Category: North York Moors
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Tick magnets
There seems to be less sheep on the moors nowadays. Not sure if this is a deliberate policy. Certainly, in other upland areas, there are concerns about over grazing. At one-time moorland farmers were actively encouraged to graze their sheep on the moors by gamekeepers. The sheep would act as magnets for ticks which also…
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Sleddale
For a brief few weeks the moors are a sea of purple heather which is now at its best. Seen from Highcliff Gate, Sleddale Farm appears an island of lush green pasture. The name means a wide flat valley and was probably a meadow of summer pasture before being given to the priory to be…
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Live Moor
Setting off from Mount Grace Priory this morning I overtook plenty of walkers doing the Cleveland Way, all fresh from their overnight accomodation in Osmotherley. In fact the only person going the other way was this solitary walker on Live Moor about to climb the few contours to its summit. To the right, hard to…
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The day after the night before – Guy Fawkes Night
This is a repost from my old site fhithich.wordpress.com which did not transfer when I originally set this site up. I’m slowly working my way through the missing ones. A plot thwarted, our Sovereign Parliament is safe, poor old Guy, hung, drawn and quartered, a celebration, bonfires, oohs and aahs as the rockets, Roman candles…
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Rosedale East
The fledgling has returned. ‘Reading week’ he says. Half term by any other name. A suggestion: “do you fancy going to the Lion Inn tomorrow? I’ll go on my bike and meet you there”. So I find myself in Rosedale for the second time in four days. But a different Rosedale with the Inn in…
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Greenhow Botton
Orginally posted on 2 Nov, 2016 my old site Most of the steep banks guarding the western edge of the North York Moors take their name from the community or parish at their foot so we have Ingleby Bank and Greenhow Bank. Jackson’s Bank, overlooking the flat valley of Greenhow Botton is an exception although…
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The Bluebell Meadow, Newton Wood
Not very blue in Autumn. Compare with a photo I took almost from the same spot a year and six months ago. The blues of May have been replaced by the golden hues of Autumn. Meanwhile we drift into the month of November. The word has a Latin root, novem or nine, for in the calendar of…
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Rosedale
Hallowe’en, and a trip out on the bike in search of a photo relevant to the occasion. Left the Tees Valley under a haze and found blue skies on Blakey Ridge with mists filling the south running dales of Rosedale and Farndale. Magic; who needs a commercial American import. I can’t remember making a fuss…
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Battersby Moor
In yesterdays’s posting I quoted a piece of written evidence to Parliament submitted ahead of a debate on Monday to ban driven grouse shooting. That evidence very much supported a ban on driven grouse shoots. I promised to give an opposing view so this morning so I went for a run on Battersby Moor in…
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Newton Moor
Back on my home hills after three days in the Lakes and a chance to catch up what’s been happening in the world. The news saddened me. In Langholm, in the Scottish Borders, a hen harrier has been found dead. An autopsy has been carried out on the young male, one of only three chicks raised…