Tag: heather
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The Park, Kildale Moor
A view south along the Cleveland Hills on the meteorological first day of Autumn. Corrugated skies of grey. The heather is just about to change, not many more days when there is a hint of the purple. This moorland was once part of a medieval deer park of the Percys of Kildale. Just out of […]
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Turkey Nab from Easby Moor
A view across the vale of Cleveland towards Turkey Nab, scarred by the recently graded track that climbs the bank. This is thought to be the start of Thurkirsti, the ancient route across the moors to Kirbymoorside. Thurkirsti does suggest a likely root for the name of ‘Turkey’ and seems more plausible than another explanation […]
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Bartle day
A dialect name for St. Bartholomew‘s Day, 24th August. A name that is preserved in the 19th-century poem by Captain John Harland ‘Reeth Bartle Fair’, a fair that was held at Reeth in Swaledale on St. Bartholomew’s Day. There are several weather related sayings for Bartle day: At St. Bartholomew, There comes cold dew. Which […]
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G’boro Moor Trig. Point
Today, 17 August, marks the 250th anniversary of the first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis, by Edinburgh botanist James Robertson. I think. I say that because Wikipedia says it’s the 19th. Now, I can’t remember from where I acquired that snippet of information but the Nevis Landscape Partnership website says it’s the 17th, so that’s […]
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Insular vert in a sea of purple
When Sleddale, ‘a wide, flat valley’, tributary of the River Esk, was donated to Gisborough Priory by a group of freemen it was referred to as ‘meadow’. Now whether anyone actually lived up here at that time or whether it was part of the Priory’s many Commondale granges is unknown. After the dissolution, it was […]
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Today is not a good day if you’re paraskevidekatriaphobic
I dunno, you go away for a few days, and the moors are transformed. The ling has finally come good. (Although it must be said, Hutton Moor is not heavily managed, the spruce saplings give it away that it’s been a few years since this moor has been burnt.) But today is not a good […]
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Several people have mentioned that the ling is late this year
O the summer time has come And the trees are sweetly bloomin’ The wild mountain thyme Grows around the bloomin’ heather Will ye go, lassie, go? Several people have mentioned that the ling is late this year. Fear not, the purple haze is coming, and getting more pronounced by the day. It may be my […]
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The Great North Bog
Whenever I hear the dull throb of a helicopter I am reminded of the 1970s American T.V. comedy series ‘M.A.S.H.’ I can’t get that theme tune out of my head now. Last Thursday, whilst working with the National Trust in Bransdale, a helicopter had been operating from Bransdale Ridge. It was busy all day ferrying […]
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The Butts, Codhill Heights
A modern take on the lines of shooting butts that typically cross the heather moors of North Yorkshire. Butts awaiting their clients while lines of workers chase the grouse over their heads on the Glorious Twelfth. Although they have a bit of a wait; I’ve heard the grouse numbers are down this year. These butts […]
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The bonebreaker of Great Ayton Moor
It’s been a botanical sort of week. Bog asphodel, I’ve always thought it a strange name. The bog bit is easy, but asphodel? Sounds very un-English to me. Its use was first documented in the late 14th-century and derives from the Latin ‘asphodelus‘ and the Greek ‘asphodelos‘ meaning the king’s spear. It was “the peculiar […]