Hentrietta Street - Whitby

If you're in Whitby look for this house. It's been like this as long as anyone can remember and is on Hentrietta St on the east side below St Mary's church.
Obviously the architect didn't design it like this. Perhaps the foundations were not up to the job, or as most people believe, its subsidence. The house is on the edge of the cliffs!!

What is it like living in the house? Do the peas roll off the plate? Is the bath deep at one end only?
(Actually the floors are level).

History in a gate post

Between Lealholm and Houlsyke in the North Yorkshire moors stands this very old gate post. As I've recently returned from living and working as a (sometimes) wall builder this post has a number of interests.

Firstly in Ireland only stone pillars are used to hang gates from. Very rare to see a single piece stone.

Secondly, we have the cut recesses for which wooden poles were placed (there are corresponding holes on the other post)

There are also two more modern iron gate hinges set into holes and fixed in place with lead.

Finally there is the modern galvanised gate.

To find one such pillar in this area is not unusual but this gate has both pillars in place. Something I have never seen before as most gates have been widened over the years as machinery has got larger.

Lyke Wake Walk on x-country skis

Well until a few days ago there was still enough snow around The Lion Inn at Blakey to make it worth while getting my x-country skis out of the bag they have been hoarded for the last several years. +3c in Whitby it was -1c up here.

The last time I was up here skiing in the snow was in February 15th/16th 1986 but we were skiing the Lyke Wake Walk. From my diary:-

"Departed Scarborough Rd (not enough snow towards the coast) 1030 and arrived Lilla Howe 1230, Ellerbeck at 1pm. Other skiers were obviously out as there were several other tracks. We eventually made it to The Red Lion at 7pm, the final two hours skiing in the dark."

My companion for this trip was Jeff Brand. We had discussed skiing in the dark and according to a royal marine friend of mine, Ian Holtby who was an expert x-country skier, it would present no problems. Alas for us relative newcomers to this we found it desperately tiring as we continually had to brace and balance against falling into unseen hollows and bumps which we felt but never saw.

At the pub we met Tony Gray who had kindly agreed to drive up to the pub and leave our tents, sleeping bags, food & stove etc. Due to the amount of snow he'd not been able to bring the vehicle all the way to the pub and had carried our stuff the rest of the way on foot. Anxious to return before he got blocked in we said our thanks and our good byes. Outside the pub, in the dark and cold we quickly put up our tent and got sorted out. Hungry we looked for our food. It was no where to be seen and we learned later that it'd been left in the vehicle by mistake. Luckily I had just enough money for some pub grub and a pint! otherwise we'd have had a rather miserable night.

The following day we were off at 8:30 but despite the good deep snow cover the going was very slow and we couldn't even get a down hill run from the pub to the old railway line at the western side of the Red Lion. There was certainly plenty of snow but it stuck to our skis and prevented us from sliding quickly over the moors, On top of this problem we also found that elsewhere much of the snow had been blow off and had exposed an older frozen crust of ice which often collapsed under our skis. These two problems slowed and tired us considerably and blisters started to sap our will. No doubt having to carry our tents, bags and useless stoves did not help our morale much either. As we passed Hasty bank we noted an improvised ski tow in operation in nearby fields. The next few miles were agonising ups and difficult downs in poor conditions and the graceful down hill runs I'd hoped for turned into frustratingly difficult downhill traverses trying to avoid icey patches and falls through the snow into the heather. A cold easterly wind blew in our faces. At 4pm just before the gliding club at Carlton Bank we decided to call it a day a few K's from our objective, Osmotherly. We'd probably covered around 35 miles in total.

When we did this in the 1980s x-country skiing had just become very popular and almost every outdoor shop stocked a variety of equipment. Now some twenty years later I have yet to see an outdoor shop with any x-country equipment. There's something to be said for being a hoarder after all.

Winter Snow - Goathland

Last week we had snow and frost. The first snow outside the mountains of Ireland I'd seen in ages. And It was something I'd missed and been looking forward to seeing again. So quickly after we arrived in yorkshire was a surprise especially as everyone was telling me about global warming!
So a walk over one of my favourite areas, Goathland & Wheeldale moor to Pinkney's Hunt was called for. As always in the snow it was difficult to find somewhere to park in Goathland but the existing car park was flat and I guessed I could drive out. Hopefully the sun which was creeping out from behind the clouds would melt the snow off the main roads on my return journey.

Goathland, the scene of the Heartbeat series had changed over the fifteen years of my absence. Pavements, shops with 'Aidensfield' signs, numerous directional signs and double yellow lines signified huge numbers of visitors. And there were the incomers. Bling or what, The Stone House with its mullioned windows now had a brand new drystone wall outside, a challenger tank parked outside and many of the fine old trees had been chopped down. Glancing over the new wall I could see why. A helicopter landing pad!!

The mere was frozen solid and numerous cairns had sprouted in my absence, some of which I demolished. The snow lay several inches deep across the fields and even deeper in Wheeldale plantation. Jilly enjoyed the deep snow and spent most of time running in every direction possible. It was her first experience of snow outside the Irish mountains.


Just over an hour after leaving Goathland I arrived at Pinkney's, a Mountain Bothy Association Hut. From the comments in the log book it was obvious that many groups were using and abusing this place and some had been holding drinks parties, leaving behind much filth and litter. I have spent many enjoyable evenings in this place before moving to Ireland but there would be little chance of spending a night here in peace anymore judging by the use it was now getting. My first visit was probably in 1965 when it was little known and only used as a shooting house for shooting parties.

We walked back via the plantation spotting many grouse and a few reed buntings on the way. In the distance I could see that a quad bike had crossed my path during my walk to the hut earlier. Probably a farmer checking his sheep.



This hut, burned down by vandals several years ago has been rebuilt. It was once an iron and wood affair and predated the second world war. The whole area had been used as a training ground and I recall being able to look at bullet holes which in many cases went completely through the sides of the hut. Needless to say there are many unexploded shells - I've found many - and several places where there are piles of discarded machine gun bullets.
All in a good day. It was like meeting old friends

Whitby - coming home

Well here we are. Home. And thats just what it feels like. So many old friends. I guess this is what someone who has spent ten years in prison must feel like.
English pubs, real beer, shops with choices that aren't sixty miles away. New faces every day. Ahhh!! A breath of fresh air.

We are now in a tiny 2 bedroomed terrace house. Busy road - the main road into Whitby. Noisy. No garden. No workshops - no sheds. most of our gear is in storage but so what. We wondered whether leaving our acre of garden and lovely house may be a mistake but no. This just feels right.

Now we must look for a house (we've seen one that ticks lots of boxes) and get the car registration transferred to an English plate. This looks like its complicated but who cares. Another challenge.

And the cold!! such a surprise after mild southwest Ireland. But we love it

7 DAYS TO GO

7 days to go and were off. Last day working to day apart from a minor 'hand over' at one spot I've been looking after the house and garden for the last few years.

Most of my stuff is packed - workshop and outdoor gear. My gosh It's true what they say that equipment increases to fit the space allocated. Most of our stuff is going into storeage. It won't fit into our new temporary home.

We've got parking issues when we get to Whitby - there's no off road parking at 41 Mayfield Rd - our destination - and we only arrive the day before the removal men after a 17 hour night drive. I hope there is enough time to make sure no one is parked in the way of the lorry.

I've sold my car so we're down to one car. The removal men say they can get a canoe in the lorry. But I have two. A kayak and an open canoe. Will they fit both in? Or do I drive all the way to Whitby with one of them on the roof rack?
We've got rid of loads of stuff but we have got so much more than when we had the total load estimated by a local removal company two years ago.

We've still not heard any more about our completion date. We only have a window of a few hours before we have to be on the ferry. Worry, Worry!!

I wrote a letter to The Irish Times clarifying the issue of public access to the countryside in Europe. This is a controversial issue here and we've had regular 'Hillwalkers & Farmers', correspondence in this paper. The evening it was published Richard called. "Dave have you been writing to the papers?". He's the area farmers representative and he's had numerous farmers raise the letter and complaining about my views. "Sorry Richard". That evening I get an angry phone call from the Beara. He's the co-ordinator of 'Greenways Ireland and is trying to convince farmers to open up more walking routes and feels that my letter has made his job harder. He soon calms down and I agree to write a clarification to my letter.

The shower has broken down and I can't fix it. Luckily the plumber, based in Cork City some 60 miles away was nearbye and called by within an hour of my phone call and fixed it. Now I've only got to get our local electritian to fix another minor fault I can't trace.

Our friends and neighbours Richard Connell, Violet and their 3 children came round to see us the other evening. They gave us a wonderful 'Good Bye' card which they had all written personal messages on. They also bought us a Tom Tom sat. nav. & a smashing Camcorder!. These neighbours will be well and truly missed. They have turned out to be our best friends and Richard has taught me loads. Everything from castrating bullocks to building houses!.

Moving to Whitby

Well, another busy week and the pressure to be out by the 22nd of October is on. We've just about completed the packing, Not only did we get an out of the blue offer on the house, I even managed to get a late offer on my old megane. But everything has been breaking down on us.

First the washing machine went bust a couple of weeks ago. Richard our friend and neighbour kindly lent us one of theirs. This too has now broken and leaked all over our office floor which is loaded with packed cardboard boxes. We're now washing by hand. The power shower is also on the blink. It keeps cutting out and takes nearly a minute to turn off. Our PC, a vital form of communications when you live out in the sticks has been on the blink. This morning I got back from Erwin, our Swiss ex microsoft expert, who has pronounced our old PC 'dead'. I'm now bashing the keys with an old second hand machine which you have to wind up first. I've just returned from the local mechanic, Billy Barry who came up trumps and rewelded the broken exhaust on Trish's car for only €20. Now we've just discovered a tap is not working. And all my tools have been packed! On top of all this I've had to deal with our horrible neighbour who owns a strip of land at the bottom of our garden and has just tried to create a new entrance onto the road. Totally without planning and something he said he would not do until the new owners moved in. Luckily George Barratt stopped after my sixth F*****ing B******d!! It's all quite again.

Providing nothing else breaks down we'll be moving on the 22nd of this month.

The financial crisis, which would normally pass me by, is affecting us but Trish has that almost sorted. Because were moving from the euro to the pound we can loose thousands with the poor exchange rates. It may not matter for your holiday money but for the kind of money you buy a reasonable house for, it could leave you several thousands short. However Trish has found a currency broker and we've secured all our pounds at a fixed rate of exchange ahead of actually getting our hands on the cash we'll get from our buyer. In the space of six days we've already prevented two thousand pounds from being lost in devaluation!! Now we just need to worry about where do we stash the cash safely, until we put it into our next house!

Oh, and then there was the worry about getting the removal van parked outside my mother's house in Whitby which has no off road parking and is on a busy road. Luckily I 'phoned Scarborough Borough Council's parking office who came up trumps and offered to drop of a couple of the 'no parking' cones for us.