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Ewe Crag Beck
A run out from Danby to Sis Cross and back via Ewe Crag Beck, a deep long meandering valley. At its head it becomes Ewe Crag Slack where it is shallow, broad, and flat, forming a boggy col in the watershed. With “no stream worth mentioning” Frank Elgee suggests in his book The Moorlands of…
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Tramway kip, Newton Wood
Last Friday’s task for the National Trust volunteers was to clear bracken and brambles from the industrial archaeology remains in Newton Wood. Stripped of undergrowth the shape of this unusual structure becomes clear. It’s the head of a narrow-gauge tramway incline down which wagons full of ore from the Roseberry Ironstone Mine rolled down under…
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The Ship Inn, Saltburn
Early morning, a sleepy Saltburn braces itself for a hot day and the inevitable bank holiday crowds. It is said there used to be four inns in the tiny hamlet of old Saltburn: The Seagull, The Dolphin, The Nimrod and The Ship. Today only The Ship remains, reputed to be a smugglers’ haunt dating to…
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Easington drinking fountain
On the busy A174, a neglected Grade II listed structure almost smothered by shrubbery. The listing says … “Drinking fountain and troughs, alongside road, dated 1873. Dressed sandstone. Lion mask water spout in trefoil-headed niche under ornamented gable with 3 roundels bearing initials: “M.L.C.”, “M.G.M.”, and “K.L.M.” Semicircular basin on foliate stem flanked by semicircular…
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Farne Islands
The evening sun falls on the lighthouse on Inner Farne seen through a narrow sound mapped as Piper Cut. Three and a half kilometres away. We were anchored off Big Harcar and about to jump into the shallow water to “swim with the seals”. A brilliant experience. The Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland,…
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Ramsdale Stone Circle
How many stones make a stone circle? These three standing stones on the appropriately named Standing Stones Rigg on Fylingdales Moor are known as the Ramsdale Stone Circle. Ramsdale being the name of a hamlet and a beck that eventually flows into the North Sea at Boggle Hole. It is not known if there were…
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Bracken spraying on Roseberry
Roseberry looks different. Striped by quad bike tracks spraying the bracken that infests the Common. Bracken is found worldwide and in Britain, it is particularly invasive especially on the acidic soils of our moorlands. It’s always been with us, a pioneer plant quickly establishing itself as prehistoric man cleared the ancient woodland. But bracken remained…
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Whorlton Moor
A lone walker crosses a sunny Whorlton Moor and heads towards dark ominous clouds in the east. He is probably on one of the two long distance footpaths which use this stretch of the moors, the Cleveland Way or the Coast to Coast, the latter an unofficial but very popular walk starting at St Bees…
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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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Summerhouse Field
I think the farmer who tenants the Summerhouse field must be a reader of this blog. Just nine days after writing I hadn’t seen this field pastured for years, there were cattle lazing and grazing about among the tall grasses this morning. Although it is well known that Roseberry Topping is owned by the National…
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