Tag: cairn
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Last night, Hrímfaxi passed by, covering the ground with his spittle
I hope you are sufficiently replete after your haggis suppers with neeps and tatties. Happy Burns’ Night and all that; this the 262nd anniversary of the birth of Scotland’s national bard. I ended up today on Great Ayton Moor, the round cairn sprayed white with a featherlike hoar frost, a frost that forms when water…
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Turkey Nab
I’ve just watched the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the USA, the first time I’ve ever watched such a ceremony. I now reside in a feeling of immense relief. Both America and ourselves take pride in our liberal democracies. But there are huge idiosyncrasies on both sides. Our unelected House of…
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Codhill Heights
A lovely day. The high point of the ridge between Sleddale Beck and Codhill Slack on the moors south of Highcliff Nab, Codhill Heights is 296 metres above sea level and has a prominence of just 12 metres. One contour on the 1:25,000 O.S. map. The view is north-west towards Black Nab and the col…
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Masks
Sunshine, blue skies, a lovely morning to be out on the moors. No fear of losing your way in the fog today. No fear of being maskered. To ‘masker’ is a Yorkshire term meaning to render giddy, senseless, or bewildered as when lost in a blizzard, fog, or darkness. Masks are due to become very…
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Cairn with two boundary stones
A glorious day. My attention was diverted by a pair of mewing buzzards but they kept too distant for my camera. So back to earth, on Newton Moor, one of a pair of Bronze Age round cairns with two partly buried boundary stones. One is inscribed “TKS 1815” and the other stone “RY 1752” on…
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Great Ayton Moor
A sunny morning and a little obambulation over Great Ayton Moor. Surprisingly a rainbow. “A rainbow at night, fair weather in sight. A rainbow at morn, fair weather all gorn.” Happen to be near this cairn. Although Great Ayton Moor has many Bronze Age tumuli, sadly this cairn is not one of them. A modern…
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Two boundary stones and a Bronze Age round cairn
On Great Ayton Moor, a jumbled pile of stones on top of a Bronze Age round cairn and partly buried are two roughly dressed limestone boundary stones. One is inscribed “TKS 1815” while is inscribed “RY 1752” on the east side and “GN” on the west side. I don’t know about the “TKS” or “GN”…
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Prod Howe
An 18th-century boundary stone sited just above the 380m contour on Snilesworth Moor. A dull overcast morning marred by a confrontation with an irate gamekeeper. Soon after I had parked at Scugdale he drove up holding a dead pheasant accusing me of hitting it on the drive up the valley. Now I recall hearing no…
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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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Drake Howe
At 435m Cringle Moor, or Cranimoor as Frank Elgee that local archaeologist, geologist and naturalist would have it, is the third highest hill in the North York Moors. Drake Howe adorns the summit. A large Early Bronze Age bowl barrow or burial mound, making it over 3,500 years old. Elgee suggests that the name Drake…