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Park Plantation Quarry
First snow of the year. Nothing more than a flurry but still snow. Went searching for the site of a plane crash on Ingleby Bank. On 9 June 1941 an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk. V from the No.51 Sqn. RAF. flew into the hillside in poor visibility. It was returning to RAF Dishforth from a…
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River Leven at Hutton Rudby
Mondays are my cycling days. Tootling around the villages of North Yorkshire. The River Leven at Hutton Rudby is spanned by a two-segmented arched bridge built in 1755 according to Pevsner, the historical architect. The river flows down a deep valley separating the two parts of the village. Rudby on the north side, and Hutton…
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Alum Rock Quarry
Another fine day in the Cleveland Hills. This is the view that will greet walkers on the Cleveland Way as they begin the steep descend around the huge bowl of Alum Rock Quarry into Slapewath. It could be said that here was the start of Teesside chemical industry for at the turn of the 17th-century…
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Great Fryup Dale
After several trips of exploration around Great Fryup Dale this is becoming one of my most favourite views in the North York Moors. An example of a geological undercliff on the left, providing a complex area of knolls, re-entrants and depressions, just ripe for an orienteering map. A glorious frosty morning, followed by a Great…
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Urra Moor
It was very peaceful on Urra Moor today, once I had cleared the sound of a shoot in upper Bilsdale. Blue sky, puddles frozen, no wind, all quiet except for the occasional ka, ke, ke, ke, ke, kekekerrr of a grouse taking flight. But then a group of motorcyclists spoilt the atmosphere. Being on a…
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Rievaulx Abbey
The image of the life Cistercian monk is one of austerity, hard manual work and self-sufficiency, and one of the first Cistercian monasteries to be founded in the North of England was in the valley of the River Rye at Rievaulx, in 1132. Seen here from the National Trust’s Rievaulx Terrace property, it grew to…
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Hob Cross, Stanghow Moor
Yellow warnings issued for rain and high winds, and for once the Met Office was not overly pessimistic. Followed the Quakers Causeway, an ancient route from Guisborough Priory to Whitby Abbey. Higher on Stanghow Moor the stone trods still mark the way, worn smooth by countless feet, but approaching Hob Cross any stones must have…
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River Ribble
Swollen from overnight rains a radged River Ribble, born in Yorkshire, flows on its 75 mile journey to the Irish Sea. It officially begins at Selside just a mile upstream but its main tributary, Gayle Beck, makes a significant contribution, draining Gayle Moor and half of Blea Moor and Cam Fell. Open Space Web-Map builder…
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The Causeway, Stocks Reservoir
The Forest of Bowland is a new area to me. I have an impression of a large tract of land devoid of Public Rights of Way with a reputation for the illegal persecution of birds of prey. Ironic then that the hen harrier is the symbol of this Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB). Forest,…
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Rathmell Beck
A lovely little footbridge over a lovely little stream, a tributary of the River Ribble in the Yorkshire district of Craven. The name Rathmell probably drives from the Old Norse rauðr meaning red and melr meaning a sandbank. No doubt referring to a sandbank which once existed on the floodplain of the Ribble between the…
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