Category: North York Moors
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Once more into the clag
Not much to see today above the 300m contour. This is the Alec Falconer memorial seat on Cringle Moor. Alec Falconer was a founder member in 1912 of the “Middlesbrough and District Countrywide Holidays Association and Holiday Fellowship Rambling Club” which went on to become known as the Middlesbrough Rambling Club. He was also an…
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A dismal day
I don’t usually moan about the weather. Just accept it as it comes. But today is indeed a dismal day. At least the Ancient Egyptian astrologers thought so. They calculated certain days of the year to be unlucky or evil, and today, 4th February, was one of them. There were 24 of them altogether, two…
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Park Plantation Quarry Tramway
Hidden away in the forestry above Bank Foot is a tramway incline that served the sandstones quarries higher on Greenhow Bank. It first appears on the 1893 OS 25 inch map. Blocks of sandstone would have been lowered down to a siding by the Rosedale Ironstone railway. I guess here a bridge was built to…
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But what if Candlemas day is snowy, windy and foul …
It’s Candlemas, although it feels like just another Groundhog Day. Candlemas is a Christian feast day that sort of coincided with the pagan festival Imbolc, the mid-point between the winter solstice and Spring equinox. Feast days generally have some weather lore associated with them. Candlemas is no exception and there is a wealth of rhymes…
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And so, into February – mud, cabbage, cakes, and streaking
February, or as the Venerable Bede wrote ‘Solmonaþ‘ – Mud Month. (The ‘þ‘ is a thorn, a character used in Old English and pronounced similar to ‘th’ apparently. It is also used in modern Icelandic.) The view today is of Highcliff Nab taken from just below Black Nab across the fields of Codhill or Highcliffe…
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Cock o’ the North
Ok, I known it’s a name more usually associated with the much smaller Brambling but I thought it suited this cock grouse guarding its territory. A territory which includes the pre-historic cairn cemetery and earthworks of Great Ayton Moor. The centrepiece is undoubtedly a Neolithic chambered cairn upon which the grouse is perched. It comprises…
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Do you want the good news or the bad news?
I’ll start with the good. Yesterday the Government announced that “Legislation will be brought forward to prevent the burning of heather and other vegetation on protected blanket bog habitats“. This is great news. A recognition at long last that the burning of heather moorlands is detrimental to their peat structure and their natural habitats. Burning…
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Standing stone on Kildale Moor
I believe this is just a waymarker rather than a boundary stone or religious cross. The North York Moor Historic Environment Record (HER) map suggests it dates from the 19th-century. It stands alongside a path designated as “F.P.”on the 1895 Ordnance Survey map. This is one of the paths The Ramblers have identified during their…
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Monument Mine
A wet day so keeping it close with an exploration of the ironstone mine below Capt. Cook’s Monument. Winter is the best time for viewing the remains, before the brambles and gorse run riot. The featured image is an overview of the site. It’s been taken from approximately above what would have been one of…
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Haswell’s Hut
Dull, overcast, and menacing rain. The blue skies over a snow blanketed moors seem an age ago. ‘Haswell’s Hut (Site of)’ is a feature named on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map that has intrigued me for some time. It is shown as just south of the Spot Height of 714 feet and east of the…