Tag: Roman
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St. Anne’s Church, Catterick
I found myself in Catterick with ten minutes to spare. Grand plans of a leisurely stroll quickly shrank to a brisk glance around. The village tries very hard to be charming, with its oversized green and a stream obligingly flowing by. One would not expect such rural pretence given its awkward position—wedged between a military…
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Temperature Inversions and Timetable Errors
A glorious morning on the hills south of Guisborough, the so-called top of Belmangate. While the town wallowed in cold and damp misery, those above the temperature inversion were treated to the breathtaking sight of Eston Nab and Airy Hill rising like islands from the clouds, with a diffused Brocken spectre thrown in for good…
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Huntcliff: A Roman Lookout Lost to the Sea
It’s been a lovely day at the seaside, but I my eyes were drawn to Huntcliff Nab, the huge beetling cliff that towers over Saltburn. It’s made of soft shales and is slowly being worn away by the sea and wind. I imagined what the headland would have looked like almost two millenia ago, when…
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Bleatarn
Day 2 of our six day crossing of the north of Britain isthmus following the route of that wonderful piece of Roman civil engineering that stretches across North Britain isthmus from the Solway to the Tyne, Hadrian’s Wall. Yesterday we had caught the bus from Carlisle to Bowness, with the intention of walking back to…
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Why is today, 29th February, Leap Day?
For the first time in God knows how long, today proved unsuccessful in venturing into the hills. So, I am resorted to share one from the archives. On the last Leap Day, the 29th of February, 2020, the skies painted a blue canvas above Roseberry. Oh, those naïve days, as Covid was on the verge…
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Goldsborough Roman Signal Station
Prompted by a recently published article giving a fresh interpretation on the five Roman signal stations or fortlets along the Yorkshire coast, I popped down to re-visit the one at Goldsborough. A murky day. And not really much to see when there. just a few vague humps and bumps. In the featured image, Goldsborough can…
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High Street’s Roman Road
Or is it? The first reference to a Roman Road over the 828m high fell High Street appeared in a book published in 1814 by John Britton and Edward Wedlake Brayley: ‘The Beauties of England and Wales, Or, Delineations, Topographical, Historical, and Descriptive, of Each County‘. In spite of some Victorian excavations, when nothing conclusive…
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Pinchinthorpe
I am very conscious about posting a photo of the same feature or from the same viewpoint. I knew had posted one from this spot before, but I now find I’ve actually posted three, here and here. But whatever; comparison of photos years apart can itself be interesting. I also forgot that in one of…
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Mediobogdum
The ‘Cohors IV Delmatarum‘ (4th Cohort of Dalmatae) were tough mountain men from the Adriatic coast of the eastern Mediterranean. It is thought the Roman auxiliary regiment was involved in the invasion of Britain in 43 AD and again suppressing the insurgency led by Boudicca. Eventually peace descended on the southern half of Britannia but…