdale Quarry although surprisingly egress for the stone blocks seems to have been uphill over Great Ayton Moor. The quarry is occasionally…
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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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A hawthorn in Bransdale
Have you ever noticed the sudden drop in temperature and light by the shadows cast by drifting Cumulus clouds? Shadows that creep over the ground on a sunny day. The flowers of this hawthorn tree are blazing in the sun whilst across the dale, the hillside is dark and gloomy. Many hawthorns are now losing…
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