Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Category: Kettleness

  • Echoes of Disaster: The Kettleness Landslide

    Echoes of Disaster: The Kettleness Landslide

    Kettle Ness, as seen in the photograph across Runswick Bay, presents a grim and barren face, stripped of vegetation. I have read that, with care and a sharp eye, one might discern the dark line of the jet seam, beneath which lies the greyer alum shale, and lower still, just above the wave line, two…

  • Kettleness Scar

    Kettleness Scar

    Low tide at Kettleness exposing the Pliensbachian mudstone scar below the headland. Scar comes from the Old Norse sker for a reef. The Scots skerry and Gaelic sgeir derive from the same root. The scene might look benign but the below the waters lie a graveyard of ships. The Ceres, The Curlew, The Golden Sceptre,…

  • Kettleness Alum Works

    Kettleness Alum Works

    The alum works at Kettleness has completely transformed the promontory jutting out into the North Sea. It resembles a moonscape where nothing much grows even after the 150 years sinceĀ the last alum was produced. Work started in the early 18th century. There are few remains. MuchĀ have been lost to the sea. It is only a…