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Britain’s 23rd Favourite Walk
A disappointing snowfall. Threatening but just a flindrikin. Roseberry Topping wasn’t so much wearing a cap but a grey veil. Didn’t see a soul except for this lone cyclist pushing his bike down the hill. Why? And a gravel bike at that. Roseberry, recently placed 23rd in a ITV list of Britain’s favourite walks. Part…
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Trennet Bank Plantation
Climbing from William Beck Farm. Across Bilsdale the overnight snowfall picks the remains of the Trennet Bank Plantation, an unsightly conifer woodland that was felled by the National Park Authority in 2015/6 under their Trennet Bank Project. The plantation of Sitka spruce and Lodgepole pine dates from the 1970s. It was planted close to the…
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A view east from Hawnby Hill
Bilsdale Moor West. A beam of sunshine is shining on Wethercote Farm which must be one of the highest farms in the area. The land is recorded as belonging to Rievaulx Abbey around 1145 and contains quarries from which stone was used in the construction of the abbey. In the 18th century, coal was mined…
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Whorlton Church Graveyard
Christian burials are usually aligned east-west with the feet at the east so that at the moment of resurrection the deceased will face Jesus who will be coming from the east. Gravestones are meant to be read from the feet so face east. The gravestones at the ruined church of Whorlton generally follow this tradition.…
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Cleveland Hills from Roseberry
A view south from Roseberry towards Whorlton Hill with Beacon Hill and Near Moor behind. Early afternoon.
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Smout House Dovecote
A dull start to the day at the National Trust’s offices in Bransdale but a shaft of sunlight fell on the white dovecote. First used by the Romans, dovecotes were used traditionally to provide a source of meat and eggs but this one I think is modern and purely ornamental. The wind was raw, thirty…
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Super blue blood moon
“Super blue blood moon IS messing with your body – leaving men with weird dreams, women restless and everyone more hungry” so says that pinnacle of journalism, the Daily Mail. Well, it must be true then. The whole world seems to have gone hyper about this triple lunar event. Super because the moon is closest…
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Catkins
A welcome winter sight, considered by most peoples as a herald of Spring, with each having their own affectionate name. Many of these names are of a feline nature. Catkins itself originates from the Old Dutch word for kittens: katteken, now katjes in modern Dutch; in Italy they say gattini for little cats, and in…
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The Devil’s Punchbowl
In the Devil’s Punchbowl, the Hole of Horcum; the enormous bowl created not by the temper of the giant Wade but by slow and unremitting power of water during and immediately after the last ice age, 18,000 years ago. These erosion gullies are a reminder of this erosion. Where the snowmelt and rainwater seeping through…
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The Sheep Walk
A view familiar to Cleveland Way Walkers and Coast to Coasters. Both long-distance trails pass through this gap between outcrops of rocks collectively known as The Wainstones. The climbers refer to the gap as the Sheep Walk, although sheep will need to resort to scrambling to climb it. A Danish chieftain was supposed to have…
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